Questioning strategies used during and after reading help middle school readers comprehend while reading, improving recall and understanding and building a strong sense of purpose for reading. Phrasing questions to gather information used as well as more advanced techniques such as QRA (question-answer relationships) and QtA (questioning the author).
Get the "big picture" of teaching reading in the middle school, including research, as well as the practical details you need to help every stydent become a better reader. Veteran teacher Laura Robb shares how to: teach reading strategies across the curriculum, present mini-lessons that deepen students' knowledge of how specific reading strategies work; help kids apply the strategies through guided practice; support struggling readers with a plan of action that improves their reading motivation; and much more.
The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.
Recommends books for gifted readers that provide insights and coping skills for issues they may face from preschool through high school, featuring more than three hundred titles with brief summaries, organized by reading levels; and includes an index arranged by theme.
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.
The fifth edition of this comprehensive resource helps future and practicing teachers recognize and assess literacy problems, while providing practical, effective intervention strategies to help every student succeed. DeVries thoroughly explores the major components of literacy, offering an overview of pertinent research, suggested methods and tools for diagnosis and assessment, intervention strategies and activities, and technology applications to increase students' skills. Updated to reflect the needs of teachers in increasingly diverse classrooms, the fifth edition addresses scaffolding for English language learners, and offers appropriate instructional strategies and tailored teaching ideas to help both teachers and their students. Several valuable appendices include assessment tools, instructions and visuals for creating and implementing the book's more than 150 instructional strategies and activities, and other resources. New to the Fifth Edition: Up-to-date and in line with ILA, CCSS, and most state and district literacy standards, this edition also addresses the important shifts and evolution of these standards. New chapter on Language Development, Speaking, and Listening covers early literacy, assessment, and interventions. New intervention strategies and activities are featured in all chapters and highlight a stronger technology component. Updated Companion Website with additional tools, resources, and examples of teachers using assessment strategies.
The fourth edition of this comprehensive resource helps future and practicing teachers recognize and assess literacy problems, while providing practical, effective intervention strategies to help every student succeed. The author thoroughly explores the major components of literacy, providing an overview of pertinent research, suggested methods and tools for diagnosis and assessment, intervention strategies and activities, and technology applications to increase students' skills. Discussions throughout focus on the needs of English learners, offering appropriate instructional strategies and tailored teaching ideas to help both teachers and their students. Several valuable appendices include assessment tools, instructions and visuals for creating and implementing the book's more than 150 instructional strategies and activities, and other resources.
"When I finished Middle School Readers I wanted to reverse time and relive sixth grade as a student in Nancy Allison's class. Allison takes us into her own unique brand of reading workshop, providing the finest road map for teachers. Ultimately, what Allison communicates is that to help students read fiction and nonfiction, to refine their knowledge of genre structure and reading strategies, we must engage in conversations with students that lead them to independence." Laura Robb, Author of Teaching Middle School Writers "Students need language arts classrooms where the shelves are filled with engaging fiction and nonfiction texts--and where their teacher's main responsibility is to support their growth as readers. They deserve to be respected and supported as they work their way through self-selected texts." Nancy Allison Nancy Allison shows how to provide the choice adolescents crave with the guidance they need-and she does this all with instructional and organizational strategies that make this infinitely manageable. In describing how to teach middle school students to read widely and well, Nancy presents: the daily routines of an effective reading workshop with ideas for developing a robust classroom library tips for cultivating independent readers and matching students to just-right books her unique brand of deskside conferences with examples of how they can be used to differentiate instruction and motivate disengaged readers strategies for teaching comprehension in fiction and nonfiction texts techniques for assessing and evaluating independent readers. Plus! A built-in study guide makes this an ideal book for professional book study.
