Research shows that students write better academic essays if the instructor facilitates a process of preparation that allows for purposeful peer discussion. Drawing on screenwriting pedagogy, this article proposes a workshop model that lets students express their essay's structural elements as single sentences, which allows for effective peer and…

Many adolescent readers experience difficulties comprehending informational text, which may result from underlying difficulties with foundational skills (e.g., word recognition and fluency), knowledge demands (e.g., background, text structure, and vocabulary), and/or reading motivation. Supplemental interventions for adolescents targeting only…

This article presents the concept of tri-texts as a potential next step from paired texts following a collaborative inquiry with fifth-grade students. Paired texts are two texts intertextually connected, whereas tri-texts are three texts connected this way. The authors begin the article with a short literature review highlighting some of the…

To craft engaging nonfiction prose, young writers should focus on a specific idea or concept of interest and use acclaimed children's books as mentor texts to help them understand options for developing their ideas. In this article, the authors provide examples of high-quality children's nonfiction for exploring various formats and text structures…

This article is a discussion of some aspects of reader response. It attempts to track the development of various theories: from the view of the text as an entity set in stone, through structuralist and phenomenological arguments, to the point where the text becomes a virtual dimension. But not only is the importance of the text within the literary…

Arguing for teaching essay structure through slow writing and reading as a writer (RAAW), this article explains a measured-pace pedagogy. It offers a brief history of the concern about organization in writing instruction; defines slow writing and RAAW; details their components; offers a rationale for this guided workshop approach; and describes,…

Mathematical literacy includes learning to read and write different types of mathematical texts as part of purposeful mathematical meaning making. Thus in this article, we describe how learning to read and write mathematical texts (proof text, algorithmic text, algebraic/symbolic text, and visual text) supports the development of students'…

This article introduces an approach that middle-school teachers can follow to help their students carry out linguistic-based literary analyses. As an example, it draws on Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) to show how J.K. Rowling used language to characterize Hermione as an intelligent female in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."…

Chloe Bateman recognised the value to her Key Stage 3 pupils of developing rich subject knowledge, but wanted to find a way of encouraging them to value that knowledge for themselves. In this article she explains how she provided that inspiration by setting her Year 7 class the challenge of writing convincing and engaging historical fiction set in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on pedagogical strategies which support the teaching of critical analysis of visual and multimodal texts in a tertiary-level course for Arts students. Design/methodology/approach: The paper describes strategies which focus on developing students' abilities to express interpretive critique, as…

Reading critically involves examining the language choices authors make to "get the job done" -- in other words, to communicate effectively in specific ways with particular audiences. Not all students in middle and high school intuit this type of reading and may experience challenges when they go to write for academic purposes. Their…

The learning goals of a well-designed course in the liberal arts include not only the imparting of knowledge but also the development of critical thinking and disciplinary expertise. A class on Luther can help students acquire those intellectual skills associated with the discipline of history and the liberal arts more generally as they consider…

English writing is one of the four indispensable skills that English learners need to master, but unfortunately, many Chinese college students have much difficulty composing clear, concise and coherent essays although they have studied English for at least over six years. To address the problem, the researchers and teachers in China have tried…

Comprehending expository reading material is a challenge for many students. Research has shown that students' expository reading comprehension can improve with the help of text structure instruction. The purpose of this article is to present teachers with a framework for effectively implementing text structure instruction in their classrooms.…

Despite specialized areas of expertise, communication instructors are unified, to a large extent, by a singular belief: the meaning people give words produces behavioral ramifications (Mead, 2009). Communication instructors revere language's ability to reflect both meaning and reality. Yet, they also are tasked with the responsibility of conveying…