61 Promoting Vocabulary Development: Components of Effective Vocabulary Instruction Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–8 Professional Commentary: This professional resource is a 37-page pdf file, reproducible per the acknowledgment in the introduction. Its team of authors (Texas Education Agency) has included not only current research and inquiry in vocabulary development, but also in-depth teaching materials and explicit instruction strategies for vocabulary instruction.... 62 Reading for Meaning: Helping Students Become Successful Readers Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–10 Professional Commentary: The nature of comprehension is complex. It is an active process in which varied skills and abilities must work together flexibly so the reader can create meaning of the written text.... 63 Teaching Expressive Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–12 Professional Commentary: This article describes a meta-analysis of instructional approaches for teaching writing to students with learning disabilities, strategies to teach students how to analyze material learned in the classroom, and write in a variety of genres (Gersten & Baker, 1999). All the instructional interventions reviewed improved the quality of students' writing and had positive effects on their self-efficacy.... 64 English Language Learners With Special Needs: Effective Instructional Strategies Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 1–8 Professional Commentary: English language learners with special needs are particularly disadvantaged due to the difficulty in understanding, assessing and referring them for special services. The increasing diversity in student populations makes it challenging for educators to accurately distinguish students who truly have learning disabililties from those who are failing for other reasons such as limited English, linguistic or cultural differences, difficiencies in the teaching and learning environment, or lower socioeconomic levels.... 65 Intervention Research for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis of Outcomes Related to High-Order Processing Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: Most adolescents become more sophisticated learners as they move through their elementary years into adolescence. Those students with learning disabilities (LD), however, have a struggle with higher-order processing that begins in the elementary years and continues to generalize into adolescence.... 66 Adolescent Literacy In Perspective, February 2006, Supporting Struggling Readers in Content-Area Learning Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: The February issue of AdLIT's In Perspective focuses on supporting struggling readers in content-area learning. The entire issue can be downloaded, and regular columns include the following: (1) featured article; (2) classroom vignettes; (3) student voices; (4) a look at the Ohio Graduation Test; (5) for your bookshelf; and (6) resources from the ORC collection.... Projects: Writing 6-12 67 Adolescent Literacy In Perspective, March 2006, Boys and Reading Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: The March 2006 issue of AdLIT's In Perspective focuses on boys and reading. The entire issue can be downloaded, and regular columns include the following: (1) featured article; (2) classroom vignettes; (3) student voices; (4) a look at the Ohio Graduation Test; (5) for your bookshelf; and (6) resources from the ORC collection.... Projects: Writing 6-12 68 Fostering Metacognitive Conversation in Professional Learning Communities and Subject-Area Classrooms Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Cynthia Greenleaf's "Fostering Metacognitive Conversation in Professional Learning Communities and Subject-Area Classrooms" is the featured article in this issue (February 2006) of AdLIT's In Perspective. The author explains the significance of and engagement in metacognitive conversation in professional learning communities and subject-area classrooms in seven sections: (1) Tapping Subject-Area Teachers' Expertise in Reading; (2) Fostering Metacognitive Conversation in the Classroom; (3) Introducing Think-Aloud as a Metacognitive Routine; (4) To Prepare and Teach Think-Aloud; and (5) Metacognitive Conversation is Key; (6) Using Think-Aloud to Teach Subject-Specific Thinking Processes; and (7) Metacognitive Conversation Apprentices Students to Subject-Area Reading.... Projects: Writing 6-12 69 Reading Fluency for Adolescents: Should We Care? Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Timothy Rasinski's "Reading Fluency for Adolescents: Should We Care?" is the featured article in the April 2007 AdLIT In Perspective. The author points out the disparity between what reading research recommends and what classroom studies show: fluency is being increasingly recognized as a key to success in reading, but many older students are not fluent readers.... Projects: Writing 6-12 70 Reading Teacher Education in the Next Millennium: What your grandmother's teacher didn't know that your granddaughter's teacher should Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades K–12 Professional Commentary: This professional development site uses a significant research base both of past and current reading studies in order to construct a forward-looking model for training reading teachers. Summarizing the research available for teacher preparation, the authors make connections to (1) 21st-century changes in the nature of literacy itself, (2) changes in the diversity of our student population, and (3) changes in the occupational characteristics of teaching.... |