Reviews for Bilingual Bingo: Easy-to-Make Reproducible Games-in English and Spanish-That Reinforce Key Vocabulary for Emergent Readers and English Language Learners

The average rating for Bilingual Bingo: Easy-to-Make Reproducible Games-in English and Spanish-That Reinforce Key Vocabulary for Emergent Readers and English Language Learners based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-03-02 00:00:00 Cristy Eastman A Song of Himself: Tom Romano's Writing with Passion Published in 1995, Tom Romano's Writing with Passion: Life Stories, Multiple Genres is part narrative, part exploration, part poetry, and part persuasive essay. Created from his experiences as an educator, a writer, and a student himself, this book demonstrates Romano's passion for the generative nature of writing. Writing with Passion contains eleven expository chapters interspersed with "interchapters" that set the tone and provide examples to support Romano's ideas. With an artful blend of selections of poetry, stories, writing samples, and personal reflections, Writing with Passion itself is an example of the multigenre writing style Romano expounds. Among other reasons, Romano wrote this book in response to important gaps he noticed in academia such as narrative thinking and writing, drama, journaling, poetic writing, and holistic approaches to writing and reading. Early in the book, Romano explains that writing both analyzes and synthesizes ideas and experiences. Expository texts use creativity just as much as creative writing uses logic to render emotions and experiences. In expounding these ideas, Romano breaks down many of the unnecessary barriers between genres. This vanquishing of barriers between genres culminates in Romano's presentation of the multigenre research paper. Several chapters are devoted to this concept, its inception, and its use in practice. As Romano explains, "The multigenre research paper I've described in this chapter requires that creativity and imagination be part of research. Personal stamps are what I want to see. I value the diversity of the students. … The multigenre paper recognizes that there are many ways to see the world, many ways to show others what we see" (p. 130). The idea of the multigenre research paper has roots in Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reader response which Romano also presents in this text as he explores holistic reading and writing. Most importantly, it is grounded in Romano's "love and respect for all the various genres we might write." Writing with Passion is an accessible text that writing teachers can adapt "to their own needs and visions." It will encourage writing teachers to incorporate concepts and practices that are often outside of traditional academia. These practices embrace the process of development, the generative and creative nature of language, the development of a writing state of mind, and a holistic approach to teaching that leads students to trust themselves as readers and writers, with faith and fearlessness. "To write words that stick with readers you must have'or develop'faith in the validity of your feelings. You must be fearless in writing the words that emerge in your mind when you focus or compose. It is during this concentrated, unfettered act of using language that you have the best chance to discover ideas, visualize images, stumble into effective language" (p. 31). As a multigenre piece of text itself, this creative and informative text is a pleasure to read and easy to learn from. A tribute to the people and experiences that enriched Romano's life, Writing with Passion is a song of himself.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-01-04 00:00:00 Craig James Writing with Passion By Tom Romano I chose to read this book for no other reason than the title grabbed me, but I will admit I expected to be disappointed. However, at just over 200 pages, "Writing with Passion" is not the painful textbook slog I expected it to be. I don't know exactly why that was my expectation, but I don't think I've ever read a non-fiction book that was less academic and more anecdotal than this one is. There are eleven chapters and a handful of appendices. Each chapter ends with a short poem or prose selection that illustrates integration with the overall theme of the book. The appendices are individual, unrelated pieces of writing in different styles by different contributors, and a couple of them are highlights of this book. The theme of "Writing with Passion" is essentially a plea for authenticity. Romano endorses writing from the heart without pushing for a particular style, opting to advocate for the expression of true self and knowing that this authenticity is messy, layered, and real. "Writing is a mural, not a snapshot," he said in the opening of Chapter 4. "It is large and contains multitudes: meticulously-developed thinking that shares vision and ideas with unknown others; scribbled, cryptic notes to trigger memory; complicated novels peopled with dozens of characters…" One can picture this visually, particularly if they are from a city with murals found on city walls. I get from "Writing with Passion" that a bit of poetry scribbled on a napkin in a restaurant has more authenticity, more passion, than some hyper-produced, written-by-committee, high-budget screenplay or novel created for the sake of popularity or profit. This implies that the feedback for and grading of such works should include constructive intentions designed not to pick apart word usage and punctuation, but instead to encourage authentic expression and a passion for art for art's sake, without worrying about a perfect grade. The student very likely has never been told that it is okay to do freewriting about any subject in using any form they choose. More often than not, they will have been told to create something in the style of this famous poet or that well-known essayist. It is hard to write with passion when the finished product so clearly has to conform to someone else's value system. Creative writing in general does not lend itself to traditional grading. It would be better to push students to plumb the depths of their own values and find their own words without regard for being "wrong" or "right." Labels kill passion. They kill it.