Exemplary Instruction in the Middle Grades (eBook)

Diane Lapp, EdD, is Distinguished Professor of Education in the Department of Teacher Education at San Diego State University. She has taught elementary, middle, and high school and serves as Director of Learning at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Her research and instruction focus on issues related to struggling readers and writers who live in economically deprived urban settings, and their families and teachers. Widely published, Dr. Lapp has received the Outstanding Teacher Educator of the Year Award from the International Literacy Association, among other honors, and is a member of both the International Reading Hall of Fame and the California Reading Hall of Fame. Barbara Moss, PhD, is Professor of Literacy Education in the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University. She has taught English and language arts in elementary, middle, and high school settings and has worked as a reading coach. Dr. Moss’s research focuses on the teaching of informational texts at the elementary and secondary levels. She regularly presents at local, state, national, and international conferences and has published numerous journal articles, columns, book chapters, and books. Dr. Moss has served as the Young Adult Literature column editor for Voices in the Middle, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English.

I. Teaching Content Literacy1. 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. Soares3. If You Want to Motivate the Learning of Mathematics—Use the Visual Arts as a Lens to Learning, Robin A. Ward and Susan Troutman4. 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 Language9. 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