Related Resources

Books:
Ciaccio, Joseph. TOTALLY POSITIVE TEACHING: A FIVE STAGE APPROACH TO ENERGIZING STUDENTS AND TEACHERS. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2004.

Ciaccio describes five techniques to promote positive teaching and provides examples to illustrate how these techniques can create a daily learning experience that nurtures student achievement:

  • Devising activities to meet the mutual needs of student and teacher
  • Changing personal counterproductive feelings
  • Responding to behavior problems with self-discipline
  • Helping underachievers become self-motivated
  • Developing instructional strategies to keep students engaged

Duran, E., Ostertag, B., & Brown, L. TEACHING ENGLISH LEARNERS IN INCLUSIVE CLASSROOMS. Springfield Illinois: C.C. Thomas, 2006.

This book includes information on how classroom teachers can develop the literacy skills of students in their classes who are English learners.

Hayes-Jacobs, Heidi. ACTIVE LITERACY ACROSS THE CURRICULUM: STRATEGIES FOR READING, WRITING, SPEAKING AND LISTENING. Eye on Education, 2006.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs shows teachers – at every grade level and in every subject area -- how to integrate the teaching of literacy skills into their daily curriculum. With an emphasis on school wide collaborative planning, she shows how curriculum mapping sustains literacy between grade levels and subjects.

Jenson, Eric. DEEPER LEARNING: 7 POWERFUL STRAEGIES FOR IN-DEPTH AND LONGER LASTING LEARNING. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2008.

This book for Grades 4–12 outlines the Deeper Learning Cycle (DELC), a brain-based teaching model for applying powerful learning and content processing techniques to everyday instruction. Templates for the Deeper Learning Cycle are included to make it easier to translate theory into action.

Marzano, Robert J. BUILDING BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE FOR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2004.

Marzano illustrates how the combination of sustained silent reading and instruction in subject specific vocabulary can help overcome limited background knowledge that may interfere with student achievement.

Marzano, Robert J. THE ART AND SCIENCE OF TEACHING: A COMPREHENSIVE FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2007.

Filled with charts, rubrics, and organizers, this methodical, user-friendly guide will help teachers examine and develop their knowledge and skills, so they can work to merge both the art and science of teaching to result in greater student achievement.

Marzano, Robert J., Pickering, Debra J., & Pollock, Jane E. CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION THAT WORKS: RESEARCH_BASED STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001.

Marzano’s book details nine instructional strategies and the studies that have been done on their effectiveness. Examples are given for all nine strategies which include: identifying similarities and differences; summarizing and note taking; reinforcing effort and providing recognition; homework and practice; nonlinguistic representations; cooperative learning; setting objectives and providing feedback; generating and testing hypotheses; and cues, questions, and advance organizers.

McEwan-Adkins, Elaine. 40 WAYS TO SUPPORT STRUGGLING READERS IN CONTENT CLASSROOMS, GRADES 6-12. Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals, 2007.

McEwan-Adkins provides 40 research-based methods with suggestions for easy implementation to help struggling readers and features three tables of contents (traditional, topical, and problemsolving) formatted for quick reference.

Smagorinsky, Peter. TEACHING ENGLISH BY DESIGN: HOW TO CREATE AND CARRY OUT INSTRUCTIONAL UNITS. Heinemann, 2007.

Teaching English by Design is two books in one: a primer for teaching secondary English and a comprehensive guide to creating and using four to six-week instructional units. Peter Smagorinsky shares important insight about students, how they learn, and what kinds of classrooms support their achievement in reading and writing. Smagorinsky's units are organized around key concepts in English, such as:

  • reading strategies,
  • writing strategies,
  • genres,
  • periods, regions, and movements in literature,
  • themes and
  • the works of a significant author.

Stronge, James H. QUALITIES OF EFFECTIVE TEACHERS. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2004.

Stronge synthesizes research to identify specific teacher behaviors that contribute to student achievement. Rather than look at outside factors like demographics, district leadership, and state mandates, Stronge focuses specifically on what teachers can control: their own preparation, personality, and practices.

Stronge, James H., Tucker, Pamela D., Hindman, Jennifer L. HANDBOOK FOR QUALITIES OF EFFECTIVE TEACHERS. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2004.

