Grounded in theory and best-practices research, this practical text provides teachers with 40 strategies for using fiction and non-fiction trade books to teach in five key content areas: language arts and reading, social studies, mathematics, science, and the arts. Each strategy provides everything a teacher needs to get started: a classroom…

"Not reading," even for many good students, has become a mode of operation with respect to book-length texts assigned in school. Many students enter secondary and postsecondary literature classes "intending" to "not read" the books teachers assign. More students than teachers want to admit do not complete assigned reading, choosing instead to…

To help underscore the importance of giving the arts an integral place in the literacy continuum of secondary school language arts, I immersed myself in a careful reading of twenty teacher candidates' transactions in the art of body biography for novel study for intermediate students (grades 7-10). Coming together in groups of five, the teacher…

This paper addresses my experience with a group of 11th grade students and their reading of The Grapes of Wrath (1939, 2002) by John Steinbeck. I questioned how the application of visual arts integration strategies, specifically the use of spontaneously created paintings, might influence the reader responses of my high school junior-level…

As part of its proposal to the U.S. Department of Education, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) committed to developing Kindergarten through Grade 2 Model Content Frameworks for English language arts (ELA)/literacy (K-2 Model Content Frameworks) to serve as a bridge between the Common Core State Standards…

This study examines the racial discourses of six and seven year old Puerto Rican children participating in small group literature circles over one academic year. The main research question is "How do Puerto Rican young children in a multiage classroom construct race through dialogue within the figured worlds of literature circles?" This study…

Teachers frequently read aloud as a part of writing instruction so that children's book authors can serve as mentors for students' writing. Despite extensive anecdotal reporting of the significance of reading aloud children's literature within writing workshop, the intertextual connections students construct between interactive read alouds and…

This qualitative study examined middle grades preservice language arts teachers' perceptions of young adult literature through the lenses of reader response, new literacy, and activity theory. Undergraduate preservice teachers used synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) to respond online to three young adult books with…

Do novice teachers effectively use teaching strategies they learn in a preservice course? This study examines how five novice intermediate (Grades 7-10) English language arts teachers implemented reader response journals, an instructional activity they learned about in their preservice English methods course. During interviews, they shared the…

In response to the challenge of meeting the needs of today's learners, teachers must know how to teach and facilitate new literacies and instructional technologies. This article introduces the concept of an electronic reading workshop (ERW), in which participants read eBooks, respond to literature in digital response journals, participate in…

Assuming that readers' emotional responses can enhance readers' metacognitive experiences and inform literary analysis, this study of 11th-grade poetry readers features instruction that models both cognitive and affective reading processes. The author: (1) Presents a case for more explicit attention to emotion in language arts classrooms; (2)…

Reviews five sets of thematically related books with the intent of helping instructors make connections between children's literature and real living. Investigates five areas, all broadly speaking to the issue of "security": (1) unsettling experiences; (2) nature study; (3) overcoming evil; (4) exploring adolescent angst; (5) journeying for…

Describes the author's self-fulfilling experiences in a storytelling workshop, and how she strives to give students the same discovery through stories. (HTH)

Identifies eight resources that help educators extend and enrich the literacy experiences of students through the weaving of drama, music, and the visual arts into responses to literature, writing, and other areas of the curriculum. (RS)

Argues that elementary language-arts teachers should expand their definition of "text" to include film, a valuable instructional material. Notes that today's elementary students come to class with a great deal of knowledge about films--prior experiences which teachers can tap into. Discusses the application to film of reader-response theories. (SR)