Surprisingly Helpful

Like most people, I do not enjoy textbook reading.  Even if it is on a subject I'm interested in and genuinely want to know more about, I can't get over the fact that I'm reading a textbook.  Usually  I skip all extra boxes or articles or examples.  However, I did look at some of the "Quick Tip" boxes in this chapter and found them surprisingly helpful.  Not only do they give ideas of what to do for openers or mini-lessons, but there are also which texts to use with these activities.  In addition this chapter includes writing topics, genres to cover and an outline for teacher conferencing.  Usually, I find examples like this to be vague and uninteresting but I actually could see myself using some of these.