This comprehensive step-by-step guide provides practical guidance to implement literature circles in any social studies or language arts classroom. This book provides a how-to guide for a novice or veteran teacher or library media specialist who is interested in implementing literature circles with high interest texts. After an introduction that covers the research findings on literature circles and supplies a framework for implementation of literature circles in the classroom and library, Teaching Historical Fiction with Ready-Made Literature Circles for Secondary Readers presents 14 selected historical fiction titles for grades 7 through 12 that lend themselves perfectly to interdisciplinary teaching. Each selection is accompanied by bibliographic information, an annotation, vocabulary words, discussion questions, and guided reading questions, as well as lessons for before, during, and after reading. The titles included cover many historical time periods and topics that can easily aligned with state and national standards. Just as importantly, these are texts that a history teacher or literature instructor would find beneficial to use with students.

Seymour Reit re-creates the true story of Will Knox, a nineteen-year-old boy who undertook the daring and dangerous task of transporting 183 cannons from New York's Fort Ticonderoga to Boston--in the dead of winter--to help George Washington win an important battle.

The Second Edition of this practical and comprehensive resource offers a multitude of ways to incorporate literature into teaching and learning across a range of disciplines. Future and practicing teachers, librarians, instructional coaches, and school leaders can implement the ideas within this text to improve the literacy skills and knowledge of students, while also addressing standards and curricular goals of various content areas. The new edition recognizes a paradigm shift from content areas to disciplines, reflecting the specific ways reading and writing are used in different fields of study. Updated with current research and practices, the volume recommends and evaluates books in different genres and categories, with chapters on informational books; fiction; biography and memoir; poetry; and hands-on and how-to books. For every category, Kane provides a rationale, instructional strategies, and author studies, as well as lists and descriptions of books related to curricular areas. With a wealth of activities and new BookTalks, this Second Edition is greatly revised and features expanded attention to technology, digital learning, diversity, and culture. Using this text will create opportunities for deep discussions and will stimulate students’ interest and motivation to read and learn. Integrating Literature in the Disciplines helps educators identify books that fit with any subject to enhance the creative and affective dimensions of school life; encourages interdisciplinary connections; and increases the depth and relevance of lessons. It is ideal for professional development and serves as a tool for Readers’ Advisory to match books with readers throughout the school day and beyond.

Timely, thoughtful, and comprehensive, this text directly supports pre-service and in-service teachers in developing curriculum and instruction that both addresses and exceeds the requirements of English language arts standards. It demonstrates how the Common Core State Standards as well as other local and national standards’ highest and best intentions for student success can be implemented from a critical, culturally relevant perspective firmly grounded in current literacy learning theory and research. The third edition frames ELA instruction around adopting a justice, inquiry, and action approach that supports students in their schools and community contexts. Offering new ways to respond to current issues and events, the text provides specific examples of teachers employing the justice, inquiry, and action curriculum framework to promote critical engagement and learning. Chapters cover common problems and challenges, alternative models, and theories of language arts teaching. The framework, knowledge, and guidance in this book shows how ELA standards can not only be addressed but also surpassed through engaging instruction to foster truly diverse and inclusive classrooms. The third edition provides new material on: adopting a justice, inquiry, and action approach to enhance student engagement and critical thinking planning instruction to effectively implement standards in the classroom teaching literary and informational texts, with a focus on authors of color integrating drama activities into literature teaching informational, explanatory, argumentative, and narrative writing supporting bilingual/ELL students using digital tools and apps to respond to and create digital texts addressing how larger contextual and political factors shape instruction fostering preservice teacher development

This collection of standards-based lessons will guide middle and high school teachers while teaching the nation's history in a user-friendly, ready-made fashion. During a time of standards-based instruction, Beyond the Textbook: Using Trade Books and Databases to Teach Our Nation's History, Grades 7–12 will fill the gap in today's middle and high school classrooms to simultaneously engage students in effective literacy skill exercises and teach our nation's history. Authored by three experienced former public school teachers, these ready-made lesson plans for classroom teachers and school librarians make planning easy for implementation in a social studies, history, or English classroom. The book covers topics from Native Americans to the Louisiana Purchase, offering evidence-based reading strategies throughout that can hold adolescents' attention and develop their vocabulary and comprehension. Each chapter will include bibliographic information; suggested grade level; Information Literacy and National Social Studies Standards; before, during, and after reading strategies; database integration for classroom use; and suggested readalikes. Users will find the standards and evidenced-based research perfectly applicable in today's classrooms.

Timely, thoughtful, and comprehensive, this text directly supports pre-service and in-service teachers in developing curriculum and instruction that both addresses and exceeds the requirements of the Common Core State Standards. Adopting a critical inquiry approach, it demonstrates how the Standards’ highest and best intentions for student success can be implemented from a critical, culturally relevant perspective firmly grounded in current literacy learning theory and research. It provides specific examples of teachers using the critical inquiry curriculum framework of identifying problems and issues, adopting alternative perspectives, and entertaining change in their classrooms to illustrate how the Standards can not only be addressed but also surpassed through engaging instruction. The Second Edition provides new material on adopting a critical inquiry approach to enhance student engagement and critical thinking planning instruction to effectively implement the CCSS in the classroom fostering critical response to literary and informational texts using YA literature and literature by authors of color integrating drama activities into literature and speaking/listening instruction teaching informational, explanatory, argumentative, and narrative writing working with ELL students to address the language Standards using digital tools and apps to respond to and create digital texts employing formative assessment to provide supportive feedback preparing students for the PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments using the book’s wiki site http://englishccss.pbworks.com for further resources

These six powerful short stories chronicle bits of the lives of characters, major and minor, who have walked the rugged terrain of Chris Crutcher's earlier works. They also introduce some new and unforgettable personalities who may well be heard from again in future books. As with all Crutcher's work, these are stories about athletes, and yet they are not sport stories. They are tales of love and death, bigotry and heroism, of real people doing their best even when that best isn't very good. Crutcher's straightforward style and total honesty have earned him an admiring audience and made readers of many nonreaders.