About the Book
Grounded in research, Vibrant Learning, focuses on language-rich, literacy-based, collaborative classrooms as the foundation for transforming content area learning. The authors emphasize three areas: (1) strategies to support student understanding of concepts, (2) ideas to encourage student engagement, and (3) creating a lively and respectful classroom environment to foster an integrative approach to learning. Knowledgeable teachers with a repertoire of effective instructional strategies make genuine learning possible. With that in mind, this book presents a solid theoretical background and a set of practical tools in each of its chapters, ranging from assessment, compression, vocabulary, motivation, to integration for the content area teacher.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Merging Constructivist, Socio-Cultural, and Collaborative Theories: Vibrant Learning
Chapter 2: It’s not Either/Or, it’s AND: Integration
Chapter 3: Guiding Instruction: Standards
Chapter 4: Informing Instruction: Assessment
Chapter 5: Developing a Love of Words: Vocabulary
Chapter 6: Creating Meaning: Comprehension
Chapter 7: Understanding and Expressing Ideas: Fluency
Chapter 8: (Re)Constructing Knowledge: Writing
Chapter 9: Engaging with Texts and Peers: Discussion
Chapter 10: Promoting Deep Thinking: Questioning
Chapter 11: Broadening Capacities for Learning: The Arts
Chapter 12: Creating Lifelong, Vibrant Learners: Motivation
About the Author :
Debra K. Wellman is a professor of education and director of the Christian A. Johnson Center for Effective Teaching at Rollins College. Her scholarly interests examine the value of field placements in teacher education, book clubs as a means for teaching reading and other content areas, and effective ways to support new teacher experiences.
Cathy Y. Kim is a faculty member in the Education Department at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. Her scholarly interests include comprehension theories and strategies, content area literacy, and reader response theories.
Lynn Columba, an associate professor in Lehigh University’s College of Education, teaches future mathematics educators to embrace an interdisciplinary in the mathematics classroom. Her research focuses on the integration of literacy and technology into mathematics.
Alden J. Moe, professor emeritus from Rollins College and Lehigh University, has taught all grades throughout his illustrious career. Alden’s research focused on reading diagnosis, children’s literature, and vocabulary. This will be Alden’s fifteenth book.
Review :
Vibrant Learning brings a refreshing, inclusive, and comprehensive approach to content area teaching and learning. The authors provide the foundations for learning, including theory, history, and standards. These include the Common Core Standards as well as the professional standards for reading, literacy, English, mathematics, science, and social studies. The authors address and establish the importance of assessment and the tools of assessment, vocabulary instruction and learning, comprehension, fluency, writing, discussion, questioning, integration of the arts, and motivation in the well-designed chapters of this important book. The strategies for teaching these important and integrated areas play an integral part in the total picture of content area development and learning for teachers at all levels of instruction.
Teachers, these authors are talking to us! The first thing I noticed about this book is the tone—one teacher to another—these topics are relevant to all of us: teacher candidates, novice teachers, experienced teachers, and professors in teacher education. The book has a number of vignettes that bring a real world tone to content literacy. I particularly appreciated the integration of the most prominent theoretical views of content literacy and how they apply to instructional strategies. The history of various pedagogies and how our profession has enacted them, including overviews of research history, helps us to understand today’s theories of teaching and learning. Vibrant learning connects the disciplines as in real life—we can appreciate the interconnection of literature and non-fiction texts as middle and high school students bridge their experiences into disciplinary learning.
This remarkable book should be read and re-read by every educator; there are numerous lessons to be learned by teachers at all levels! Students in my Content Area Reading class raved that the complex concepts were easy to understand as a result of the excellent writing and beautiful visuals. The authors’ vast teaching experiences paired with a conversational writing style makes this book come alive.
Vibrant Learning is a treasure for teachers and content area literacy course instructors. Guided by research and theory, this text provides practical insight and support for teaching content area literacy. This is a timely, approachable book packed with current information. Vibrant Learning fills a void in education texts.
What a fantastic book! Vibrant Learning has information for all---teachers, students, and the like. It is impressive in its format with contemporary scenarios that link realistically to life and connects with education via learning theorists, integration, standards, assessment, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, writing, discussion, questioning, motivation, and the arts. This book will serve and encourage readers to implement vibrant learning in their classroom regardless of age, race, socioeconomic background, or gender.
Vibrant Learning illuminates the process of integrating content areas from theory to practice. The textbook is extremely helpful for both preservice and inservice teachers who want to implement elements of instruction and assessment that deepen learning for all students.
I hope you and your students find Vibrant Learning: An Integrative Approach to Teaching Content Area Disciplines as enjoyable as I have discovered. The text begins with a very readable discussion of five progressive learning theorists, and connects these through each chapter to model teaching ideas and activities. Each chapter begins with an interesting vignette and concludes with a theory to practice section.
