Describes how to motivate middle school readers by using story flow chart organizers. Provides a sample story flow chart for "The Long Way Around" by Jean McCord. (MM)

Explains how to "carve" a text, rearranging or omitting words without altering the basic message. Notes that this exercise helps students become aware of how language can be manipulated for meaning. (MM)

Describes teachable moments and how students' questions, enthusiasm, and motivation lead them through full-steam reading voyages of discovery. (SR)

Describes the Salient Characteristics Analysis Technique (SCAT), used to assist students in comprehending metaphorical text. Describes a sample lesson using a Langston Hughes poem. (SR)

Describes a teaching approach which made connections among reading, writing, English, and world geography, and which encouraged students to transfer learning strategies from one subject to another. (SR)

Describes a schema-awareness activity (used with sixth graders and college students) that provides teachers with a model of how students can use their past experiences and their ability to infer and predict when reading. Notes that the activity convinces students that they bring to the reading act much more than they encounter on the printed page.…