91 Double, Double, Not Much Toil, Not Much Trouble: Shakespeare in the Middle School Classroom Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–8 Professional Commentary: Claudia Anne Katz, a middle school teacher for 36 years who is currently teaching grade 8 at Highland Middle School in Libertyville, Illinois, shares in this professional development article creative suggestions for engaging students in drama. Using an example from Shakespeare, Katz walks teachers through her highly creative version of a series of lesson plans built around the play.... Career Fields: Arts & Communication Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 92 Hot Links to Literacy: Websites That Sizzle Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 1–12 Professional Commentary: This article is a useful compilation of web site links dealing with literacy. Descriptions of the links are included, and once a link category heading is opened, numerous other relevant links appear.... Career Fields: Education & Training, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 93 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 94 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.... 95 Web Watch: Focus on Young Adult Literature Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–10 Professional Commentary: This article offers a list of websites devoted to young adult (YA) literature. Included is an annotated list intended to provide a representative sample of the sorts of resources in YA literature that are available on the World Wide Web.... Career Fields: Education & Training, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 96 What's up wif Ebonics, Y'all? Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: Aware that standard English is the language of power in the United States, in this article Abda Gupta discusses what educators can do to ensure that all students have access to the benefits of that power. He recommends that students learn how and when to use the conventional English, but also points out that a student's home language--Ebonics in the case of many African American children--should not be lost or devalued.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 97 Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR): Improving Secondary Students' Reading Comprehension Skills Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 7–12 Professional Commentary: This professional resource by Christine D. Bremer, Sharon Vaughn, Ann T.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 98 Teaching for Understanding: Improving Secondary Education and Transition Services through Research Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–12 Professional Commentary: This professional resource by Christine D. Bremer and Catherine Cobb Morocco explains the theories and methods behind the teaching philosophy "teaching for understanding." This strategy promotes in-depth learning, advocates covering a broad range of material, and encourages teachers to provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge to real-world problems, thus deemphasizing performance on short-answer quizzes.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 99 More Than Facts: Effective Researching and Reporting Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: "More Than Facts: Effective Researching and Reporting" is the featured article in this issue (November/December 2004) of AdLIT's In Perspective. Authors Mary McMackin and Barbara Siegel provide the specifics of the information search process (ISP), a meaningful way to perform research searches, and identify six distinct cognitive stages through which students commonly progress while researching: (1) task initiation, (2) topic selection, (3) pre-focus exploration, (4) focus formation, (5) information collection, and (6) search closure and presentation.... Projects: Writing 6-12 100 You Want Me to Do WHAT in Biology Class?! Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: In this article, Donna Parker and Melissa Dillon (both high school science teachers) discuss their experiences with teaching reading in their biology classrooms. Meeting in reading circles during science class, students read fictional texts that corresponded to science content they had learned previously.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Arts & Communication, Business & Administrative Services, Education & Training, Health Science, Hospitality & Tourism, Human Services, Law & Public Safety, Marketing Projects: Standards First |