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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.

Love Steve Peha, he writes like he speaks! Very interesting blurb about teaching reading in the content areas. I like that I am trying to focus more on non-fiction in my room, as was mentioned here, but realized I need to really make it explicit the differences between reading fiction and non-fiction.

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

Carnegie report follow-up to Writing Next. This report provides evidence answering the following three questions: 1. Does writing about material students read enhance their reading comprehension? 2. Does teaching writing strengthen students' reading skills? 3. Does increasing how much students write improve how well they read?

"Speakaboos is an educational resource for the classroom and home. Our award-winning videos teach reading skills, life lessons, and creativity in a fun and safe environment. Each story comes to life with educational worksheets, activities, and games. Speakaboos timeless tales are ideal for kids of any age."

Content Literacy Strategies: History/Social Science Here are descriptions of over 30 strategies and activities that may be used to teach the Historical and Social Science Analysis Skills from the History-Social Science Content Standards through children's literature. They were developed to support the Pages of the Past and Tales of Time literature lists. A really great site, and another one that I will keep and use on an assignment.

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Teaching spelling and vocabulary is easy with VocabularySpellingCity! Students can study and learn their word lists using vocabulary and spelling learning activities and games. Students can take final or practice spelling and vocabulary tests right on this engaging site. Premium games and automated student record keeping are available to Premium Members. I really like this because my 3rd grade daughter will write out words and help my first grade son with his spelling words. A great site to help kids spell

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This site has a lot of good resources pulled together for teachers to use to find high-interest reading pieces for teaching to students such as Aesop's Fables, word-a-day, and comic strips. It seems really useful! Language Arts resources for lesson preparation, for teachers, parents, and students, Internet4Classrooms

By Cathy Puett Miller Of the five key reading components identified as essential by the National Reading Panel, fluency is the stepchild. It certainly gets less attention than the others, perhaps, in part, because its exact meaning often is cloudy. Many educators seem even less certain about how to teach it effectively. This article provides a three step approach and some tips on how to increase fluency. It's a short read with some great ideas... I hope you enjoy it!

Fluency has recently come more to the forefront. Some say it's a good proxy for comprehension, which makes sense, because if you are spending all or most of your brain power just figuring out what the text says, there isn't much left to figure out what it means. +2

Carol Porter-O'Donnell wrote this great article that helps students use the technique of annotating to help students improve reading comprehension. Before reading this article, I was pretty unfamiliar with what annotating is. This article is well written and gives excellent strategies that will help your students increase comprehension. I highly recommend reading this article if you have time.

This article is about teacher-student relationships. The student-teacher relationship is one of the most important factors of teaching that can be neglected. The article found that enhancing teacher-student relationships is necessary to raising student achievement because that achievement is linked to adolescent's need of having secure attachments. This is like students attachments to parents, but only with teachers. Thus research has shown that students with secure attachments do better in school. It also offers some ways in which teachers can improve teacher-student relations. Some of these methods include having an increased sensitivity and have positive interactions with students, to be well-prepared for class and hold high expectations for students, be responsive to students and provide choices whenever possible, and help students be kind, helpful and accepting of one another. By understanding the roles in which teachers have in their relationships with students will help educators become more effective.

Resources for K-12 science lessons!  This is awesome and has everything from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Animal Farm reading with science. 

Great interactive reading activity for a Spanish classroom! 

By: Richard Allington (2002) This article by Richard Allington provides a clear-eyed view of what he believes matters most in teaching kids to read - effective and expert teachers. It seems that, finally, those who make educational policy - at the local, state, and federal levels - have begun to recognize just how much good teachers matter. I found this article interesting. A few things were new to me, but never am against being reminded of "best practices" and things we know make good teachers, but tend to forget in our busy lives.

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In the last two months, I've had to go to one IEP meeting and one 504 plan meeting for two of my students. In these meetings, we discussed reading strategies to help these students be successful in my class. Even though I teach math, reading the questions for quizzes and tests is challenging for some of my students. I've been looking online for tips on how to write my tests so my students with learning disabilities will do better. I came across this website that gives tips on helping students with disabilities become better readers. Once I find a website or article that talks about accommodating tests for low level readers I will post that as well.

You might want to add tags for "assessment" "intervention" "LD" :) +2