I am an English teacher from Israel,teaching small groups of children and adults from age 3-100 at my home. As the kids here have to learn another alphabet and reading direction, I was looking for a book which would make this process as easy as possible.
This book has been an answer to my prayers. It is clear, user friendly, the pictures are lovely and it covers all aspects necessary to master the reading skills in English.
I have been using it now for a few months with lots of success.
No other book came even near to the standard of this book.
Thank you Steven Molinsky and Bill Bliss for making my life as a teacher so comfortable.

When you use the right level book for the right level student it is great. There are many other books out there that gloss over all types of grammars, functions, vocab'and pronunciation. However, this does attempt to explore the more important parts of grammar. The grammar is graduated based upon increasing levels of student's ability, which is an important point. Also, I especially like it's drilling of the third person.

It is a good book if you know what you are doing. A text + student does not equal an English lesson. There is more than just the text book in language learning.

The Side by Side Activity Workbook 3 is a great additional exercise tool to use in conjuction with the Student Book for ESL students. I am currently tutoring Japanese students in English, at various levels, and we find the Activity book is presented in an easy to follow and enjoyable format. The ten chapters are full of practice drills in intonation, stress and pronunciation. In addition, there are plenty of grammatical exercises, which are accompanied by skillful animated stetches to help you along. Many of the activity books, I have used in the past, do not have these helpful visual aide, which certainly communicate well in all languages. All levels of the Side by Side Activity Workbooks are working out very well for my students, so I really do recommend them to other instuctors and will continue to use them in my lessons.

I've taught with this text in three different countries... and have sworn by it and it.

What I love about it is that it really gets down to the basics of speaking English and does so in a systematic manner. A lot of teachers abuse it by having their students read and write through it, then complain what a dry book it is. The same teachers also use it in such a haphazard manner that after a year the students are in book one, when really Volumes 1 2 and 3 (especially) are a jump start English course. This however is often the result of either inadequate training or not reading the teacher's manual, especially in Japan where teachers and students come and go by the bushel.

Overall, while the book might lack the "cuteness" of other programs, trust me... the pedagogy is well thought out - - especially if you know how to expand from the book and have other activities to bring the language to life. The book is for adults for example, but using the Molinsky and Bliss WORD BY WORD flash cards I've actually created games for children based on the activities in the book. And if the students are too used to reading through the book (from former teachers) I actually copy the pictures from the book with the words whited out, cut them into flash cards, team them up for pair work, and then let them engage in the conversation activities from the book.

This is an incredible book, and a new version has just come out... USE IT DON'T ABUSE IT and your students will make incredible progress. Check out the WORD BY WORD PICTURE DICTIONARY as a great supplement to expand the activities with additional (yet practical) vocabulary as well as EXPRESSWAYS (also by the same authors).

Although the questions sometimes get too detailed for purposes of Step 2 - type exams, the explanations are excellent and tend to cover more basic facts. This atones for the occasional question that states, "current research states ..." and puts it in the grasp of most medical students. This is a good book to cover (or at least sample) if you are taking NBMLE shelf exams.