Prentice Hall Literature Timeless Voices Timless Themes Student Edition Grade 12 Revised 7th Edition 2005c

by Colleen Shea Stump, Kate Kinsella, Joyce Armstrong Carroll, et al.

Book Overview

It's a powerful combination of the world's best literature and superior reading and skills instruction! Prentice Hall Literature Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes helps students grasp the power and beauty that lies within the written word, while the program's research-based reading approach ensures that no child is left behind.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131804375
• ISBN13: 9780131804371
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Length: 1305 Pages
• Weight: 6.02 lbs.
• Grade Range: Grade 12

Customer Reviews

Prentice Hall -- The Best Literature Textbook and Anthology

First, a caution: one might expect that any high school literature textbook meets certain basic standards. Unfortunately, this is not the case. And it turns out not to have been an easy thing to identify which publisher offers the level of support necessary to meet basic objectives. I hope this review will save you some trouble! Look for Prentice Hall. Prentice Hall's literature textbooks provide a nearly definitive anthology of English language literature and other major works of historic importance, and offer very strong support for classroom instruction. Wherever possible, the literature excerpts are complete works; in other cases, the samples are of sufficient length to provide an effective representation of style and content. Serving on my county's textbook selection committee provided me with disturbing insights into some ways that some schools prepare for end-of-year testing. When I reviewed literature textbooks from several major publishers, I found the comparison quite shocking. You can make this comparison for yourself by perusing on-line the tables of contents for textbooks offered by various publishers. The Prentice Hall textbooks are all quite strong. Textbooks by the other three publishers reviewed by our committee were impoverished and spare, teaching exclusively to end-of-year tests. Instead of providing materials to teach the basic skills which are intended to be assessed by those end-of-year tests, the other publishers focused on providing practice in test-taking -- i.e., in bubble-filling and guessing games. For example, one slim volume contained less than one third the text of the Prentice Hall anthology, and offered only a scant selection of writings, all of questionable merit. Among those writings proposed for use in literary analysis were several Garfield cartoons. I have nothing against Garfield cartoons; however, it is not possible to develop skills in critical analysis by reviewing such simple fare. Students must be exposed to great literature before they can recognize or reproduce effective writing. Students must be provided with substantive information and assisted to develop real skills before they can respond confidently to end-of-year test questions. Instead of learning strategies for guessing, that time should best be devoted to the development of real knowledge and useful skills. Fortunately, there is at least one company which still provides the materials necessary for an effective preparatory education in language arts. Prentice Hall's high school literature textbooks provide a solid foundation for teaching classic and modern literature to college-track high-school students. Instead of Garfield cartoons and one-line excerpts from some other literary selections, the Prentice Hall textbooks include representative works by many great authors, and challenging questions to help the student learn to think carefully and communicate clearly -- arguably the most important objectives for the languag