"This book is intended for middle school and high school teachers of social studies, science, English, English-language development, and any other subject with challenging texts and classes with readers who struggle to understand them. The activities are especially meant to help readers who are below grade level to access and organize the content of grade-level texts." - Preface.
Radically change the way students learn from texts, extending beyond comprehension to critical reasoning and problem solving. Is your reading comprehension instruction just a pile of strategies? There is no evidence that teaching one strategy at a time, especially with pieces of text that require that readers use a variety of strategies to successfully negotiate meaning, is effective. And how can we extend comprehension beyond simple meaning? Bestselling authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nicole Law propose a new, comprehensive model of reading instruction that goes beyond teaching skills to fostering engagement and motivation. Using a structured, three-pronged approach—skill, will, and thrill—students learn to experience reading as a purposeful act and embrace struggle as a natural part of the reading process. Instruction occurs in three phases: Skill. Holistically developing skills and strategies necessary for students to comprehend text, such as monitoring, predicting, summarizing, questioning, and inferring. Will. Creating the mindsets, motivations, and habits, including goal setting and choice, necessary for students to engage fully with texts. Thrill. Fostering the thrill of comprehension, so that students share their thinking with others or use their knowledge for something else. Comprehension is the structured framework you need to empower students to comprehend text and take action in the world.
This book offers core guidance for educationalists in designing and implementing a constructive reading environment and process. It provides a plethora of reading models, theories, and techniques that enable educators to have solid knowledge of coping with managing various reading tasks. In addition, this book will enhance educators’ reading teaching abilities by providing them with detailed, multi-levelled guidance in terms of professionally designing, introducing, and assessing reading tasks. Furthermore, it also introduces academic and psychological criteria that consider all the parties of the reading educational process for shortlisting of reading tasks.
“Of the over one hundred new publications on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), this one truly stands out! In the second edition of Building Academic Language, Jeff Zwiers presents a much-needed, comprehensive roadmap to cultivating academic language development across all disciplines, this time placing the rigor and challenges of the CCSS front and center. A must-have resource!” —Andrea Honigsfeld, EdD, Molloy College “Language is critical to the development of content learning as students delve more deeply into specific disciplines. When students possess strong academic language, they are better able to critically analyze and synthesize complex ideas and abstract concepts. In this second edition of Building Academic Language, Jeff Zwiers successfully builds the connections between the Common Core State Standards and academic language. This is the ‘go to’ resource for content teachers as they transition to the expectations for college and career readiness.” —Katherine S. McKnight, PhD, National Louis University With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by most of the United States, students need help developing their understanding and use of language within the academic context. This is crucially important throughout middle school and high school, as the subjects discussed and concepts taught require a firm grasp of language in order to understand the greater complexity of the subject matter. Building Academic Language shows teachers what they can do to help their students grasp language principles and develop the language skills they’ll need to reach their highest levels of academic achievement. The Second Edition of Building Academic Language includes new strategies for addressing specific Common Core standards and also provides answers to the most important questions across various content areas, including: What is academic language and how does it differ by content area? How can language-building activities support content understanding for students? How can teachers assist students in using language more effectively, especially in the academic context? How can academic language usage be modeled routinely in the classroom? How can lesson planning and assessment support academic language development? An essential resource for teaching all students, this book explains what every teacher needs to know about language for supporting reading, writing, and academic learning.
The Handbook of Research on Reading Comprehension assembles researchers of reading comprehension, literacy, educational psychology, psychology, and neuroscience to document the most recent research on the topic. It summarizes the current body of research on theory, methods, instruction, and assessment, including coverage of landmark studies. Designed to deepen understanding of how past research can be applied and has influenced the present and to stimulate new thinking about reading comprehension, the volume is organized around seven themes: historical perspectives on reading comprehension theoretical perspectives changing views of text elements of reading comprehension assessing and teaching reading comprehension cultural impact on reading comprehension where to from here? This is an essential reference volume for the international community of reading researchers, reading psychologists, graduate students, and professionals working in the area of reading and literacy.
Encourage fifth-grade students to build their reading comprehension and word study skills using daily practice activities. Great for after school, intervention, or homework, teachers and parents can help students gain regular practice through these quick, diagnostic-based activities that are correlated to College and Career Readiness and other state standards. Both fiction and nonfiction reading passages are provided as well as data-driven assessment tips and digital versions of the assessment analysis tools and activities. With these easy-to-use activities, fifth graders will boost their reading skills in a hurry!
A highly regarded teacher resource and widely adopted text, this book is grounded in current knowledge about literacy teaching and learning in grades PreK–8. The field's leading authorities present accessible recommendations for best practices that can be tailored to fit specific classroom circumstances and student populations. Provided are strategies for helping all students succeed—including struggling readers and English language learners—and for teaching each of the major components of literacy. The book also addresses ways to organize instruction and innovative uses of technology. Chapters include concrete examples, Engagement Activities, and resources for further learning. New to This Edition *Incorporates the latest research findings and instructional practices. *Chapters on motivation, content-area teaching, new literacies, and family literacy. *Addresses timely topics such as response to intervention, the new common core standards, English language learning, and policy issues.
Help struggling readers succeed by teaching four research-based comprehension strategies with sample lessons and a gradual-release approach leading to student-directed learning.
Creating lifelong learners is ideally what we, as teachers, desire for all students. We understand the values and rewards that come from acquiring a thirst for knowledge. Wanting children to see learning as a valuable tool is easy, but knowing how to instill that love, now that is a different story. That story is presented here, in easy-to-understand text and ideas, to guide students through the concepts of lifelong learning. Learning That Never Ends demystifies the concept of lifelong learning in a way that makes it easy and accessible for all. This work literally levels the playing field for any and all students to find success in life. Every idea, every tool provided comes from fifteen years of research and experimentation across socioeconomic levels and subject areas from elementary to college, in hundreds of classrooms. With the ideas from this book, you can empower all students with the qualities of a lifelong learner.
This book presents a curricular framework for students grades 6–12 that school librarians and teachers can use collaboratively to enhance reading skill development, promote literature appreciation, and motivate young people to incorporate reading into their lives, beyond the required schoolwork. Supporting Reading Grades 6–12: A Guideaddresses head-on the disturbing trend of declining leisure reading among students and demonstrates how school librarians can contribute to the development of lifelong reading habits as well as improve students' motivation and test scores. The book provides a comprehensive framework for achieving this: the READS curriculum, which stands for Read as a personal activity; Explore characteristics, history, and awards of creative works; Analyze structure and aesthetic features of creative works; Develop a literary-based product; and Score reading progress. Each of these five components is explained thoroughly, describing how school librarians can encourage students to read as individuals, in groups, and as school communities; support classroom teachers' instruction; and connect students to today's constantly evolving technologies. Used in combination with an inquiry/information-skills model, the READS curriculum enables school librarians to deliver a dynamic, balanced library program that addresses AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.
