Connecting Across Disciplines: Collaborating with Informational Text

While the Common Core has made informational text a focal point in English/language arts classrooms around the country, it has also made literacy a key concern in other subjects. Teaching literacy in the disciplines and navigating informational texts are challenging prospects. How can content-area teachers find high-quality informational texts that will enhance their curriculum? How do they go about working with these new texts? Most importantly, how do teachers balance their responsibility towards their subject matter with the new charge to incorporate disciplinary literacy? The key is to connect, communicate, and collaborate. Teachers can meet these challenges together and enhance student literacy, engagement, and motivation along the way. This volume offers a practical model that teachers in any discipline can use to incorporate informational texts into their classrooms on their own or in collaboration with colleagues in other content areas. We also share suggestions and ideas for initiating and implementing collaboration between teachers of any discipline, even those working at the secondary level with complex schedules and curricula.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgements Permissions Chapter 1: Literacy: Everyone’s Responsibility (and Opportunity) Chapter 2: Collaboration: The Gift of the Common Core Chapter 3: Our Model for Finding and Using Great Informational Texts Chapter 4: Preparing an Informational Text Chapter 5: Making Vocabulary Work Chapter 6: Supporting Active Reading Chapter 7: Checking for Understanding Chapter 8: Extending Learning: Writing and Discussion Activities Chapter 9: Thinking Big: Class Activities and Projects Chapter 10: Using Hooks: Multimedia Chapter 11: Alignment with Common Core Assessments Chapter 12: You Can Do This: Keys to Implementation Appendix: The Fruit Fly Unit About the Authors

About the Author :
Audrey Fisch is Professor of English and Coordinator of Secondary English Education at New Jersey City University where she has taught for over twenty years. She has published a wide variety of academic work and has worked as a curriculum consultant and professional development provider for K-12 districts in New Jersey. Susan Chenelle has taught English and journalism for eight years at University Academy Charter High School in Jersey City, New Jersey, where she serves as English department lead and peer coach for humanities. She holds a master’s degree in education from New Jersey City University and a bachelor’s degree in English from Kenyon College.

Review :
Fisch and Chenelle have crafted a grounded and practical text for educators seeking to collaborate across disciplines to help students make meaning of informational text. Their interdisciplinary approach offers classroom-tested strategies for engaging students in literature and non-fiction text through multiple points of entry. Today's teachers are responsible for teaching literacy skills within their unique disciplines. This book is a tremendous resource for educators who want to engage their students in authentic reading and their colleagues in meaningful collaboration. Chenelle and Fisch continue to build upon their powerful work with informational texts by bringing teachers practical strategies for every classroom. Literacy IS a shared responsibility. Practical and timely, Connecting Across Disciplines provides teachers of all content areas models of collaboration that can be easily implemented. And, with its example lessons, texts, and assessments, it is an invaluable resource for novice and experienced teachers looking to integrate informational text into their curricula. I can't wait to introduce this book in my education courses! Many students still ask their teachers the age-old question: "Why do we have to learn this?" Fortunately, Fisch and Chenelle provide a powerful approach to answering this question. By using provocative informational texts and media, teachers can ignite students' interest and build deeper understandings of the issues. In their practical and engaging volume, Fisch and Chenelle provide teachers with a flexible plan that outlines how this type of work can be accomplished and how the Common Core State Standards can be implemented in meaningful ways.