THE PRACTICE: Reading and Writing
Content Presented By:
Center for Resource Management (CRM)
The Education Alliance at Brown University

Resources related to this practice:

• ABC's of the Writing Process
  http://www.angelfire.com/wi/writingprocess/secwplinks.html

  The website is a great reference for the writing process and links with other sites related to writing in the secondary classroom.

• Beating the Odds: Teaching Middle and High School Students to Read and Write Well
  http://cela.albany.edu/

  This CELA report describes research into effective secondary instruction in reading, writing and English Language Arts. Use CELA's internal search tool to access the report.

• Best Practice in Teaching Writing
  http://instech.tusd.k12.az.us/balancedlit/handbook/BLHS/blwhs.htm

  Descriptions of strategies for teaching writing from the Tucson Unified School District.

• Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension.
  http://www.scholastic.com/dodea/Module_1/resources/dodea_m1_
  pa_duke.pdf

  Research on reading comprehension strategy instruction.

• ELL Resource: OWL Online Writing Lab at Purdue
  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/index.html

  Series of pages that are part of one of the best online writing labs. One can find links to handouts, interactive exercises that help students with grammar problems, idioms, and academic conventions. The section for teachers links to various pedagogical resources, including online journals, lists of other online resources, and an annotated bibliography for ESL instructors.

• ELL Resource: Spelling and the Middle School English Language Learner
  http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Free/Journals/vm/VM0114Spelling.pdf

  Short article published in the May 2004 issue of Voices in the Middle discussing four issues that teachers of ELL students should attend to when helping these students learn spelling. The four issues are: knowledge of the characteristics of the English spelling system, assessment of students' current knowledge, familiarization with the language that the students speak and use of specific instructional strategies.

• Evaluating Sustained Silent Reading in Reading Classes
  http://iteslj.org/Articles/Chow-SSR.html

  This literature review looks at the effective components of sustained silent reading programs for English Language Learners.

• Lesson: Intoduction to Measurement Vocabulary
  http://knowledgeloom.org/adlit/resources/CollabMathLessonMea
  surement_Burnell.pdf

  In this lesson, fifth grade teacher Melissa Burnell turns a typical textbook preview activity into a game, helping her students to assess and improve their understanding of measurement vocabulary through a word sort. Burnell developed this lesson during her participation in the 2007-2008 Adolescent Literacy Collaboratory, a program of The Education Alliance at Brown University.

• Lesson: Introduction to the Mole
  http://knowledgeloom.org/adlit/resources/CollabScienceLesson
  Mole_Rouhan.pdf

  In this lesson, high school chemistry teacher Polly Rouhan uses the jigsaw discussion strategy and an adapted Frayer vocbaulary chart to help her students synthesize key ideas from four different readings about the mole. Rouhan developed this lesson during her participation in the 2007-2008 Adolescent Literacy Collaboratory, a program of The Education Alliance at Brown University.

• Lesson: Short Story Comprehension and Vocabulary Building
  http://knowledgeloom.org/adlit/resources/CollabELALessonShor
  tStory_Carr.pdf

  In this two-period lesson, ninth grade English teacher Deborah Carr draws on annotation and vocabulary development strategies to help her students improve their comprehension and analysis of literary texts. The focus of the lesson is the setting in Arthur C. Clarke's short story "A Walk in the Dark," but it is easily adapted for other literary texts and focus areas. Carr developed this lesson during her participation in the 2007-2008 Adolescent Literacy Collaboratory, a program of The Education Alliance at Brown University.

• Lesson: The Lorax and Human-Environmental Interaction
  http://knowledgeloom.org/adlit/resources/CollabSSLessonLorax
  HEI_Damato.pdf

  In this lesson, sixth grade social studies teacher Andrea Damato uses the Dr. Seuss children's story The Lorax to help her students deepen their understanding of cause and effect, focusing on the harmful consequences of some types of human interaction with the environment. Damato developed this lesson during her participation in the 2007-2008 Adolescent Literacy Collaboratory, a program of The Education Alliance at Brown University.

