Why take a cognitive strategies approach to helping young readers and writers to think big? -- Best practices in reading and writing instruction for students in grades 2-8 -- Reading and writing narrative texts -- Reading and writing informative/expository texts -- Reading and writing opinion, persuasive, interpretive, and argumentative texts.

Although the Common Core and C3 Framework highlight literacy and inquiry as central goals for social studies, they do not offer guidelines, assessments, or curriculum resources. This practical guide presents six research-tested historical investigations along with all corresponding teaching materials and tools that have improved the historical thinking and argumentative writing of academically diverse students. Each investigation integrates reading, analysis, planning, composing, and reflection into a writing process that results in an argumentative history essay. Primary sources have been modified to allow struggling readers access to the material. Web links to original unmodified primary sources are also provided, along with other sources to extend investigations. The authors include sample student essays from each investigation to illustrate the progress of two different learners and explain how to support students’ development. Each chapter includes these helpful sections: Historical Background, Literacy Practices Students Will Learn, How to Teach This Investigation, How Might Students Respond?, Student Writing and Teacher Feedback, Lesson Plans and Materials. Book Features: Integrates literacy and inquiry with core U.S. history topics. Emphasizes argumentative writing, a key requirement of the Common Core. Offers explicit guidance for instruction with classroom-ready materials. Provides primary sources for differentiated instruction. Explains a curriculum appropriate for students who struggle with reading, as well as more advanced readers. Models how to transition over time from more explicit instruction to teacher coaching and greater student independence. “The tools this book provides—from graphic organizers, to lesson plans, to the accompanying documents—demystify the writing process and offer a sequenced path toward attaining proficiency.” —From the Foreword by Sam Wineburg, co-author of Reading Like a Historian “Assuming literate practice to be at the core of history learning and historical practice, the authors provide actual units of history instruction that can be immediately applied to classroom teaching. These units make visible how a cognitive apprenticeship approach enhances history and historical literacy learning and ensure a supported transition to teaching history in accordance with Common Core State Standards.” —Elizabeth Moje, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, School of Education, University of Michigan “The C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards and the Common Core State Standards challenge students to investigate complex ideas, think critically, and apply knowledge in real world settings. This extraordinary book provides tried-and-true practical tools and step-by-step directions for social studies to meet these goals and prepare students for college, career, and civic life in the 21st century.” —Michelle M. Herczog, president, National Council for the Social Studies

A clear and concise guide to teaching reading strategies to young learners.

The Literacy Workshop: Where Reading and Writing Converge is a first-of-its-kind resource that offers a practical process for creating an integrated literacy workshop using demonstration lessons that align with current curriculum standards. In this forward-thinking book, authors Maria Walther and Karen Biggs-Tucker share what they've learned over countless reading and writing workshops and combine into one literacy workshop. The authors demonstrate how you can save valuable classroom time while still empowering students to uncover exciting connections in their learning – leading to stronger, more motivational readers and writers. By weaving the common threads of literacy learning together, you can increase the time your students spend engaged in authentic reading and writing. Inside you'll find the following: A clear, succinct explanation of the literacy workshop structure, how to get started, and how to determine the best time to begin the merge; 50+ demonstration lesson plans, appropriate for both primary and intermediate grade levels, that use strategies incorporating elements from recommended fiction and nonfiction anchor texts; Substantial, printable resources and online tools to help make this instructional shift as smooth as possible. From the big picture to small, helpful details, The Literacy Workshop will be your guide as you blur the lines between your reading and writing workshops - creating space for students to apply their learning and practice the habits, behaviors, and actions of literate and engaged citizens.

