Adolescent Literacy in the Era of the Common Core provides school leaders, teachers, and others with strategies and best practices for advancing adolescent literacy in the classroom. Exceptionally clear and accessible, the book addresses a full range of topics in this vitally important field, including disciplinary literacy; vocabulary instruction; classroom discussion; motivation and engagement related to digital literacy; the use of multiple texts; and writing to learn. This book presents “usable knowledge” of the highest order and of immediate value to school leaders and teachers. It will be required reading for all educators concerned with promoting and furthering adolescent literacy today.

Why should inquiry - the engine for independent, curiosity- and interest-driven, life-long learning - be a curricular imperative, and its presence a criterion for excellent education? Is it possible to teach inquiry skills systematically and to engage learners in being inquirers across elementary, secondary, and post-secondary schooling? To answer these urgent questions, this book pulls together more than four decades of expert opinion, quantitative research, and qualitative research on inquiry in different disciplines, school subjects, and levels of education; and presents a dozen different pedagogical, philosophical, and disciplinary traditions within which evidence and rationale are found for building learning and teaching experiences around inquiry-based curricula Inquiry in Education, Volume I: The Conceptual Foundations for Research as a Curricular Imperative is the first book to gather all these sources together, to build a cross-disciplinary case for inquiry as the central core of sound curriculum design, and to offer an organized interpretation of this large body of knowledge from a variety of perspectives and for different educational purposes. A companion volume, Shore, Aulls, & Delcourt, Eds., Inquiry in Education, Volume II: Overcoming Barriers to Successful Implementation, focuses on a corollary question: If inquiry is such a good thing, why is it not universal practice? What barriers stand in the way, and how can teachers overcome them? Inquiry in Education, Volume I is intended for scholars, faculty, and students of education, and for practitioners at all levels of schooling who support inquiry-oriented reforms in education and who want to learn more about how to use inquiry in their own practice.

This book presents an evidence-based framework for understanding the literacy needs of adolescents. The premise is that educators and other critical stakeholders need to understand evidence-based principles in order to develop effective curriculum to meet the needs of diverse learners. Recommendations are provided for middle and secondary education, professional development, teacher education research and policy. At the center of the book are Eight Guiding Principles developed by the authors through a process that included an extensive review of research and policy literature in literacy and related fields, a comparison of National Standards documents, and visits to the classrooms of 28 middle and high school teachers across the United States. The Principles are broad enough to encompass a variety of contexts and student needs, yet specific enough to offer real support to those involved in program development or policy decisions. They provide an overarching structure that districts and teachers can use to develop site-specific curriculum that is both research-based and designed to meet the needs of the learners for whom they are responsible. Important Text Features: Organized to help readers understand empirically supported principles of practice that can be used to address literacy concerns in today's schools, each chapter that addresses one of the eight Principles follows a similar format: * The Principle is presented along with a brief explanation of the research base and a sample of national standards that support it. * One or more case examples spanning a wide variety of disciplines, grade levels, and local conditions - provide an in-depth look at the Principle in action. * A well-known adolescent literacy expert offers a response to each case example, giving readers an informed view of the importance of the Principle, how it is enacted in the cases, and examples of other work related to the Principle. Discussion questions are provided that can be used for individual reflection or group discussion. Principled Practices for Adolescent Literacy is intended as a text for pre-service and in-service upper-elementary, middle and high school literacy methods courses and graduate courses related to adolescent literacy, and as a resource for school district personnel, policymakers and parents.

This book by Judith Langer—internationally known scholar in literacy learning—examines how people gain knowledge and become academically literate in the core subjects of English, mathematics, science, and social studies/history. Based on extensive research, it offers a new framework for conceptualizing knowledge development (rather than information collection), and explores how one becomes literate in ways that mark "knowing" in a field. Langer identifies key principles for practice and demonstrates how the framework and the principles together can undergird highly successful instruction across the curriculum. With many examples from middle and high schools, this resource will help educators to plan and implement engaging, exciting, and academically successful programs.