Reading Expository Material


Book Description

Reading Expository Material focuses on the techniques on how to apply the skills in reading tasks outside of formal reading instruction. This book explores the problems related to skill application that are encountered by reading specialists and educators. Organized into six parts encompassing 17 chapters, this book starts with an overview of the categories of the study, including the reader, the text, and the interaction of reader with text. This text then examines the readers' metacognitive development, the development of study skills, and learning strategies. Other chapters explore the concept of knowledge and explain how knowledge comes into play in the process of perception and comprehension. This book discusses as well the developments in cognitive psychology and in artificial intelligence. The final chapter reviews how to enable teachers in the classroom to deal more realistically with the facts of a reader–text interaction. Reading specialists, researchers, and educators with an interest in the teaching of and learning from expository materials will find this book useful.




Empowering Readers


Book Description

To address Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for reading and language, today’s educators strive to help their students develop higher-level understanding with challenging materials. In this book, we share our method for implementing an integrated strategy approach for helping readers understand expository text. This approach can be used to accompany and extend text structure instruction on the five most commonly used expository text structures: compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem and solution, description, and sequence. Within this approach, we designed a method for using key vocabulary in a way that helps readers think about the structure of the text. To aid in the development of higher-level understanding with challenging materials, this approach integrates other essential reading comprehension components that foster understanding, such as predicting and summarizing. The Structure Sort integrated approach embeds these essential strategies before, during, and after reading to empower students to make connections and build comprehension at all stages of reading.




5 Kinds of Nonfiction


Book Description

Once upon a time...children's nonfiction books were stodgy, concise, and not very kid friendly. Most were text heavy, with just a few scattered images decorating the content and meaning, rather than enhancing it. Over the last 20 years, children's nonfiction has evolved into a new breed of visually dynamic and engaging texts.In 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children's Books , Melissa Stewart and Dr. Marlene Correia present a new way to sort nonfiction into five major categories and show how doing so can help teachers and librarians build stronger readers and writers. Along the way, they: Introduce the 5 kinds of nonfiction: Active, Browseable, Traditional, Expository Literature, and Narrative -;and explore each category through discussions, classroom examples, and insights from leading children's book authorsOffer tips for building strong, diverse classroom texts and library collectionsProvide more than 20 activities to enhance literacy instructionInclude innovative strategies for sharing and celebrating nonfiction with students.With more than 150 exemplary nonfiction book recommendations and Stewart and Correia's extensive knowledge of literacy instruction, 5 Kinds of Nonfiction will elevate your understanding of nonfiction in ways that speak specifically to the info-kids in your classrooms, but will inspire all readers and writers.




Content Area Reading and Learning


Book Description

How can teachers make content-area learning more accessible to their students? This text addresses instructional issues and provides a wealth of classroom strategies to help all middle and secondary teachers effectively enable their students to develop both content concepts and strategies for continued learning. The goal is to help teachers model, through excellent instruction, the importance of lifelong content-area learning. This working textbook provides students maximum interaction with the information, strategies, and examples presented in each chapter. Content Area Reading and Learning: Instructional Strategies, Third Edition is organized around five themes: Content Area Reading: An Overview The Teacher and the Text The Students The Instructional Program School Culture and Environment in Middle and High School Classrooms Pedagogical features: Each chapter includes a graphic organizer, a chapter overview, a Think Before Reading Activity, one or more Think While Reading Activities, and a Think After Reading Activity. The activities present questions and scenarios designed to integrate students’ previous knowledge and experience with their new learnings about issues related to content area reading, literacy, and learning, and to serve as catalysts for thinking and discussions. New in the Third Edition The latest information on literacy strategies in every content area Research-based strategies for teaching students to read informational texts Up-to-date information for differentiating instruction for English-speaking and non-English speaking students An examination of youth culture and the role it plays in student learning A look at authentic learning in contexts related to the world of work Ways of using technology and media literacy to support content learning Suggestions for using writing in every content area to enhance student learning Ideas for using multiple texts for learning content A focus on the assessment-instruction connection Strategies for engaging and motivating students Content Area Reading and Learning: Instructional Strategies, Third Edition, is intended as a primary text for courses on middle and high school content area literacy and learning.




The Writing Revolution


Book Description

Why you need a writing revolution in your classroom and how to lead it The Writing Revolution (TWR) provides a clear method of instruction that you can use no matter what subject or grade level you teach. The model, also known as The Hochman Method, has demonstrated, over and over, that it can turn weak writers into strong communicators by focusing on specific techniques that match their needs and by providing them with targeted feedback. Insurmountable as the challenges faced by many students may seem, The Writing Revolution can make a dramatic difference. And the method does more than improve writing skills. It also helps: Boost reading comprehension Improve organizational and study skills Enhance speaking abilities Develop analytical capabilities The Writing Revolution is as much a method of teaching content as it is a method of teaching writing. There's no separate writing block and no separate writing curriculum. Instead, teachers of all subjects adapt the TWR strategies and activities to their current curriculum and weave them into their content instruction. But perhaps what's most revolutionary about the TWR method is that it takes the mystery out of learning to write well. It breaks the writing process down into manageable chunks and then has students practice the chunks they need, repeatedly, while also learning content.




