Building Literacy in Secondary Content Area Classrooms

Description

·         Incorporates the Common Core State Standards and the IRA’s Revised 2010 Standards for Reading Professionals, complete with lessons and suggestions for translating standards into practice.

·         Includes more than 30 sample lessons showing the ways in which key techniques can be taught and reinforced.

·         Describes more than a dozen real-life examples of Exemplary Teaching illustrating the ways in which literacy might be developed in a variety of content area classes.

·         Presents the theories and research the techniques or assessment being discussed are built upon, helping readers become better able to adapt or create techniques based on theory.

·         Provides specific suggestions for working with struggling readers and writers, including a detailed discussion of Response to Intervention in Chapter 14, an extensive list of commercial intervention programs, and suggestions for working with students who have a variety of learning difficulties. Also included: a discussion of the Strategic Instruction Model and the Content Literacy Continuum, which are research-based approaches for enhancing content area learning; suggestions for working with students who have difficulty with multisyllabic words; ideas for matching students with materials that are on their appropriate instructional level; and suggestions for differentiating instruction so that the needs of all students are met.

·         Includes extensive suggestions for building academic language and adapting instruction to meet the needs of English language learners, including a list of important academic terms.

·         Emphasizes Assessing for Learning including discussions of a wide range of informal and formal formative and summative assessments, the movement to assess gains in student learning, and holding teachers’ accountable for student learning.

·         Discusses new literacies and digital tools along with suggestions for using a variety of digital tools: blogging, microblogging, sharing forums, wikis, podcasts, subject databases, and social networking.

·         Explores ways of using process writing, writing workshops, rubrics, and discipline specific writing, including a discussion of the highly successful Collins writing program, detailed research-based procedures for teaching the writing of arguments and explanations, and specific techniques for teaching English learners.

·         Incorporates the latest findings from cognitive psychology and describes research-based study, practice, and review techniques.

·         Includes excellent reinforcing pedagogy:

• Each chapter begins with an Anticipation Guide and Using What You Know to help activate students’ prior knowledge and help them connect new information with what they already know.

 

• Each chapter section ends with a checkup that encourages students to summarize what they learned and to judge whether or not their learning is accurate.

 

• Each chapter ends with a Reflection and Application activity to give readers a chance to think about and use their learning.

• Chapter 1: Reading and Writing in the Content Areas: An Introduction
• Chapter 2: The Nature and Assessment of Content Area Texts
• Chapter 3: Building Content Area Vocabulary
• Chapter 4: Comprehension: Processes and Strategies
• Chapter 5: Reading to Learn Content
• Chapter 6: Collaborative and Cooperative Approaches for Learning
• Chapter 7: Study Skills and Strategies
• Chapter 8: Writing to Learn
• Chapter 9: Teaching Content Area Literacy to Diverse Learners
• Chapter 10: Reading and Writing in Language Arts, Social Studies, Art, Music, and World Languages
• Chapter 11: Reading and Writing in Science, Math, Technology, and Physical Education
• Chapter 12: Using Technology, Trade Books, and Periodicals in the Content Areas
• Chapter 13: Evaluating Progress in the Content Areas
• Chapter 14: Creating an Effective Content Area Program
• Appendix: Morphemic Elements for the Content Areas

A comprehensive, research-based guide for developing the literacy skills students need to be college- and career-ready, this book incorporates the Common Core State Standards and IRA’s 2010 Standards for Reading Professionals.

Practicing and prospective secondary content area teachers get the knowledge and skills they need to develop their students’ content literacy in this comprehensive new guide. A balanced combination of both theory and practice, it provides more than 30 sample lessons and more than a dozen examples of exemplary teaching that readers can refer to develop their own content literacy teaching skills. The book incorporates the Common Core State Standards and translates them into suggestions for assessing and teaching a wide range of secondary students, and includes extensive, practical suggestions for working with struggling students and English learners.

Based on the premise that content area teachers have responsibility for teaching all students the reading and writing skills they need to understand and communicate the content of their courses, the book demonstrates how teachers can combine the development of content knowledge, the language and thinking skills required by the discipline, and appropriate learning strategies in their teaching. The emphasis is on building language and background knowledge, the foundations of literacy.  Specific suggestions for developing the academic language skills of all students–but especially English language learners–are provided throughout the book.

With its incorporation of a variety of outstanding pedagogical techniques, this guide fosters increased understanding and retention of key concepts and gives readers the chance to become familiar with the techniques so they are prepared to use them with their students.

This comprehensive, research-based new guide gives practicing and prospective content area teachers the knowledge and skills they need to develop their students’ content literacy–and to ensure that those secondary school students are college- and career-ready. Through a balance of theory and practice, more than 30 sample lessons, and more than a dozen examples of exemplary teaching, the book emphasizes building language and background knowledge, which are the foundations of literacy, and offers specific suggestions for developing the academic language skills of all students, especially struggling learners and English language learners. Renowned author Tom Gunning includes many features that make this book an ideal resource for helping content area teachers teach their students the reading and writing skills they need to understand and communicate the content of their courses, including:

·         The Common Core State Standards and the IRA’s Revised 2010 Standards for Reading Professionals.

·         More than 30 sample lessons and more than a dozen real-life examples of Exemplary Teaching.

·         Specific suggestions for working with struggling readers and writers.

·         Extensive suggestions for building academic language and adapting instruction to meet the needs of English language learners.

·         An emphasis on Assessing for Learning including discussions of a wide range of informal and formal formative and summative assessments.

·         Ideas for using technology, such as E-books, text-to-speech software, and Universal Design to help struggling learners.

·         Ways to use process writing, writing workshops, rubrics, and discipline specific writing.

·         The latest findings from cognitive psychology.

·         Excellent reinforcing pedagogy including: Anticipation Guides, Using What You Know, end of section check-ups, end of chapter Reflections and Application activities.

Building Literacy in Secondary Content Area Classrooms by renowned author Thomas Gunning gives practicing and prospective content area teachers the knowledge and skills they need to develop their students’ content literacy–and to ensure that these secondary school students are college- and career-ready. Comprehensive and research-based, the book presents a balanced combination of both theory and practice; provides more than a dozen examples of exemplary teaching; includes extensive, practical suggestions for working with struggling students and English language learners; and incorporates the Common Core State Standards and IRA’s 2010 Standards for Reading Professionals.

Thomas G. Gunning has taught courses in methods of teaching reading and writing for more than 20 years and was director of the Reading Clinic at Southern Connecticut State University. Before that, as a secondary English teacher, a reading specialist, and an elementary school reading consultant, he worked extensively with achieving and struggling readers and writers. Dr. Gunning, who recently served as a Reading First consultant, is currently working with elementary and middle school students to help them develop higher level literacy skills, as well as serving as an adjunct professor in the Reading/Language Arts Department at Central Connecticut State University. Over the years, Dr. Gunning’s research has explored reading interests, informal reading inventories, decoding strategies, readability, higher-level literacy skills, and response to intervention. As a result of this research, he has created a number of informal assessments and programs for developing decoding and comprehension skills.

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