About the Book
Offering fresh alternatives to common instructional practices that fail to get results, this accessible, highly practical guide highlights ways to motivate middle school students while enhancing content-area learning. Each chapter features an enlightening case study of a teacher whose current strategies are not supported by research; describes effective instructional alternatives, illustrated with concrete examples; and lists online resources and lesson examples. Emphasis is given to supporting critical engagement with texts and drawing on technology and new literacies. The book covers specific content areas—including science, social studies, math, and literature—as well as ways to teach oral literacy and writing across the curriculum.
Table of Contents:
I. Teaching Content Literacy
1. If They Can’t Read Their Science Books—Teach Them How, Maria Grant
2. If They Can’t Read Their Social Studies Books—Support Their Learning with Guided Instruction, Karen D. Wood, Jennifer I. Hathaway, and Lina B. Soares
3. If You Want to Motivate the Learning of Mathematics—Use the Visual Arts as a Lens to Learning, Robin A. Ward and Susan Troutman
4. If You Want to Move Beyond the Textbook—Add Young Adult Literature to Content Area Classes, Virginia S. Loh
5. If You Want Students to Read—Motivate Them, Joan Kindig
6. If You Want Students to Use New Literacies—Give Them the Opportunity, Stephanie Schmier and Marjorie Siegel
7. If You Want Students to Evaluate Online Resources and Other New Media—Teach Them How, Jill Castek
8. If You Think Students Should Be Critically Literate—Show Them How, Peggy Albers II. Developing Spoken and Written Language
9. If You Want to Take the Ho-Hum Out of History—Teach Writing That’s Right for New Times, Dana L. Grisham and Thomas DeVere Wolsey
10. If Students Are Unmotivated Writers—Motivate Them, Jane Hansen and Timothy Shea
11. If Students Are Not Succeeding as Writers—Teach Them to Self-Assess Using a Rubric, Judy M. Parr and Rebecca Jesson
12. If You Want Students to Learn Academic English—Teach It to Them, Dianna Townsend
13. If You Want Students to Learn Vocabulary—Move Beyond Copying Words, Kathy Ganske
14. If You Value Student Collaboration—Hold Students Accountable for Collaborative Group Work, Heather Casey III. Establishing Effective Learning Routines
15. If You Think Book Clubs Matter—Set Some Up Online, Thomas DeVere Wolsey and Dana L. Grisham, with Melissa Provost
16. If You Want Students to Read Widely and Well—Eliminate Round-Robin Reading, Kelly Johnson and Diane Lapp
17. If You Want to Eliminate Misconceptions and Errors—Support Learning with Questions, Prompts, Cues, and Explanations, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
18. If You Want Students to Take Notes Instead of Copying Them—Teach Them How, Christianna Alger and Barbara Moss
19. If You Want to Help Students Organize Their Learning—Fold, Think, and Write with Three-Dimensional Graphic Organizers, Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher
20. If Homework Really Matters—Assign Some That’s Valuable, Cynthia H. Brock, Julie L. Pennington, and Jennifer D. Morrison
About the Author :
Edited by Diane Lapp, EdD, and Barbara Moss, PhD, both at the School of Teacher Education, San Diego State University, USA
Review :
"This 'multimodal' volume includes both traditional and digital-age strategies for promoting learning across the curriculum. The contributing authors write in a personal style that is both interesting and easy to understand. Each chapter is set in a middle school classroom and focuses on helping both novice and seasoned teachers provide authentic classroom practices for today's students, who are electronically savvy and often disconnected from traditional instruction. The helpful, focused ideas in this book will prompt you to engage your students in challenging, authentic learning in every subject area. I would definitely use this book as a text in our master's-level secondary literacy course." - Karen Bromley, Binghamton University, State University of New York, USA "This amazingly thorough book makes a major contribution to middle school education -- at just the right time. It addresses the challenges that teachers face with the advent of the Common Core State Standards, and does so in a refreshing, empowering way. It models powerful ways to motivate students, promote literacy in meaningful contexts of use, and become more reflective as teachers who are also learners. This is a great text for classes in literacy methods, content-area literacy methods, and middle school education, both at undergraduate and graduate levels." - Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Boise State University, Idaho, USA "This book is essential reading for professional development providers, school-based leaders, and teachers seeking to significantly improve instructional outcomes across content areas. Lapp and Moss provide a potpourri of strategies from educational thought leaders that deepen content knowledge, honor multiple literacies, and offer practical routines that support diverse learners. As more districts and schools adopt the Common Core State Standards, this book will be a 'go-to' guide." - Samuel A. Reed, Beeber Middle School, Philadelphia, USA