Intended as a companion guide to Qualities of Effective Teachers, Handbook for Qualities of Effective Teachers is a resource that offers strategies to examine the practice of teaching, aid teachers in improving their skills, and create an environment that fosters good teaching and learning. The book includes sample or reproducible resources for analyzing, understanding, and improving teaching specifications, including tables to record overall time use in classrooms, student discussion charts that reveal at a glance how students tend to participate, benchmark charts and more. Handbook for Qualities Of Effective Teachers emphasizes not only gathering raw data on how students are doing but also how to interpret that data to formulate more effective teaching plans.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, McTighe, Jay. INTEGRATING DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION & UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN: CONNECTING CONTENT AND KIDS. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2006.

Differentiated Instruction focuses on whom we teach, where we teach, and how we teach. Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe show you how to use the principles of backward design and differentiation together to design lesson plans that will teach essential knowledge and skills for the full spectrum of learners.

Tovani, Cris. I READ IT, BUT I DON'T GET IT: COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES FOR ADOLESCENT READERS. Steinhouse, 2000.

Tovani includes an explanation of current theories of comprehension instruction and how they might be adapted for use with adolescents in her book. Also included is a What Works section in each of the last seven chapters that offers simple ideas you can immediately try in your classroom. Appendices with reproducible materials that you can use in your classroom, including coding sheets, double entry diaries, and comprehension constructors are also available for use.

Write to Know Series
The books listed below are from a series of books that include nonfiction writing prompts for math, science and social studies. The books include scoring guides that can be modified to meet district goals and target specific grade levels or grade level ranges. Center for Performance Assessment. NONFICTION WRITING PROMPTS FOR ALGEBRA (SECONDARY). Englewood, CO: Advanced Learning Press, 2005. Holebrook, Anne M., Ruthven, Rosemary. NONFICTION WRITING PROMPTS FOR SCIENCE (MIDDLE SCHOOL). Englewood, CO: Lead and Learn Press, 2005. LePatner, Michelle, Matuk, Farid N. NONFICTION WRITING PROMPTS FOR MATH, SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES (KINDERGARTEN). Englewood, CO: Advanced Learning Press, 2005.
Websites:

https://www.centeroninstruction.org/index.cfm

On this site, you will find a wealth of resources to assist in the teaching of language arts targeting grades 4-12.

http://www.canteach.ca

Can Teach is a website that provides a list of over three hundred journal topics and writing prompts to be used in a classroom for various purposes such as warm-up, daily journaling, getting to know students, impromptu speeches, etc. under the Resources link, especially for elementary level, however, can be modified for higher grades. Additionally, there is a forum set up for teachers to discuss and exchange ideas for use within the classroom.

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/index.html

This website includes Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate literature and lesson plans. Moreover, it provides a list of children's and young adult literature for students and lesson plans for teachers to use and/or modify. The site also links to various skill building websites such as one for how to mark a book. Also for immediate use is a search for definitions and a word a day for vocabulary building.

http://www.readwritethink.org

This website is sponsored by International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English. It includes a variety of lesson plans for ELA which can be searched by grade levels, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. The website also features student materials and web resources for online interactive learning, which can also be used in class for differentiated instruction for visual and kinesthetic learners as well as English language learners.

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/readlanguage

This webpage, a part of www.pbs.org is a resource that provides lesson plans using cable television programs. The webpage consists of lesson plans for all grade levels and allows you to pick a topic of choice to browse such as critical thinking skills, journalism, public speaking, drama, media studies, folklore, film, vocabulary, writing, and many others. The media literacy link provides ways to teach kids about becoming media savvy with recognizing persuasive techniques while their brand new Teacherline is a section that focuses on providing professional development courses for continued learning.

http://www.teach-nology.com/

Teachnology features lesson plans, free printable worksheets, rubrics, teaching tips, worksheet makers, web quests, math worksheets, and many other teacher resources designed for Kindergarten through High School teachers.

http://www.khake.com/page69.html

This site features a wealth of links to a variety of teaching and learning resources including online learning activities, educational labs, lesson plans, educational departments and associations, technology and curriculum sites of interest.

http://www.teachingld.org/

TeachingLD is a service of the Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) of the Council for Exceptional Children. The purpose of TeachingLD is to provide trustworthy and up-to-date resources about teaching students with Learning Disabilities. In addition to serving as a resource for members of DLD, TeachingLD.org publishes content about assessment, instruction, and policy related to Learning Disabilities. Readers can find information about curriculum-based measurement for monitoring student progress; teaching methods such as co-teaching and direct instruction; and current issues such as response-to-intervention models.

https://www.naeyc.org/

This site features titles of books, and journals related to the teaching of literacy and learning.