Comprehensive yet succinct and readable, Literacy in Grades 4-8, Third Edition offers a wealth of practical ideas to help preservice and practicing teachers create a balanced and comprehensive literacy program while exploring the core topics and issues of literacy in grades 4 through 8. It addresses teaching to standards; differentiating instruction for readers and writers; motivating students; using assessment to inform instruction; integrating technology into the classroom; working with English learners and struggling readers; and connecting with caregivers. Selected classroom strategies, procedures, and activities represent the most effective practices according to research and the many outstanding classroom teachers who were observed and interviewed for the book. The Third Edition includes added material connecting the Common Core State Standards to the instruction and assessment of literacy skills; a combined word study and vocabulary chapter to help readers integrate these important topics in their teaching; more on technology, including comprehension of multimodal texts, enhancing writing instruction with technology tools, and teaching activities with an added technology component; added discussion of teacher techniques during text discussions, strategic moves that help students become more strategic readers. Key features: In the Classroom vignettes; more than 50 activities,some with a technology component; questions for journal writing and for projects and field-based activities; troubleshooting sections offering alternative suggestions and activities for those middle-grade students who may find a particular literacy focus challenging.

Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students in Grades 4 to 8 gives teachers the best available teaching strategies and sample step-by-step lesson plans for constructing lively, effective reading and writing instruction for all students. With his focus on teaching successfully in today's diverse classrooms, renowned author Thomas Gunning gives teachers a head start in ensuring quality literacy instruction for all children.

Comprehensive yet succinct and readable, Literacy in Grades 4-8, Third Edition offers a wealth of practical ideas to help preservice and practicing teachers create a balanced and comprehensive literacy program while exploring the core topics and issues of literacy in grades 4 through 8. It addresses teaching to standards; differentiating instruction for readers and writers; motivating students; using assessment to inform instruction; integrating technology into the classroom; working with English learners and struggling readers; and connecting with caregivers. Selected classroom strategies, procedures, and activities represent the most effective practices according to research and the many outstanding classroom teachers who were observed and interviewed for the book. The Third Edition includes added material connecting the Common Core State Standards to the instruction and assessment of literacy skills; a combined word study and vocabulary chapter to help readers integrate these important topics in their teaching; more on technology, including comprehension of multimodal texts, enhancing writing instruction with technology tools, and teaching activities with an added technology component; added discussion of teacher techniques during text discussions, strategic moves that help students become more strategic readers. Key features: In the Classroom vignettes; more than 50 activities,some with a technology component; questions for journal writing and for projects and field-based activities; troubleshooting sections offering alternative suggestions and activities for those middle-grade students who may find a particular literacy focus challenging.

"Every student deserves a great teacher, not by chance, but by design" — Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, & John Hattie What if someone slipped you a piece of paper listing the literacy practices that ensure students demonstrate more than a year’s worth of learning for a year spent in school? Would you keep the paper or throw it away? We think you’d keep it. And that’s precisely why acclaimed educators Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie wrote Visible Learning for Literacy. They know teachers will want to apply Hattie’s head-turning synthesis of more than 15 years of research involving millions of students, which he used to identify the instructional routines that have the biggest impact on student learning. These practices are "visible" for teachers and students to see, because their purpose has been made clear, they are implemented at the right moment in a student’s learning, and their effect is tangible. Yes, the "aha" moments made visible by design. With their trademark clarity and command of the research, and dozens of classroom scenarios to make it all replicable, these authors apply Hattie’s research, and show you: How to use the right approach at the right time, so that you can more intentionally design classroom experiences that hit the surface, deep, and transfer phases of learning, and more expertly see when a student is ready to dive from surface to deep. Which routines are most effective at specific phases of learning, including word sorts, concept mapping, close reading, annotating, discussion, formative assessment, feedback, collaborative learning, reciprocal teaching, and many more. Why the 8 mind frames for teachers apply so well to curriculum planning and can inspire you to be a change agent in students’ lives—and part of a faculty that embraces the idea that visible teaching is a continual evaluation of one’s impact on student’s learning. "Teachers, it’s time we embrace the evidence, update our classrooms, and impact student learning in wildly positive ways," say Doug, Nancy, and John. So let’s see Visible Learning for Literacy for what it is: the book that renews our teaching and reminds us of our influence, just in time.

Describes everyday classroom practices and exercises to help students in grades four through twelve read for accuracy, extract meaning from text, and interpret subject matter.

Pre-service and in-service teachers alike appreciate this classroom-ready guide for its practical help in teaching literacy competencies to students, grades 1--8. In these pages, 50 strategies are combined with authentic children's literature examples to help with instruction before, during, and after literacy lessons. The book includes strategies for each literacy competency-word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing-and allows users easy access to the strategies that students need for literacy development. Features: § Easy to follow, step-by-step procedures for using 50 strategies before, during, and after a literacy lesson. § Strategies for each literacy competency and easy access to strategies that students need for literacy development. § Authentic children's literature to model the strategies and make the ideas clear and ready to use. Here's What's New in this Third Edition: § NEW! A new introduction to word recognition at the beginning of Part II defines the difference in word perception skills and shows readers the importance of each. § NEW! A new introduction to vocabulary at the beginning of Part III explains the teaching and development of word meaning, especially in the content areas. § NEW! A new introduction to comprehension at the beginning of Part IV shows comprehension not as a mastery of the "parts," but rather as how competencies contribute to the "whole" in constructing meaning. § NEW! A new introduction to writing at the beginning of Part V explores the link between writers as good readers and readers as good writers. § NEW! A new section on strategies particularly advantageous for English Learners (EL) in a new Part VI is especially relevant for today's diverse classrooms. § NEW! New strategy: conversational puppets in Part VI help English Learners increase their conversational English Skills. § NEW! A new strategy: echo reading feature in Part VI includes ideas for increasing fluency in English Learners. § NEW! Several strategies from the previous edition have been combined to help readers see the interconnectedness of instructional techniques. § NEW! Suggested supplementary technology aids appear in the Appendix. "My students absolutely love this supplemental material. They would like to see this turned into 100 Literacy Strategies! At one time or another, all of my students have adapted at least one of these strategies either for a class assignment or for use in their own classrooms. Many say their copies are becoming a bit rag-tagged from use." -Patricia J. Pollifrone, PhD, Gannon University Meet the Authors After teaching for several years in the inner-city public schools of Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Betty Lou Jackson Land met Dr. Terry Norton at Winthrop University. Together with Dr. Richard Ingram, they spent three years co-teaching in the South Carolina Governor's School for Literacy. Dr. Land has been recognized with several distinguished teacher educator awards, including the Lucinda Rose Counselor Award in 2004 from Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society. These fine educators, Norton and Land, have taught numerous reading methods, reading assessment, and children's literature courses. They have authored many published articles and presented at countless state, regional, and national conferences. 50 Literacy Strategies for Beginning Teachers, 1-8 is a collaborative work resulting from their love of teaching and their team teaching over many years. Each is a Professor Emeritus from Winthrop University.

To develop strong disciplinary literacy skills, middle and high school students need to engage with diverse types of challenging texts in every content area. This book provides a blueprint for constructing literacy-rich instructional units in English language arts, science, and social studies. The authors describe how to design interconnected text sets and plan lessons that support learning and engagement before, during, and after reading. Presented are ways to build academic vocabulary and background knowledge, teach research-based comprehension strategies, and guide effective discussions and text-based writing activities. Chapters also cover how to teach students to write argumentative, informative, and narrative essays, and to conduct discipline-specific inquiry. Special features include sample text sets and 24 reproducible planning templates and other teaching tools; purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.