Perhaps no factor has a greater influence on children's literacy learning than exposure to engaging, authentic, culturally relevant texts. This concise practitioner resource and course text helps K--8 teachers make informed choices about using children's literature in their classrooms, from selecting high-quality texts to planning instruction and…

Could you use a superhero to teach reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem solving? While seeking the answer, secondary language arts teacher Maureen Bakis discovered a powerful pedagogy that teaches those skills and more. The amazingly successful results prompted her to write this practical guide that shows middle and high school…

This book shows middle school and high school classroom teachers how read-aloud excerpts from a variety of genres can be used in the content areas. The book aims to promote students' motivation to read and further study. It offers teaching ideas for special populations such as adult beginning readers and readers with disabilities. The book…

Book Club started over 12 years ago with the goal of creating an alternative context for reading instruction--one that would get students excited about reading and discussing books. Since then, Book Club's combination of excellent literature, relevant writing activities, and student-led discussion groups has proven effective in classrooms. This…

Intended for use with grades 5-12, this book offers 201 titles of carefully selected novels as an antidote to students' laments about history being boring--good historical fiction that animates the data found in textbooks. The book is an expanded and updated edition of an earlier publication and includes 86 new titles, as well as 40 titles…

This publication describes 40 fiction and nonfiction titles for grades 5 through 12 that will get the attention of even the most reluctant readers. Books range from humor and romance to adventure, mystery, and the supernatural. The titles were chosen based on the following criteria: recent publication date; relatively short length; appealing…

Intended for teachers of grades 6-10, this book was designed to motivate young people to read, build their comprehension skills, and extend their learning across the curriculum. The book's participatory mealtime programs incorporate learning with activities such as writing and art projects, role-playing, storytelling, games, interviewing, and…

Compiled to help staff developers, administrators, teachers, and policy makers reexamine current literacy practices and reimagine how they can work with each other and with parents and community members, this collection of 22 previously published articles from various professional journals and one new article offers examples of how educators can…

The stories and studies that make up this book pursue two intertwining paths of inquiry: (1) how highly engaged adolescent readers produce meaning; and (2) what can be done in the classroom to help reluctant readers perceive reading as a creative and personally meaningful pursuit. Chapter 1 looks at approaches to teaching reading and discusses an…

Addressing the needs of English language learners, remedial readers, avid readers, gifted readers, dormant readers, reluctant readers, and readers in content areas, this book's goal is to help middle school teachers connect their students to reading. The book offers multiple lists of trade books that different types of middle school readers enjoy;…