31 Working with Struggling Readers Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 4–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this classroom vignette, teacher Stephanie Briani Fitz shares her experience, tips, and strategies for individualizing instruction for struggling readers. Three specific strategies the author has found helpful include the following: (1) activating students' prior knowledge before they read; (2) encouraging students to respond verbally, aks questions, and make predictions when they read; and (3) journaling during the reading process.... Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Joyce K. Rowland, a middle and high school English teacher for 29 years in Bristolville, Ohio, lends her firsthand experience to putting into practice an idea she got from attending an NCTE convention.... 33 Boys' Literate Lives: A Nonfiction Collaboration Resource Type: Content Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This classroom vignette describes the collaborative effort of four teachers who during a SIRI workshop developed a nonfiction unit with a research component designed to engage boys with reading. Several sections highlight the details of the research, planning, and activities for classroom use: Getting Started; Designing Instruction with Boys in Mind; Using Literary Nonfiction to Hook Readers; Art and Reading: A Lesson That Reaches Boys; Research, Evaluation, and the Multi-Genre Project; Implications for Teachers; and Try Collaboration.... Projects: Writing 6-12 34 Discovering the Power of Reading Through Fiction Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this classroom vignette, English language arts teacher Diane Sayre provides a reading teacher's perspective for genuinely motivating adolescents to read. Sayre names this powerful motivation--" a natural enthusisam for books, stories, and articles with which we can connect." She goes on to say that "along with meeting standards and benchmarks, we must enthusiastically talk with our students about our own reading, [then] give them time to read books of their choice and share them informally with their peers." Her impassioned salute at the end of her short piece from AdLIT's In Perspective (May/June 2006) embodies the heart of her philosophy: "Unleash the power of reading!" (author/ebm) 35 Using Podcasting as a Prereading Strategy Resource Type: Content Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: "Using Podcasting as a Prereading Strategy" shares two high school teachers' experience with connecting struggling readers to reading comprehension strategies that work. Based on reading research and their own frustrated attempts in the classroom to motivate and engage struggling readers with text, these teachers construct a podcasting prereading strategy that works.... 36 A Music Strategy for Exploring Content Area Concepts Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts, General Education Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This professional resource discusses how music can provide a creative avenue for students to learn academic content and concepts as they express their learning in an active and meaningful way. Author Thomas Bean suggests that teachers try introducing music in the form of rewriting a song with a small group.... Projects: Writing 6-12 37 Model Reading Strategies to Improve Comprehension for All Students Resource Type: Content Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Laura Robb's "Model Reading Strategies to Improve Comprehension for All Students" is the featured article in this issue (April 2007) of AdLIT's In Perspective. Robb, a literacy coach for teachers, echoes the concern of many of the teachers with whom she works: "But I'm not a reading teacher.... 38 Required Summer Reading? Discussion Boards Keep Things Lively Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this classroom vignette, Judy Ellsesser Painter shares her success with having her high school students post to discussion boards as they read books. Her story is motivating and enthusiastic, demonstrating that when the power of choice--for both the reading and writing processes, is "given," adolescents tend to excel in terms of motivation, enthusasism, communication, reading, and writing.... Projects: Writing 6-12 39 Reader's Theater: A Strategy to Make Social Studies Click Resource Type: Content Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Interested in investigating how reader's theater might be used in a content-area classroom other than English language arts, teachers Regina Rees and Mary Lou DiPillo piloted their reader's theater project with a 6th-grade social studies class. This classroom vignette chronicles their project, from script writing to student comments to the teachers' final wrap-up on the project.... Projects: Writing 6-12 40 Still Learning to Read: Teaching Students in Grades 3-6 [excerpt]: Chapter 1, "Teaching Reading in the Upper Elementary Classroom" Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–6 Professional Commentary: Together, Franki Sibberson, a Dublin, Ohio teacher with 16 years of classrooom experience, and Karen Szymusiak, a Dublin administrator with 27 years of experience, share their expertise and experience to provide guidance on how to devote more time to reading instruction without neglecting the content demands of the curriculum. Their approach is grounded in research and presented in a way that invites us to read and question with them concerns that address both the teacher's and students' perspective.... |