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This is actually 2 articles from American Educator Spring 2011 -Putting Students on the Path to Learning: The Case for Fully Guided Instruction -Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know The first article asserts that "teachers are more effective when they provide explicit guidance accompanied by practice, not when they require students to discover many aspects of what they must learn." The second article presents 10 research-based principles of instruction, along with suggestions for classroom practice.

This is an activity to help with writing skills for middle schoolers. It's a great way to have fun while learning. It can be used in the classroom or at home.

This news story seemed particularly important to me because it can seriously affect students relationship towards their education. Many states are thinking of holding back third graders that are not reading at grade level, and giving them more time to catch up with their peer. The article brought up studies of students that are held back having lower self esteem and are socially stigmatized. On the other side of this issue, many students in Florida that have been held back have shown enormous gains once tested in the fourth grade. The strongest point that I saw made in the story was that students who are held back for another year are costing the state an extra 10,000 dollars, so why is can't this be spend on reading programs that may give them the more individualized attention they might need in the future, and let them go ahead to the fourth grade with their peers?

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Although different opinions grumbled both sides in this article, I think it had a large nugget of truth attached to it.  For the last three years, a pilot program in NYC were taught to read using this Core Knowledge program.  Although a bit more complicated than this explanation, the Core Knowledge Program means that students primarily read non fiction books of their choosing in schools while teachers would conference from desk to desk with the students.  The study said it was most pronounced in kindergarten, where students that were apart of the study scored five times higher than those peers who were not apart of the study.  Note: it did not say what was on this brief reading test given to both parties.

This New York Times article focuses on students reading non-fiction, especially in content areas other than English. The studies show that students gain reading achievements higher than students who did not have this program in place. I think that nonfiction reading has taken a back seat, and students should learn how to read informational text. Newspapers, lab preps, and the like need to be expanded upon and used more in the classroom. Nonfiction reading is another great way to get boys interested in becoming active and engaged readers. Not to pigeon hold boys as total nonfiction readers, but I feel that many boys become tired of just reading fiction book in the English classroom, and content area reading is a great way to strengthen male students reading skills and attitudes.

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The National Archives Digital Classroom: Primary Sources, Activities and Training for Educators and Students. This site is very helpful for social studies teachers, however the part that I think would be helpful for teachers of most subjects is the worksheet analysis documents. The documents help students analyze documents, cartoons, films, etc. I thought it was a great way to assist students in interpreting and helping them understand different documents that they will encounter in various courses.

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I love peer response to writing in classrooms, especially in secondary education classrooms. It build relationships in the classroom, gets the students focused on more than just the teacher's opinion of writing, and allows for students to strengthen their editing. This article points out an important component of peer editing, which is making students comfortable in the classroom. This means allowing them to sit on the floor, go out in the hall, etc. If we expect students to share something personal, like their writing, then we should allow them to be as comfortable (physically and mentally), as possible.

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"This action research project investigated the effects of daily teacher read-alouds on first graders' ability to sustain silent reading for an extended length of time." Current Issues in Education published by Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. 2011

"WritingFix is a teacher resource website that contains lessons and ideas for any educator to freely use in their K-12 classrooms....The site is sponsored by the Northern Nevada Writing Project, a not-for-profit professional development organization that is located on the University of Nevada-Reno Campus." An absolutely amazing goldmine collection of writing ideas: mentor texts, 6 traits, revision, genres, and MORE!

I realize the focus of our class is reading. This resource is too good not to bring to your attention.

Though it does not focus on reading, I have found that WritingFix absolutely saved me in my first year teaching ELA. Even if it is simply "saved for later" this is something all teachers should review.

Journal Article #1 Summary: Student's identities are formed through their social interactions and their literacy experiences. Literacy identity is often narrow: "good reader", "poor writer", etc. These are very inflexible descriptions and can lead students to be stuck in roles instead of growing their literacy skills. This article explores the development of identity through both students social interactions and their literacy experiences. Through three studies, it shows how these two concepts are interconnected. This article also discusses how literacy is a form of language and communication, how people interact because of literacy and the way that people define and construct themselves in order to accomplish life goals. This article also explores the role that teachers have in forming their students' literacy identities. It gives examples of three different and diverse classroom experiences with teachers who have different approaches to teaching literacy.  Link to PDF: http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1218&context=gse_pubs&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fscholar%3Fstart%3D30%26q%3Dliteracy%2Bschools%2Beducation%26hl%3Den%26as_sdt%3D1%2C23%26as_ylo%3D2010%26as_subj%3Dsoc%2Beng#search=%22literacy%20schools%20education%22 Citation: Hall, L. et al. (2009) "Teacher Identity in the Context of Literacy Teaching: Three Explorations of Classroom Positioning and Interaction in Secondary Schools." Teaching and Teacher education. Vol. 26(2). p. 234-243.

Fascinating paper! Could you identify with any of the stories related in the paper? What will you take with you into your own teaching?

Finding effective ways to teach today's student population is perhaps the greatest challenge facing literacy educators in the United States. As classrooms become increasingly diverse, educators struggle to find curricula and pedagogical strategies that are inclusive and affirmative yet facilitate the development of academic and critical literacies.

How might you apply some of the researcher's findings in your own (current or future) practice? Do you now of teachers who have implemented aspects of this type of critical literacy?

