21 Juxtaposing Traditional and Intermedial Literacies to Redefine the Competence of Struggling Adolescents Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: In his earlier article (2001) in Reading Online, O'Brien examined at-risk adolescents in relation to the new literacies (media, digital, nonprint), and lent his perspective, based on his collaborative project research, to multiliteracies and their effect on struggling readers. He focused especially on how students' literacy competencies were redefined as they moved from a predominantly print-based literacy to an environment of mulitliteracies.... Career Fields: Arts & Communication, Information Technology, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 22 Content Area Literacy Lessons Go High Tech Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–12 Professional Commentary: This article addresses literacy and technology as integral tools within content lessons at all levels, beginning with a brief history of content reading instruction as it has developed over the past few decades. This account demonstrates the importance of content reading instruction as a means of providing teachers with tools that can help them help their students learn content material.... 23 Integrating Technology in Your Middle School Classroom: Some Hints from a Successful Process Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–8 Professional Commentary: In this article, author Linda K. Colburn describes some of the requirements for effective technology integration, along with some of its benefits to students and teachers, based on work accomplished in one middle school.... Projects: Writing 6-12 24 Teaching Vocabulary to Adolescents to Improve Comprehension Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–11 Professional Commentary: Providing vocabulary instruction is one of the most significant ways in which teachers can improve students' reading and listening comprehension. It can also be one of the most challenging things for teachers to do well.... 25 Choosing What Matters for Adolescent Learners Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this resource, Janet Allen addresses the need to know adolescent learners and devotes her article to sources, strategies, and ways to better know students. She constructs her article powerfully, detailing three ways of being better able to choose what matters for adolescent learners: (1) Knowing Adolescents, (2) Knowing the Resources, and (3) Knowing the Research.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 26 Supporting Middle School Writers Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–9, Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this article Debbie Collins, an eighth grade language arts teacher at West Union High School in Ohio, suggests that junior high students need variety, modeling, and explicit instruction to succeed in school. Collins demonstrates how she applies these techniques to writing and reading, providing practical instruction for writing essays and journals with middle school students.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 27 In the Classroom: Working with Struggling Readers Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: LeeAnn K. Binion, an English teacher and reading specialist at Thomas Worthington High School, lends her firsthand experience to working with struggling readers.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 28 Creating a Recipe for Reading Success Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: Tammy Burt, a seventh grade language arts teacher at Groveport Madison Junior High School, explores strategies for reading success in this classroom vignette. She suggests five strategies for helping struggling readers: knowing the students, offering choices to students, creating a rich learning environment, identifying struggling readers, and increasing reading comprehension.... Career Fields: Education & Training, Human Services, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 29 School Smarts [excerpt]: Chapter 2, "The Four Cs of Academic Success" Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 7–12 Professional Commentary: Recalling his own struggles and disinterest in academics as a high school student, Jim Burke begins this article by describing the unconventional path he followed to success. Burke identifies four "C's" as essential components of a success model: commitment, content, competencies, and capacity.... Career Fields: Education & Training, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 30 Through Students' Eyes: Writing, Ownership, and the Manuscript Process Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: While peer-review has been universally adopted in process pedagogy since the 1970s, its efficacy in writing workshops remains a murky concept existing between a noble intention on the teacher's part and a simplistic question-and-answer algorithm on the student's. Key to the challenge found in student workshops are two essential issues-ownership and audience, or the lack of such.... Projects: Writing 6-12 |