Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 1–10, Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Students who lack necessary background knowledge may struggle with curriculum demands. Research has established the importance of building background knowledge and activating prior knowledge to support student learning in content areas.... Projects: Writing 6-12 442 Tools for Reading, Writing and Thinking Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: The Greece Central School District in North Greece, NY has published a useful chart as a resource for professionals. The chart details 46 tools for reading and writing including graphic organizers and note-taking strategies including academic notes, cause and effect, Cornell notes, four square perspective, KWL (revised), interactive notes, metaphor analysis, inductive main idea, and pyramid notes.... Projects: Writing 6-12 Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This pre-reading form by teacher Jim Burke guides students through a simple yet thorough process of prereading and previewing a text, chapter or article and taking notes. It promotes understanding of the organization of the text, the main ideas, conclusions, and the supporting features such as figures, charts, images, and maps, etc.... Projects: Writing 6-12 444 Reading as a Strategic Activity Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: Teachers looking for new or different reading strategies can find a multitude of ideas on the "Just Read Now!" website. There are four main areas of concentration: Discussion Strategies, Active Reading Strategies, Vocabulary Strategies, and Organization Strategies.... Projects: Writing 6-12 Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades K–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This resource offers an explanation of a Word Wall. The intended use of this Word Wall strategy is to reinforce specific vocabulary for a topic or subject.... Projects: Writing 6-12 Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: The Dictionary Game is a competitive game between student teams that builds vocabulary and reinforces dictionary skills. Teams race to find a word, read the definition, understand the part of speech, and use the word in a sentence.... Projects: Writing 6-12 447 Graphic Organizers to the Rescue!: Helping Students Link and Remember Information Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades PreK–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: In this article, Gloria Dye discusses the theory behind and the uses of graphic organizers. Graphic organizers, based in schema theory, help link new information to existing information for students in a clear and organized format.... Projects: Writing 6-12 448 Making Learning Easier:: Connecting New Knowledge to Things Students Already Know Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This article highlights the research on prior knowledge conducted by the Institute for Academic Access (IAA), charged with the goal of improving educational outcomes for adolescents with disabilities. Focused research and work with classroom teachers led them to find ways to restructure high school courses so students with disabilities could meet with success in the... Projects: Writing 6-12 Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades K–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This website is devoted to graphic organizers and includes downloadable graphic organizer templates, links to mindmapping tools, software, and concept mapping ideas. Teachers weill find useful a featured article about electronic graphic organizers.... Projects: Writing 6-12 Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–8, Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This resource is a one page handout about the Think Aloud reading strategy. A strategy where teachers verbalize what they are thinking about while reading, Think Alouds can provide a model for students as to the possible thought processes that develop while readers work to construct meaning from text.... Projects: Writing 6-12 |