Many teachers wonder how to juggle aswriter's notebook and asreader's response log. Linda Rief singeniously combines them both in the Writer's-Readers's Notebook.sThis veteran teacher truly walks the walk; shesshows exactly how to make this powerful tool work in the classroom. - Ralph Fletcher s The Readers-Writers Notebook is THE tool for all those concerned with adolescents and literacy. - Teri Lesesne Author of Naked Reading s The Writer's-Reader's Notebook is the most essential learning and teaching tool in Linda Rief's classroom. More than an empty journal, it's a highly structured, specifically designed place whereallstudents (English language learners, those with learning differences, girls andboys) connect reading, writing, and thinking. It's also where Linda can observe and encourage their learning. Now, in Inside the Writer's-Reader's Notebook,Linda shows you how this key resource in her English/language arts workshop has the power to help learners develop into articulate, literate citizens of the world. s In Inside the Writer's-Reader's Notebook Linda guides you through the Writer's-Reader's Notebook: what's in it, why it's in there, and how to use it effectively with your students. She shows you how to use it to assess what students know, how they think, and how they can express themselves as writers and readers. Inside the Writer's-Reader's Notebook includes: descriptions of the reading and writing minilessons that Linda uses to get kids thinking in the notebook ideas for further invitations that engage adolescents in writing, reading, and drawing specific ways to use the lists and tools that are printed right in the Notebook dozens of reproducible examples of notebook pages by Linda's students that show the Notebook's multiple uses and that will help inspire your own students' writing and reading an annotated list of professional titles that will help further your knowledge of Notebooks and how to use them effectively in a variety of ways in your classroom. s With a copy of the Writer's-Reader's Notebook and vital insights into its effectiveness,sInside the Writer's-Reader's Notebookincludes everything you need to implement the Writer's-Reader's Notebook in any class and to help students begin the journey toward more thoughtful, purposeful literacy experiences. Read it and see why the Notebook should be at the center of your teaching. s

This is a book about problem solving--an internal tool that shapes the cognitive development of young readers and writers. At the same time, it is a book about the role of the teacher and the curriculum in structuring problem-solving opportunities. It is a book that advocates for schools to create intellectual environments that make literate thinking a top priority for children. Finally, it is a book that presents teaching and learning as collaborative processes between many people with a common goal--literacy for children. from the Introduction. How can teachers create a literacy curriculum that builds processing links between reading, writing, and spelling knowledge? In Shaping Literate Minds, Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos illustrate how processing theory can be applied to the everyday practices of classroom teaching. If instruction emphasizes the interrelationships of these three language areas, students learn how to transfer knowledge, skills, and strategies across literacy events. This is complex theory, but the authors provide clear and practical examples to support teachers as they incorporate these ideas into their classroom practices. Grounded in authentic experiences from primary classrooms, this book provides: explanations of processing behaviors among reading, writing, and spelling knowledge; observational tools that support teachers in noticing changes over time in specific literacy behaviors; guidance on creating conditions for developing self-regulated learners; authentic reading and writing samples and teacher/student interactions; figures and pictures that clearly describe how teachers can use assessment to inform and guide instruction, with links to national standards; details for establishing a school-based literacy model that includes team meetings, assessment walls, high standards, and a curriculum for literacy; appendixes with reproducible assessment checklists, report cards, task cards for literacy corners, and guided reading observation forms for team meetings. With a national emphasis on accountability, high standards, and literacy achievement, Shaping Literate Minds will help teachers and administrators implement a high-quality literacy curriculum that links to national and state goals.

This accessible book will help elementary school teachers improve literacy instruction inside or outside the Common Core environment. The authors address teachers’ instructional needs by introducing key concepts from current trends in literacy education—from high-level standards to the use of 21st-century literacies. Readers then follow teachers as they successfully implement the curriculum they developed to promote high-level thinking and engagement with disciplinary content. The text focuses on three disciplinary literacy units of instruction: a science unit in a 2nd-grade classroom, a social studies (history) unit in a 4th-grade classroom, and a mathematics unit in a 6th-grade classroom. Each unit revolves around a central inquiry question and includes research-based strategies for using reading, writing, and classroom talk as tools to foster disciplinary understandings. This unique, insider’s look at how real teachers build and implement a Common Core–aligned curriculum will be an invaluable resource for teachers, schools, and districts as they move forward to align their own curricula. “I can’t imagine a more timely book . . . a set of elegant principles and some stunning examples of how teachers can use reading, writing, and talk to enhance learning in the science, social studies, and mathematics classroom.” —P. David Pearson, professor of language and literacy and human development, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley “If you’re wondering how to integrate literacy across the content disciplines, this is the text you will want to keep and return to often.” —Diane Lapp, distinguished professor of education, San Diego State University “Inspiring, and better still, infectious!” —Donald R. Bear, Iowa State University “Provides concrete ideas for teaching students to use literacy to think like scientists, historians, and mathematicians.” —Douglas Fisher, professor of educational leadership, San Diego State University, and teacher leader, Health Sciences High and Middle College