1 Literature Circles Resource Center Resource Type: Professional Resources Discipline: Reading Grades: Grades 1–6 Professional Commentary: This resource is designed to support elementary and middle school teachers as they plan and use literature circles in their language arts classrooms. Literature circles help students to establish a purpose for reading and provide an organizational structure to support meaningful discussions of texts.... 2 Literature Circles in the Middle School Classroom Resource Type: Professional Resources Discipline: Reading Grades: 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.... 3 Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School [excerpt]: Chapter 1, "The Benefits of Socratic Circles" Resource Type: Professional Resources Discipline: Reading Grades: Grades 4–12 Professional Commentary: Based on Socrates' belief that there is a more effective and productive way of teaching students than the lecture, this article examines the history and definition of the Socratic method. It explores, too, the natural offshoot (literature circles) of this method for the English language arts classroom.... 4 Motivating Lifelong Reading Through Fiction Resource Type: Professional Resources Discipline: Reading Grades: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this classroom vignette, Jennifer Wolf, a reading differentiation teacher at Sells Middle School in Dublin, Ohio, begins with a question to teachers: "But how, exactly, can we support middle school studetns so that they are more likely to make this choice?" The author then responds with five practical strategies for engaging and motivating adolescents to... 5 They Still Can't Spell? Understanding and Supporting Challenged Spellers in Middle and High School [excerpt]: Chapter 8, "Less but Deeper: Teaching Strategies and Rules that Generalize" Resource Type: Professional Resources Discipline: Reading Grades: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: This chapter excerpt defines and explains reflective strategies that promote word awareness. The authors show how these strategies provide "deeper" opportunities for students to learn information about words that they can then generalize to other words.... 6 Literature--Before, Behind, and Beyond Resource Type: Professional Resources Discipline: Reading Grades: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this classroom vignette, Cher Orebaugh, a former middle and high school teacher, lends her firsthand experience to teaching literature (Wuthering Heights) in new ways. Available in its entirety in the February 2006 issue of AdLIT In Perspective, "Literature--Before, Behind, and Beyond" traces Orebaugh's introduction to, use of, and ultimately success with frontloading to teach... 7 Teaching Middle School Students to Be Active Researchers [excerpt]: Chapter 1, "Defining Active Research" Resource Type: Professional Resources Discipline: Reading Grades: Grades 6–8 Professional Commentary: In this first chapter of Teaching Middle School Students to Be Active Researchers, the authors give a detailed description of active research and explain how it can be implemented in middle school. The authors present several scenarios to illustrate the different facets of active research.... 8 Story Character Homepage Resource Type: Lessons Discipline: Reading Grades: Grades 4–8 Professional Commentary: This lesson effectively combines collaborative work, deep analysis of a character, and integration of technology. Working in small groups, students analyze a character from a piece of fiction and create a web site to represent their interpretation of that character.... 9 Making the Match: Engaging Reluctant Readers in YA Literature Resource Type: Professional Resources Discipline: Reading Grades: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Teri S. Lesesne's "Making the Match: Engaging Reluctant Readers in YA Literature" is the featured article in this issue (May/June 2006) of AdLIT's In Perspective.... 10 Books by Copeland, Gallagher, Glasgow, and McLaughlin and DeVoogd Resource Type: Professional Resources Discipline: Reading Grades: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: The November/December 2005 issue of AdLIT's In Perspective includes reviews by Sheila Cantlebary (Reading Content Specialist at the ORC). This month's "For Your Bookshelf” includes the following titles: (1) Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School by Matt Copeland; (2) Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12 by Kelly Gallagher; (3) |