Teaching Language Arts: A Student-Centered Classroom

This book brings the vision of a student-centered classroom to life through clear illustrations of guiding principles, balanced with examples of real teachers in real classrooms with real children, many of whom are English learners.   Engaging, readable, student-friendly, and practical, this text is built on a strong theoretical and research base, and illustrated and clarified with real-life examples of children and teachers from today’s diverse classrooms. Written to reflect cutting-edge theory, new research, the latest policies, the new Common Core State Standards, and best practices in the rapidly changing world of language arts instruction, Carole Cox’s new Seventh Edition continues to guide students as they learn the many skills required to become an effective teacher today.   The book’s unique Snapshotfeature takes readers into the real world of the classroom as they read about actual students and see samples of their work, and hear from the teachers as they describe their philosophies and methods. Well-regarded for its authoritative, comprehensive coverage of the contemporary language arts classroom, the book provides a balance of student-centered and teacher-directed instruction that includes many examples from today’s classrooms. This new edition remains grounded in current theories of constructivism and social interaction combined with a reader-response perspective toward teaching with children’s literature, as well as current research in language and literacy instruction.

Table of Contents:
Special Features Preface Language Arts: Learning and Teaching Language Arts: Assessing and Differentiating Instruction Integrated Teaching with Literature Language Development and Emergent Literacy Engaging English Learners Reading Writing Speaking and Listening Viewing and Visually Representing Spelling Grammar, Punctuation, and Handwriting Reading and Writing Literary Texts Reading and  Writing Informational Texts References Subject Index Appendix: A Month-by-Month Guide to Integrated Teaching with Literature

About the Author :
Carole Cox, Ph.D., teaches at California State University, Long Beach, where she was named the Outstanding Professor in 2001. She received her B.A. from UCLA with a double major in French and Political Science, and an elementary teaching credential. She has taught elementary school in Los Angeles, California, and Madison, Wisconsin, and received her Ph.D. in Education at the University of Minnesota. At Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, and California State University, Long Beach, Carole has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in language arts, reading, and children’s literature, and published articles, book chapters, and other books with Pearson including Engaging English Learners: Exploring Literature, Developing Literacy, and Differentiating Instruction (Cox & Boyd-Batstone, 2009). Professor Cox’s research has focused on children’s stance toward film and literature from a reader-response perspective, specifically Louise Rosenblatt’s transactional model of the reading process.

Review :
"Dr. Cox is to be commended for writing such a practical, useful, informative and interesting textbook." - Nancy L. Gibney, University of Detroit Mercy "Theoretically sound, current research, and very understandable-- the students like this text and call it a 'keeper.'" - Deborah Hamm, California State University, Long Beach