61 Using Poetry to Motivate Reluctant Seventh Grade Readers and Writers Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 7–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this professional resource, an article from the Ohio Journal of English Language Arts, teacher Chip Withrow describes an instructional approach using poetry-related reading and writing assignments to motivate reluctant seventh-grade English students. These assignments go beyond merely asking the students to read and interpret poems; the author uses poetry to lead students into practicing writing skills and thinking about issues that affect their lives.... Projects: Writing 6-12 62 "Apprenticing Adolescents to Reading in Subject-Area Classrooms" Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This professional resource describes the components of and the process for carrying out the reading apprenticeship framework, an instructional framework embedded in the process of teaching subject-area content rather than an instructional add-on or additional curriculum. The Reading Apprenticeship framework "involves teachers in orchestrating and integrating four interacting dimensions of classroom life that support reading development.... Projects: Writing 6-12 63 Reading Happens in Your Mind, Not in Your Mouth: Teaching and Learning "Academic Literacy" in an Urban High School Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–12 Professional Commentary: This article explores one teacher's experience with the Academic Literacy course begun as a ten-unit year-long course for all Thurgood Marshall (California) freshmen in the fall of 1996. Its purpose was to help the incoming students become higher level, strategic readers and to prepare them for the reading tasks they would encounter in high school and beyond.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 64 Apprenticing Adolescent Readers to Academic Literacy Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–12 Professional Commentary: This article offers an alternative vision to remedial reading instruction. The authors describe an instructional framework - Reading Apprenticeship - that is based on a socially and cognitively complex conception of literacy, and examine an Academic Literacy course based on this framework.... 65 "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys": Literacy in the Lives of Young Men [excerpt]: Chapter 2, "Going with the Flow: What Boys Like to Do and Why They Like to Do It" Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: This excerpt examines possible constructs to explore why adolescent boys are successful outside of school, yet struggle with school and school-assigned reading. The authors apply the principles of "flow," (joy, creativity, and the process of total involvement with life) to four detailed case studies of high school boys, and their results offer insight into strategies for teaching reading to adolescent males.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Construction Technologies, Engineering & Science Technologies, Manufacturing Technologies, Transportation Systems, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 66 Reflective Teaching, Reflective Learning: How to Develop Critically Engaged Readers, Writers, and Speakers [excerpt]: Chapter 7, "Engaging Students in Authentic Discussion of Literature" Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: The authors of this excerpt point to instructional practices that emphasize active inquiry as a key to learning. They refer to and include an introductory preface by George Hillocks, Jr, whose research and methodology demonstrate that students in inquiry-based classrooms are necessarily involved with meaningful interaction with their peers.... 67 Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap [excerpt]: Chapter 1, "Literacy Development in Black Adolescent Males" Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades K–12 Professional Commentary: In this chapter excerpt, author Alfred W. Tatum looks at the ways in which "poverty has a way of souring the childhood of black males" and "reading has a way of sweetening it." Using research and findings to support his text, Tatum writes with the insight and from the perspective of a black man concerned with the development of literacy in black adolescent males.... Career Fields: Education & Training Projects: Standards First 68 Extending Literacy Through Participation in New Technologies Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: In this online version of the International Reading Association's Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, authors Umesh Thakkar, Bertram C. Bruce, Maureen Hogan, and Jo Williamson look at a cross-curriculum innovation in which students engage in reading, writing, problem solving, interacting with simulations and databases, and performing various hands-on activities.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Education & Training, Engineering & Science Technologies, Health Science, General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 69 Adolescent Literacy In Perspective, October 2004, When Adolescents Can't and Won't Read Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: This October 2004 issue of Adolescent Literacy In Perspective focuses on "When Adolescents Can't and Won't Read." This online, downloadable publication of the Ohio Resource Center features David Bloome's well-researched article, "Complex Human Activities Taking Place in Complex Human Relationships." The publication examines theme of adolescent reading through two shared classroom vignettes--"Working with Struggling Readers" by LeeAnn K. Binion and "Creating a Recipe for Reading Success" by Tammy Burt.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Arts & Communication, Business & Administrative Services, Construction Technologies, Engineering & Science Technologies, Finance, Government & Public Administration, Health Science, Hospitality & Tourism, Human Services, Information Technology, Law & Public Safety, Manufacturing Technologies, Marketing, Transportation Systems, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 70 Adolescent Literacy In Perspective, January 2005, Reaching Out to Struggling Readers Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 4–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This January 2005 issue of AdLIT's In Perspective opens with "Reaching Out to Our Struggling Readers," an article where authors Padak and McConnell set the theme for the issue by suggesting ways to get started reaching out to struggling adolescent readers. Padak and McConnell discuss what adolescent readers need, want, and deserve, acknowledging the findings of the International Reading Association and the Adolescent Literacy Commission's Report (1997), and talk openly with teachers about what can be done in the classroom to address such issues.... |