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Book Review by Melissa Moore , Reference Librarian and Team Leader for Public Services, Summar Library

It Works for Me! Shared Tips for Teaching
Hal Blythe & Charlie Sweet
1998, The New Forums Better Teaching Series, New Forums Press, ISBN: 0913507954

Check it out in the Emma Waters Summar Library or Buy It At

Sometimes, even the best, most knowledgeable and creative of teachers need a shot in the arm. A new arsenal of arrows to enliven a lecture. A tried-and-true way of reaching a new generation. A fresh approach to a familiar concept. If you fall into that category, then look no further than It Works for Me! Shared Tips for Teaching. 

This book is exactly what it claims to be: ideas and tips from college instructors across Kentucky for making teaching a success. Blythe and Sweet have assembled a variety of techniques, including the use of pop allusions in class, new and snazzy ways of giving daily quizzes, and students serving others as mentors. 

It Works for Me is a brief book with only ten chapters. “The First Day” includes ideas for ice breakers, surveys, learning names and faces, using a textbook correctly, and teaching the reasoning process. “Getting Started” includes a piece by Sweet entitled “The Thirty-Second Stratagem,” which encourages faculty to open class with relevant quotes or examples from culture and entertainment in order to engage the learners and display the relevancy of the material. “Choice Assignments” includes “Academic Limericks” for an inorganic chemistry class and “Submitting for Publication” in a poetry course. The chapter on Testing includes advice on allowing official cheat sheets, grading and returning tests, and post-testing. “Group Activities / Exercises / Formats” includes many creative ideas, such as “Describing a Martian,” unusual role play scenarios, different interview processes, “The Personalized Pop Quiz,” student mentors, and shared research. Other chapters are: “Getting the Most from the Lecture” (including a great piece “The Superstar Stratagem”); “Discussion Techniques”; “Closure”; “Out-of-Class Aids”; and “Course Evaluations.” 

The ideas presented are fresh and breezy, not laden with theory or stale in the mouth. This book is best enjoyed in small bites and is the equivalent of sitting down with the best teacher you’ve ever had, as a peer not a student, and learning some of the secrets they had for making learning fun. Most of the entries are signed and the educational institution listed. They are brief (no more than a page, sometimes only a paragraph) and easy to read. Most of the ideas require very little preparation or expense; instead, they typically rely on cooperative students, your thoughtfulness, and sometimes 3x5 index cards. Chemistry, Nursing, Psychology, English, and Business receive equal attention, and most of the ideas are simply good ideas, which work regardless of the discipline. 

One thing missing from this volume is theory; this is a deliberate choice by Blythe and Sweet, who wanted to focus on practical application of the theory of teaching. All the contributors are from Kentucky, which limits in some ways the scope of the book, and some of the suggestions are fairly elementary. However, even these weaknesses do not take away from the value of this work as an inspiring, creative resource for faculty. Blythe and Sweet have recently released a follow-up book, It Works for Me, Too! (2002), with even more ideas. Both men are Foundation Professors of English at Eastern Kentucky University. Blythe has a long list of writing accomplishments which includes over one hundred critical articles and three nonfiction books on writing, thirty Mike Shayne novellas, and over twenty-five articles on pedagogy in Writer’s Digest.