131 Differentiating the Curriculum: What Difference Does it Make? Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This professional resource provides an extensive eighteen-page account of and detailed specifics for a study launched to examine the potential benefits of providing one type of differentiated instruction, multi-tiered learning tasks, particularly in responding to the needs of academically advanced learners.The study takes an integrative approach, examining both the design of the task and the... Projects: Writing 6-12 132 Promoting Vocabulary Development: Components of Effective Vocabulary Instruction Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–8 Professional Commentary: This professional resource is a 37-page pdf file, reproducible per the acknowledgment in the introduction. Its team of authors (Texas Education Agency) has included not only current research and inquiry in vocabulary development, but also in-depth teaching materials and explicit instruction strategies for vocabulary instruction.... 133 Teaching Expressive Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–12 Professional Commentary: This article describes a meta-analysis of instructional approaches for teaching writing to students with learning disabilities, strategies to teach students how to analyze material learned in the classroom, and write in a variety of genres (Gersten & Baker, 1999). All the instructional interventions reviewed improved the quality of students' writing and had positive effects on their self-efficacy.... 134 Content Area Literacy Lessons Go High Tech Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 2–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This professional resource is an article for teachers that addresses a hands-on approach to literacy and technology. Viewed as integral tools within content lessons at all levels, literacy and technology lessons, examples, and activities described in the article include: (1) Preparation activities: Using a digital camera and commercial software in art class and using websites to create interest in the content of science and English; (2) Assistance activities: Guiding seven- and eighth-year-olds on a virtual field trip to study biology topics, using websites with young adolescents in math class to support geometry learning, and engaging older adolescents in online threaded discussion about Roman civilization; and (3) Reflection activities: Word-processing with young children as they write poetry, using computer software, Web resources, and e-mail in history study with young children, finding Web resources to support young adolescents’ mathematics and literature study, using presentation software in foreign-language and biology class, and using a variety of Web and software resources with older adolescents studying health issues.... Projects: Writing 6-12 135 Using Technology to Enhance Literacy Instruction Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades K–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Technology is influencing and changing ideas of literacy in our educational community. Literacy is moving beyond traditional oral and print-based modes to electronic texts and multimedia. This article explores how technology can be used to enhance literacy instruction in the areas of reading development, writing development, and research and collaborative skills. The authors consider the three... Projects: Writing 6-12 136 Literacy Junction: Cultivating Adolescents Engagement in Literature Through Web Options Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–8 Professional Commentary: Literacy Junction is an interactive website, grounded in transactional theory, for middle school students and their teachers. The authors of this article created the website with the idea that the internet and web-based texts are an inevitable trend, so they decided to use the power of the internet with young adults and connect them to adolescent literature on the web.... 137 Putting It All Together: Building a Community of Practice for Learners with Special Needs Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–12 Professional Commentary: Literacy is a social process. Building a community of literacy learners can encourage an environment that allows for practice, and one that supports and develops students' literacy learning.... 138 Using Student Engagement to Improve Adolescent Literacy Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This featured article (October 2005, In Perspective) surveys adolescent literacy research in an effort to provide answers to some key adolescent literacy challenges: Why focus on student engagement? What are the key elements of student engagement? What can schools and districts do to improve student engagement? Sections on assessment and professional development are included as well. (author/ebm) Projects: Writing 6-12 139 Strategies to Probe Deeply into the Text: Learning "More When We Work Together" Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this classroom vignette, middle childhood language arts teacher Angela Thomas offers valuable how-to activities for class- and team-building. These cooperative learning strategies include (1) inside/outside circle (class building); (2) face off (class building); and (3) freeze scenes (team building).... Projects: Writing 6-12 140 Fostering Metacognitive Conversation in Professional Learning Communities and Subject-Area Classrooms Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Cynthia Greenleaf's "Fostering Metacognitive Conversation in Professional Learning Communities and Subject-Area Classrooms" is the featured article in this issue (February 2006) of AdLIT's In Perspective. The author explains the significance of and engagement in metacognitive conversation in professional learning communities and subject-area classrooms in seven sections: (1) Tapping Subject-Area Teachers' Expertise in Reading; (2) Fostering Metacognitive Conversation in the Classroom; (3) Introducing Think-Aloud as a Metacognitive Routine; (4) To Prepare and Teach Think-Aloud; and (5) Metacognitive Conversation is Key; (6) Using Think-Aloud to Teach Subject-Specific Thinking Processes; and (7) Metacognitive Conversation Apprentices Students to Subject-Area Reading.... Projects: Writing 6-12 |