How to revive your most resistant learners Common Core CPR is needed. Urgently. Because if we continue to insist that all students meet expectations that are well beyond their abilities, these kids will only decline faster. We must cast aside what we know harms students and apply the teaching methods we know work. Embracing what is best about the standards, Lent and Gilmore explicitly connect ideal outcomes to practical classroom strategies, including how to Consider choice and relevance in every assignment Plan and spot opportunities for success Scaffold students’ comprehension of fiction and nonfiction Model close reading Teach students to use evidence
The ideal? Newly minted high school graduates all across the nation, each one a complex text genius, a writer and analytic thinker beyond compare. All on to glorious colleges and careers, thanks to the Common Core. The reality? The 1.3 million students who fail to graduate from high school each year and the hundreds of thousands more who either gave up or lost interest long ago . . . The reality is why Common Core CPR is needed. Urgently. Because if we continue to insist that all students meet expectations that are well beyond their abilities and mindsets, these kids will only decline faster. We must be brave enough-and trained enough-to cast aside what we know harms students and apply with renewed vigor the teaching methods we know work. Releah Lent and Barry Gilmore rise to the challenge, and there are no two authors better equipped to do so. They embrace what is best about the standards-their emphasis on active, authentic learning-and then explicitly show teachers how to connect these ideal outcomes to practical classroom strategies, detailing the day-to-day teaching that can coax reluctant learners into engagement and achievement. You'll learn how to: Consider choice and relevance in every assignment Plan and spot opportunities for success Scaffold students' comprehension of complex fiction and nonfiction texts Model close reading through thoughtful questioning Teach students to use evidence in reading, writing, speaking, and reflection . . . And so much more It's not the big sweeping formulas for achievement that will win the day; it's the incremental growth that teachers need to make happen: that one book, that one writing assignment, to help a student turn a corner. "If we can get that one transformational moment to occur, and follow it up by designing more opportunities for success, that's the ideal," say Lent and Gilmore.
Timely, thoughtful, and comprehensive, this text directly supports pre-service and in-service teachers in developing curriculum and instruction that both addresses and exceeds the requirements of English language arts standards. It demonstrates how the Common Core State Standards as well as other local and national standards’ highest and best intentions for student success can be implemented from a critical, culturally relevant perspective firmly grounded in current literacy learning theory and research. The third edition frames ELA instruction around adopting a justice, inquiry, and action approach that supports students in their schools and community contexts. Offering new ways to respond to current issues and events, the text provides specific examples of teachers employing the justice, inquiry, and action curriculum framework to promote critical engagement and learning. Chapters cover common problems and challenges, alternative models, and theories of language arts teaching. The framework, knowledge, and guidance in this book shows how ELA standards can not only be addressed but also surpassed through engaging instruction to foster truly diverse and inclusive classrooms. The third edition provides new material on: adopting a justice, inquiry, and action approach to enhance student engagement and critical thinking planning instruction to effectively implement standards in the classroom teaching literary and informational texts, with a focus on authors of color integrating drama activities into literature teaching informational, explanatory, argumentative, and narrative writing supporting bilingual/ELL students using digital tools and apps to respond to and create digital texts addressing how larger contextual and political factors shape instruction fostering preservice teacher development
Next-generation lessons for today’s student writers These 20 high-energy projectable lessons for grades 4-8 harness the brevity and potency of poetry for teaching the intricate skills behind writing well in any subject.
Disciplinary Literacy is about to go from theory to game plan—taking students from superficial understanding to deep content expertise. And guess what? ReLeah Lent’s big secret lies in highlighting each content area’s differences—advancing a discipline-specific model in which literacy is used as a tool for strategic thinking, reading, writing, and doing within each field. That’s right—no more reading strategies used uniformly across the curriculum. Instead, This Is Disciplinary Literacy helps content-area teachers put into action the key literacies of their specialties. Teaching science? Students must evaluate evidence and question as they read. History? Comparing and contrasting sources and interpreting the import of events are key. Writing in Math? Accuracy is favored over elaboration and craft. Reading fiction in ELA? Synthesizing and attuning to voice and figurative language reign supreme. Students fully own knowledge because your instruction zeroes in on the academic habits that matter most. Content area by content area, ReLeah shows how to immediately incorporate these literacies into lessons, units, and project-based learning. Inside you’ll find: "Spotlights" on all major disciplines that highlight how implementation looks in real classrooms Extend and Adapt sections with ideas for augmenting activities for students who need different challenges or support, tips for companion activities, and digital sources for short texts and video Q&A sections bringing both reassurance and get-it-done advice New ways to re-boot essential research-based practices that work in any field—reading, writing, inquiry, and collaboration Free companion website featuring a complete PD workshop with PowerPoint slides for ready-to-go professional learning And best of all, students not only engage in the genuine intellectual challenges of the disciplines—they are eager to do so! This Is Disciplinary Literacy gives students entrance to the global communities of practice, and provides schools, districts, and teachers with a proven approach that makes college-and-career-readiness a reality. Featured Book: Common Core CPR
What it really means to “read closely” Call it close reading, call it deep reading, call it analytic reading—call it what you like. The point is, it’s a level of understanding that students of any age can achieve with the right kind of instruction. In Rigorous Reading, Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher articulate an instructional plan so clearly, and so squarely built on research, that teachers, schools, and districts need look no further: Purpose & Modeling Close & Scaffolded Reading Instruction Collaborative Conversations An Independent Reading Staircase Performance
Think you understand Disciplinary Literacy? Think again. In this important reference, content teachers and other educators explore why students need to understand how historians, novelists, mathematicians, and scientists use literacy in their respective fields. ReLeah shows how to teach students to: Evaluate and question evidence (Science) Compare sources and interpret events (History) Favor accuracy over elaboration (Math) Attune to voice and fi gurative language (ELA)
Now in its fourth edition, this popular textbook introduces prospective and practicing English teachers to current methods of teaching literature in middle and high school classrooms. This new edition broadens its focus to cover important topics such as critical race theory; perspectives on teaching fiction, nonfiction, and drama; the integration of digital literacy; and teacher research for ongoing learning and professional development. It underscores the value of providing students with a range of different critical approaches and tools for interpreting texts. It also addresses the need to organize literature instruction around topics and issues of interest to today’s adolescents. By using authentic dilemmas and contemporary issues, the authors encourage preservice English teachers and their instructors to raise and explore inquiry-based questions that center on the teaching of a variety of literary texts, both classic and contemporary, traditional and digital. New to the Fourth Edition: Expanded attention to digital tools, multimodal learning, and teaching online New examples of teaching contemporary texts Expanded discussion and illustration of formative assessment Revised response activities for incorporating young adult literature into the literature curriculum Real-world examples of student work to illustrate how students respond to the suggested strategies Extended focus on infusing multicultural and diverse literature in the classroom Each chapter is organized around specific questions that preservice teachers consistently raise as they prepare to become English language arts teachers. The authors model critical inquiry throughout the text by offering authentic case narratives that raise important considerations of both theory and practice. A companion website, a favorite of English education instructors, http://teachingliterature.pbworks.com, provides resources and enrichment activities, inviting teachers to consider important issues in the context of their current or future classrooms.
