31 Adolescent Literacy In Perspective, September 2004, Understanding Adolescent Literacy Learners Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Adolescent Literacy In Perspective is a professional resource and online publication of the Ohio Resource Center that can be downloaded in its entirety or by individual article in pdf format. September 2004 focuses on the theme of Janet Allen's article, "Choosing What Matters for Adolescent Learners." Two classroom vignettes address how to engage and motivate adolescent learners.... Projects: Writing 6-12 32 Reader and Task Considerations Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades K–12 Professional Commentary: This resource, available through the Kansas State Department of Education, guides educators in making decisions about the reader-to-task appropriateness of a text. As the third component in evaluating the complexity of a text according to the Common Core State Standards, reader-to-task considerations rely on professional reflection about a student's cognitive capabilities, reading skills, motivation and engagement... 33 The Role of Text in Classroom Learning: Beginning an Online Dialogue Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–8 Professional Commentary: This co-authored professional development article summarizes the findings of two previously addressed questions from The Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III (Wade & Moje, 2000): (1) what counts as text in classrooms in the United States? and (2) how are texts used by both teachers and students for the purpose of learning? The authors opened their online dialogue by posing thought-provoking initial questions, then inviting readers to respond, and the closed threaded discussion is available as a transcript of comments at the site. Readers responded to the following prompts: what counts as text; how texts are used; transmission approaches; participatory approaches; unacknowledged and unsanctioned texts; and questions for practice.... 34 Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Popular Culture: Literacy Development Among Urban Youth Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: An educator who substantiates his research with his own classroom experience, Ernest Morrell illustrates how the critical teaching of popular culture can produce powerful academic and social results with urban youth. The author draws from data collected during the eight years that he taught urban teens in the San Francisco Bay area and southern California, and focuses on specific manifestations of popular culture--hip-hop, film, and mass media.... 35 "A Horizon of Possibilities": A Critical Framework for Transforming Multiethnic Literature Instruction Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–12 Professional Commentary: In this article, authors Arlette Ingram Willis and Julia Johnson view literacy as a socially constructed process that takes place within an interpretive community of learners, and examine in depth the political and sociohistorical limitations of the Eurocentric literary canon. As educators and researchers, they reframe and embrace multiple ways of knowing, interpreting, and responding to multiethnic literature, focusing especially on how students respond as readers to African American literature taught in an upper-level high school class.... Projects: Writing 6-12 36 Hot Links to Literacy: Websites That Sizzle Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 1–12 Professional Commentary: This article is a useful compilation of web site links dealing with literacy. Descriptions of the links are included, and once a link category heading is opened, numerous other relevant links appear.... Career Fields: Education & Training, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 37 Teaching for Understanding: Improving Secondary Education and Transition Services through Research Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–12 Professional Commentary: This professional resource by Christine D. Bremer and Catherine Cobb Morocco explains the theories and methods behind the teaching philosophy "teaching for understanding." This strategy promotes in-depth learning, advocates covering a broad range of material, and encourages teachers to provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge to real-world problems, thus deemphasizing performance on short-answer quizzes.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 38 Choosing What Matters for Adolescent Learners Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this resource, Janet Allen addresses the need to know adolescent learners and devotes her article to sources, strategies, and ways to better know students. She constructs her article powerfully, detailing three ways of being better able to choose what matters for adolescent learners: (1) Knowing Adolescents, (2) Knowing the Resources, and (3) Knowing the Research.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 39 Supporting Middle School Writers Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–9, Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this article Debbie Collins, an eighth grade language arts teacher at West Union High School in Ohio, suggests that junior high students need variety, modeling, and explicit instruction to succeed in school. Collins demonstrates how she applies these techniques to writing and reading, providing practical instruction for writing essays and journals with middle school students.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 40 In the Classroom: Working with Struggling Readers Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: LeeAnn K. Binion, an English teacher and reading specialist at Thomas Worthington High School, lends her firsthand experience to working with struggling readers.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Standards First |