“This important book is a must-read for anyone who teaches language arts from grade four and up. James Charnock possesses one of the most creative and inspiring voices emerging from the language pedagogy community today. 

While often challenging traditional teaching methods, he brings his 30 years of teaching experience and his generous heart to offer a wide range of practical, fun, and well-detailed strategies to teaching language arts. His unusual, exuberant, student-centered techniques meet the child in his/her own world and go on to open up new dimensions of experience and mastery of language skills.

Here is a treasury of specific directions, charts, forms, lists, scales, and games, often with engaging titles, for drawing the student into the learning experience. Samples of students’ responses reflect the rewarding outcomes that so often have validated this teacher’s dedication, love, and imaginative solutions to the challenge of teaching language arts. 

This compilation of Charnock’s work serves as a valuable resource to empower students with not only better language skills, but also with a better sense of self. His teaching methods can stimulate awareness and self-expression, which are among the most useful life skills a child can acquire.”

Wandz Costanzo, Ph.D.,
Clinical Psychologist, (Subspecialty: Attention Deficit Disorder), Private Practice, Haddonfield, NJ

“James Charnock is someone whose personality has been created for me by his written words. Like Odysseus, he is the man never at a loss.

I’d be willing to bet that in his school students [fought] to get into his classes, parents pulled whatever strings they could to get their kids in, and colleagues benefited from his innovative ideas, of which he seems to have a never-ending supply. Readers of the [Arizona English] Bulletin over the years have also benefited from his resourcefulness.

As editor, I was impressed with his approaches then, and am still impressed with his seemingly inexhaustible imagination. His ideas can be copied and used directly or they may be the stimulus needed to create lessons that will make classes more fun, more exciting, and more meaningful. If the goal is for our students to love language, and writing, and literature, here is a way—here are lots of ways—to help them do it.”

Margaret Fleming
Former Editor, Arizona English Bulletin
(Affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English)

“What’s so impressive about the ideas James Charnock presents in this book is that they’re creative, attention grabbing and based on his 30 years of teaching experience. Intelligently organized with each chapter focusing on a particular language arts skill, Charnock’s book describes in clear, direct language stimulating games and approaches that students will enjoy doing.

For example, he has great tips that teachers can use to help students get organized and started (always so daunting for kids) in their writing. Also, he has a variety of clever suggestions that students can follow to develop their content. He even has a fun way to teach punctuation.

In fact, everything Charnock suggests is designed to be creative and effective: creative, because students will be learning in new and fun ways and effective because the suggestions are practical and focused on specific learning objectives. In short, this is an impressive work that can help all teachers, whatever their experience levels, meet the huge challenge of making students active–and willing–learners in the classroom.”

John P. Zappacosta
Teacher, Springfield Schools
Delaware County, PA