231 Literature Circles in the Middle School Classroom Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This professional resource is an article that describes a way to set up literature circles in middle school classrooms. Literature circles motivate young adolescents to continue literacy learning, teach them responsibility, and provide them with collaborative learning opportunities.... Projects: Writing 6-12 232 The Writer's Toolbox: Five Tools for Active Revision Instruction Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 5–8 Professional Commentary: In this article, Laura Harper introduces the use of The Writer's Toolbox by explaining the five tools it contains and describing how to use them to help students with revision. Her "toolbox" is a manila envelope kept inside each student's writing folder.... Career Fields: Education & Training, General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 233 Striving for Success: The Impact of High Stakes Tests on Urban Adolescent Girls' Engagement with Literacy Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: In this article, author Gina DeBlase details her case study of girls in an eighth-grade Native American magnet classroom. She incorporates reading research and spends time addressing gender and racial identity.... 234 Words Work: Activities for Developing Vocabulary, Style, and Critical Thinking [excerpt]: Chapter 1, "Verbal Charades" Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts, General Education Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–9 Professional Commentary: "Verbal Charades" is a nine-page pdf file of the entire first chapter of Thomas Carnicelli's book, Words Work: Activities for Developing Vocabulary, Style, and Critical Thinking. Here the author shares three written sketches ("verbal charades") that he wrote for the classroom in order to introduce the word play inherent in verbal charades.... Career Fields: Arts & Communication, Hospitality & Tourism, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 235 Adolescent Literacy In Perspective, May 2005, Explicit Comprehension Strategies Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: "Explicit Comprehension Strategies" is the theme of the May 2005 issue of Adolescent Literacy In Perspective, and features teacher and author Cris Tovani explaining how to make reading comprehension instruction visible in the adolescent classroom. In her article, "Show Me the Thinking: Making Comprehension Instruction Visible," Tovani considers what teachers and students want to know, and asks targeted questions: What causes readers to lose track of their thinking while reading? How do readers get their thinking back on track? How can teachers help all the different levels of students in their classes? How can those “voices in the head” be used to help students do a better job of monitoring their own comprehension? Carolyn Suttles shares a classroom vignette about using e-mail to engage students in the reading process, and Joyce K.... Projects: Writing 6-12 236 Me Read? No Way!: A Practical Guide to Improving Boys' Literacy Skills Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: Prepared by the Ontario Ministry of Education, this guide focuses on the literacy development of boys and provides practical and effective strategies for classroom use. The guide features a rich source of practices and strategies that have been used successfully in literacy programs around the world.... 237 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.... 238 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.... 239 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.... 240 Reading Next - A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy: A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This professional resource by the Alliance for Excellent Education is the full-text pdf report on a vision for action and research in middle and high school literacy. Fifteen key elements of effective adolescent literacy programs are identified, detailed, and supported with important reading research.... Projects: Writing 6-12 |