Prof. Clinton, In my own future practice the application from this article that I found most useful was teaching popular film and media in the classroom. In the new core curriculum I know that one of the standards includes comparing text to its corresponding film and evaluating and analyzing the changes that directors have made in adapting the text to film. It would just be a matter of finding a more current relevant film that has a corresponding novel that is grade appropriate and having students study the book before watching the film. I also see value in evaluating music lyrics in a poetry unit. As of right now the host teacher that I am working with hasn't done any of this. She abhors poetry and pretty much refuses to show films in class, although we haven't had much opportunity to since our school assigns readings based on lexile and right now there is no way to have a whole class read the same novel since their reading levels are all so different. I think with the core curriculum standards rolling out next year we'll really have to.

"The Michigan Adolescent Literacy Council, a special interest council under the Michigan Reading Association, is a professional organization for educators genuinely concerned with improving the teaching of literacy to adolescents. Our goal is to provide awareness of the unique needs of adolescent learners, professional development opportunities, and information on the best practices in the teaching of literacy for adolescents."

The article I read was inspirational and made me think about my teaching style/methods in a whole new way. The article was about helping children use literature as a way to grow intellectually and emotionally. This article described that no matter what the medium, we must create educational experiences that strive to make the individual learner the central focus-the star of the lesson. If we do this, then the lessons have an outstanding chance of helping children grow. Throughout the reading, a study of an inner city, African American adolescent named Kevin is depicted. Kevin struggled to succeed in school and in life. He received tutoring from the author of this article (Terrence Hackett). After getting to know Kevin, Hackett realized that he had a difficult life and the fact that Kevin saw himself as a survivor. Kevin's home life was in turmoil in ways that are unfortunately all too common for inner-city single parent families. As his tutor, Hackett decided to have him read the novel, "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen. This book united his world in a meaningful way. Kevin's real life was a survival story. This book matched his lived experience. It was personally relevant to him, and as a result he was interested and engaged.

It's probably not realistic to make every student a star in every lesson. Being aware of different ways to reach different students--and being wiling to try--is important. Thanks for sharing this article.

I believe we need to make learning and reading relevant to all students. It is a challenge to find ways to engage all students, but I think we can come up with common themes with kids in our classrooms as a springboard for doing this. Thanks for the link! :)

The article I read for this journal focused on the differences between readers who are engaged and those who aren't. An engaged reader is a student who wants to read both to gain knowledge and for their own enjoyment. Sometimes it seems as you talk to students that there aren't that many of these. As you could probably assume, students who are engaged in reading are more likely to be successful readers. The reason that I chose this article was first because it was directly applicable to our class. Another was that I would like to be able to get more students to become engaged readers. If it is possible to get some students to want to read on their own it would be a great accomplishment. I think very often students don't like to read because they aren't interested in the readings they are assigned. If, as a teacher, you are able to find subject matter that can interest students they would be much more likely to be engaged readers. The research in this article found some interesting information. One interesting bit was that students' motivation to read decreased as they aged. This seems to make a lot of sense to me. For one thing I believe that very often the reading that students are assigned is very, for a lack of a better word, boring. It could be a good thing to try to provide students with a greater variety of books that may be able to evoke more motivation to read. Another part of this article spoke to the idea that relating the information in readings to real life experiences. This seems to me to be one of the most important things a teacher can do. If teachers are able to relate the information in the readings to real world experiences the students are more likely to grasp the information. Simply having the students read a text and then not providing any real-world context doesn't accomplish a whole lot. For me, the information that has stuck with me the longest is that which was related directly to stories that the instructor told

Engagement and motivation are huge topics in education right now. Small things we can do to tap into students' interests can provide links to help students make connections between school content and their worlds.

Herbert , Thomas P., and Alexander P. Pagnani. "Engaging Gifted Boys in New Literacies ." Gifted Child Today . 33.3 (2010): 36-45. Print. This article discussed the issue of the achievement gap between boys and girls reading abilities and habits. Girls have reading habits that are recognized and rewarded in schools, while boys read more nonfiction, science fiction, and action novels that are not valued as much. The article discusses how boys do not find dialogue, character interaction, and other literary devices as interesting as girls, and prefer to read for the sake of gaining information, and have plots that are action driven rather than character driven. Although the achievement gap between boys and girls with reading comprehension and leisurely reading is well known, the article points out that less attention is given to this achievement gap than the one that occurs in math. Herbert and Pagnani discuss how high quality new literature is out there for boys to read, and can be incorporated in the classroom. This approach can lead to boys having a higher reading, writing, and comprehension level. I found this article helpful for several reasons. First, I think it is imperative that teachers change their thinking about what is considered quality literature. You can hook boys with things that interest them, and then guide them slowly into literature that is considered part of the literary cannon later on when you have built up their confidence level and academic abilities. The reasoning behind boys literature preferences needs to be not only understood but respected by educators in order to teach them effectively. Secondly, my English classes are ten to one girls, and this scares me as I read this article. As many already know, people tend to teach the same way that they learn. If women and girls have the same reading preferences and appreciate the same things about literature, than many boys will be left to the wayside in English classrooms. I hope to learn more

Fascinating!

This is a 25 minute video about how helping tutor students helps the community. Please take a few minutes and see what people are doing to help school age children read and write, hopefully you'll be as inspired as I was about spreading this message. 18 March 2008 Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, author Dave Eggers asks the TED community to engage with their local school. With spellbinding eagerness, he talks about how his 826 Valencia tutoring center inspired others around the world to open their own volunteer-driven, wildly creative writing labs.

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