THE PRACTICE: Creating a Student-Centered Classroom
Content Presented By:
Center for Resource Management (CRM)
The Education Alliance at Brown University

Resources related to this practice:

• Connect Archives
  http://www.synergylearning.org/connect/index.html

  Archives for Connect, A Magazine of Teachers' Innovations in K-8 Science and Math, are available from Synergy Learning. The articles provide unique teaching ideas, which reflect scientific literacy and National Science Education Standards. Association, a division of the American Library Association, provides regularly updated lists of young adult books recommended by both librarians and teens. It also contains information about Teen Read Week, tips to encourage reading, and links to useful sites and publications for educators concerned about literacy.

• 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: Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners
  http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Free/Journals/tp/TP0121Meeting.pdf

  Article from the Fall 2000 issue of Talking Points where the authors offer eight major questions and a student survey to help educators better consider how to create optimal learning conditions. Examples of the questions are: Are students involved in authentic reading and writing experiences? Is the content meaningful? Does it serve a purpose for the learners? The authors make the case that teachers working with multilingual and multicultural students need to not only follow whole language principles but also be informed about second language acquisition theory and research and issues related to diversity. They need to learn about materials that support their students' first languages and are culturally relevant. They also need to develop effective methods to help students whose backgrounds and experiences are different from their own.

• ELL Resource: Principles that Help; False Assumptions that Harm (about Bilingual Learners)
  http://www.ed.arizona.edu/celt/fs7.html

  Web page created by the Center for Expansion of Language and Thinking at the University of Arizona. Each false assumption and helpful principle is briefly discussed. The false assumptions that harm bilingual learners are: 1. Learning proceeds from part to whole. 2. Programs should be teacher-centered because learning is the transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student. 3. Schoolwork should focus on the future. 4. Learning occurs when students work alone. 5. In a second language, oral language acquisition precedes the development of literacy. 6. Limited English speakers have limited learning potential. 7. Learning should take place in English to facilitate the acquisition of English.

• Increasing Comprehension by Activating Prior Knowledge, ERIC Digest
  http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9219/prior.htm

  This ERIC document explains the research connecting the activation of prior knowledge with increased reading comprehension.

• Learning on the Web: A Content Literacy Perspective
  http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=/ar
  ticles/mceneaney/index.html

  An article describing electronic learning from a content-reading perspective in the International Reading Association Online journal.

• 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.

• 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.

• Teen Reading
  http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/teenstopten/05TTT.htm

  This web site, sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, provides regularly updated lists of young adult books recommended by both librarians and teens. It also contains information about Teen Read Week, tips to encourage reading, and links to useful sites and publications for educators concerned about literacy.

• Training a Class in Discussion Skills
  http://www.ualr.edu/~teenread/id96.htm

  Written by Barbara Stanford, UALR College of Education. This document discusses the how and why of training a class in discussion skills, plus some challenges for the classes to try.

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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