Books with author Elizabeth MacKinstry

Designed for use in middle school and high school classrooms, as well as at home, books in this series transform subjects that are normally dreaded by many students. Painless books take light-hearted approaches to their subjects, while addressing topics that classroom texts never get to. Painless Speaking explores the uniquely human act of oral communication, including elements in our culture that shape the way we speak. It explores finding one's voice, understanding the basic unit of speech communication (an utterance), learning the art of conversation, reading aloud from fiction and nonfiction texts, and instruction in public speaking, which entails composing, practicing, and delivering a speech. Students will find guidelines for self-evaluation of a public speech.

Grade Level: 6-12The Discovering Literature Series is designed to develop a student’s appreciation for good literature and to improve reading comprehension. At the Challenging Level, we focus on a variety of reading strategies that help students construct meaning from their experience with literature as well as make connections between their reading and the rest of their lives. The strategies reflect the demands of each literature selection.In these study guides, we will focus on beginning a book, setting and mood, irony, plot structure, foreshadowing and flashback, characterization, forming hypotheses, evaluating a book, plot conflict, point of view, inferencing, rereading, theme, narration, and the genre of dystopias.Each chapter analysis is organized into three basic elements: Journal and Discussion Topics, Chapter Vocabulary, and Chapter Summary.Other features include Strategy Pages to increase students’ understanding of strategies to enhance their comprehension of literature; Testing at the end of each chapter grouping, and Writer’s Forum for students’ to write in a variety of genres relating to the text.This 75-page teaching guide includes an answer key.