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 2 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 3 Boys May Be Boys, But Do They Have to Read and Write That Way? Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 5–10 Professional Commentary: Citing research from a number of recent books and studies that have explored how boys often want to read and write (Smith and Wilhelm's (2002) "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys": Literacy in the Lives of Young Men; Maynard's (2002) Boys and Literacy: Exploring the Issues; Booth's (2002) Even Hockey Players Read; and Newkirk's (2002) Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture), this professional resource asks thoughtful questions about how boys, responding to the dominant culture, engage in literacy practices in and out of the classroom. The author shares samples of his own adolescent boys' writing, and shows how research demonstrates that boys who seem uninterested in literacy in the classroom may be enthusiastic readers and writers in different contexts.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 4 Make Science Reading Fun and Meaningful in Middle School! Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: In this article, middle school teacher Teresa Null explores teaching reading strategies in her science classroom by teaching units through scientific storylines. In small groups, students read aloud an assigned paragraph in order to share, respond to, and determine the meaning of the text.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 5 Teaching Middle School Students to Be Active Researchers [excerpt]: Chapter 1, "Defining Active Research" Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–8 Professional Commentary: In this first chapter of Teaching Middle School Students to Be Active Researchers, the authors give a detailed description of active research and explain how it can be implemented in middle school. The authors present several scenarios to illustrate the different facets of active research.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 6 Written Reflection: Creating Better Thinkers, Better Writers Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 7–12 Professional Commentary: In this article the author explains an extra component she has added to writer's workshop: reflective writing. She defines reflective writing as thinking about thinking or looking back with new eyes to discover what has been learned throughout the thought process.... Projects: Writing 6-12 7 Using Results for Planning Instruction Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 7–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: "A Look at the OGT" is a column featured in each issue of AdLIT's In Perspective. This month's focus (May/June 2005) is on using test results for planning instruction.... Projects: Writing 6-12 8 The Writer's Toolbox: Five Tools for Active Revision Instruction Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 5–8 Professional Commentary: In this article, Laura Harper introduces the use of The Writer's Toolbox by explaining the five tools it contains and describing how to use them to help students with revision. Her "toolbox" is a manila envelope kept inside each student's writing folder.... Career Fields: Education & Training, General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 9 The Revision Toolbox [excerpt]: Chapter 3, "Revision Toolbox: Words" Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 2–8 Professional Commentary: In this excerpt, Georgia Heard addresses the importance of teaching students revising strategies. Often students are being asked to "add more detail" or "describe how the character is feeling," but they do not have the strategies to make these improvements in their writing.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First 10 Adolescent Literacy In Perspective, November/December 2005, Working Through Challenging Texts Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: The November/December 2005 issue of Adolescent Literacy in Perspective focuses on ways for teachers to help students work through challenging texts. Franki Sibberson's feature article, "Filling the Classroom with Possibilities:Using Writing and Talk to Help Students Read Beyond Plot," looks at specific reading strategies (pre-, during-, and after-reading) to help students begin to read beyond plot.... Projects: Writing 6-12 |