Teaching Reading Sourcebook


Book Description

"Prepare students for future success by using effective reading instruction that's proven to work. The Teaching Reading Sourcebook, updated second edition is an indispensable resource that combines evidence-based research with actionable instructional strategies. It is an essential addition to any educator's professional literacy library--elementary, secondary, university."--P. [4] of cover.




Building Content Literacy


Book Description

"Secondary teachers will find that this superb resource informs the teaching and learning of their students and provides many research-based strategies to enhance reading comprehension and written language in every area." —Johneen Griffin, Director of Secondary Pupil Services Olentangy Local Schools, Lewis Center, OH "Sejnost and Thiese address the national literacy crisis with a practical guidebook that meets the needs of adolescent learners by focusing on the literacy skills needed for the 21st century. The strategies engage learners and create independence in content-area reading." —Rusti Russow, Director of Teaching and Learning Kankakee School District, IL Increase adolescent learners′ success in all content areas! Responding to the challenges associated with teaching middle and high school students, this resource offers specific strategies teachers may use to incorporate reading, writing, and critical thinking throughout content instruction to increase learning. With step-by-step instructions, a wealth of examples, and numerous student reproducibles, the book presents an approach that secondary teachers can implement across all content areas. Roberta L. Sejnost and Sharon M. Thiese focus on research-based practices that increase comprehension and learning while meeting standards, including: Techniques that foster the acquisition and retention of specialized and technical content vocabulary Processes to help students better comprehend narrative and expository texts Approaches to help students use writing and speaking to process their new knowledge and make it their own Techniques for promoting the literacies needed to effectively use various media sources Methods for scaffolding instruction for students with special needs Building Content Literacy is an ideal resource for delivering developmentally appropriate learning experiences and strengthening adolescent′s academic achievement in every content area.




Handbook of Learning Disabilities, First Edition


Book Description

This comprehensive handbook reviews the major theoretical, methodological, and instructional advances that have occurred in the field of learning disabilities over the last 20 years. With contributions from leading researchers, the volume synthesizes a vast body of knowledge on the nature of learning disabilities, their relationship to basic psychological and brain processes, and how students with these difficulties can best be identified and treated. Findings are reviewed on ways to support student performance in specific skill areas--including language arts, math, science, and social studies--as well as general principles of effective instruction that cut across academic domains.




The Complete Guide to Tutoring Struggling Readers—Mapping Interventions to Purpose and CCSS


Book Description

This authoritative, easy-to-use guide will help educators plan and implement intervention lessons for struggling readers that align with the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards. All three authors run successful summer reading programs and supervise tutors who are becoming reading specialists. In this comprehensive resource, they offer hands-on guidance for designing interventions across all grade levels, provide sample tutoring plans and lessons, and describe procedures for teaching print skills, comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and study skills. Including many user-friendly features, this book will help both new and experienced reading specialists ramp up instruction to assist all students in meeting the new standards. Book Features: A powerful set of field-tested tutoring activities for use with individual students and small groups. Student Profiles that include a matrix that matches interventions to the CCSS. Sidebars with examples of how particular methods have been used with students of varying ability. Discussion Questions and Things to Think About at the end of each chapter. And much more! “If you are looking for a book that translates research and theory into practical and effective interventions for struggling readers please consider The Complete Guide to Tutoring Struggling Readers.The authors have done a masterful job of guiding teachers in developing reading interventions that are authentic, engaging, aligned to current standards as well as the instructional needs of students, and based on state-of-the-art knowledge of reading instruction.” —Timothy Rasinski, professor of Literacy Education, Kent State University “This book is the outgrowth of years of developing and fine tuning tutoring models that have helped thousands of students become capable and engaged readers. The authors share a deep understanding of research on literacy intervention along with a wealth of experience in translating this into effective, and reflective, practice. The Complete Guide to Tutoring Struggling Readers is a must for every educator who works with or designs programs for struggling readers.” —Camille Blachowicz, co-director, The Reading Leadership Institute, professor emeritus, National College of Education, National Louis University Peter J. Fisher is a professor of education at National College of Education of National Louis University (NLU). Ann Bates is a literacy educator who has been a classroom teacher, reading specialist, and assistant professor of Reading and Language at NLU. Debra J. Gurvitz directs the NLU Chicago campus off-site summer reading improvement program.




From Talking to Writing


Book Description