• Literacy Strategies: Gradual Release of Responsbility Model for Strategy Instruction
  http://web001.greece.k12.ny.us/academics.cfm?subpage=1177

  This Web page from the Greece Central School District in Greece, NY, describes a research-based process for explicit strategy instruction. Links on the left provide detailed instructions on the use of specific strategies (Questioning, Predicting, Clarifying, etc.).

• LitSite Alaska: HS Reading Strategies
  http://litsite.alaska.edu/uaa/workbooks/readingstrategies.html

  Characteristics of best practices in reading and four reading comprehension strategies to use in the high school classroom are described by Kathie Steele, the reading coordinator for Chugiak High School in Eagle River District. LitSite Alaska is a project of the University of Alaska Anchorage and the Alaska Literary Consortium, funded in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

• LitSite Alaska: Newspapers in Education, HS Writing
  http://litsite.alaska.edu/uaa/workbooks/highnewswrite.html

  Tom Janz provides writing activities for high school students based on reading current stories about events in their own communities and the rest of the world. LitSite Alaska is a project of the University of Alaska Anchorage and the Alaska Literary Consortium, funded in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

• LitSite Alaska: Workbooks and Peer Work Index
  http://litsite.alaska.edu/uaa/workbooks/workbooks.html

  This part of the site is full of activities and exercises contributed by educators, parents and students from around Alaska. Each Workbook is divided into sections for multiple skill levels that are grade-specific. Note especially the following activities: Angel Card Discussion Technique, Book Report, Justice and Freedom, Newspapers in Education -- High School Reading, and Writing with Empathy.

• Metacognition and Reading to Learn
  http://www.indiana.edu/~reading/ieo/digests/d96.html

  This ERIC digest is a concise summary of the research on metacognition and reading to learn.

• Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It
  http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html

  Information about plagiarism: what it is and how to recognize it and avoid it.

• Reading Practice and Sustained Silent Reading
  http://readingonline.org/critical/topping/rolarC.html

  The debate continues over the effectiveness of sustained silent reading. Several studies have found high positive correlation between reading practice and reading achievement, while others suggest mixed results and the importance of the quality of the practice.

• Reading Strategies: Scaffolding Students' Interactions with Text
  http://web001.greece.k12.ny.us/academics.cfm?subpage=930

  This page on the Greece Central School District (Greece, NY) website lists and defines 22 different reading strategies, labeling each as a before, during, and/or after reading strategy.

• Secondary Content Teacher Reading Strategies
  http://www.ops.org/reading/secondarystrat1.htm

  This site contains lesson plans secondary school teachers can use to teach reading strategies.

• Shared Spelling Strategies
  http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=48

  Lesson plan intended to help 6-8th grade students "construct" spelling by using sound, sight recall, and analyzing strategies, instead of memorizing lists of words.

• Sustained Silent Reading in Secondary Schools
  http://www.angelfire.com/ok/freshenglish/ssr.html

  List of citations from ERIC that addresses the topic of Sustained Silent Reading in secondary schools. Also includes directions for securing full-text copies of these records.

• Technical Writing for Skill Development
  http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/w98/projects/bbilligmeier/babsum.html

  Provides a description of an authentic writing project for unmotivated learners.

• What Secondary Teachers Can Do to Teach Reading
  http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/1999-ja/secondary.shtml

  This brief article by Vickie Jacobs describes how content-area teachers can use pre-reading, guided reading, and post-reading strategies to support their students' learning.

• Writing
  http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/ela102030/teach4.html

  Lots of ideas for teaching and learning strategies to improve student writing abilities.

• Writing Across the Curriculum
  http://writing2.richmond.edu/wac/2entrynb.html

  Shows examples of group writing activities offered by the Center for Instruction Development and Research at the University of Washington at Seattle.

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This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown University. Seed funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Send comments to: loom@alliance.brown.edu