Author Gwen J. Pauloski introduces four flexible adolescent literacy practices that help secondary students make deeper sense of the complex informational texts they encounter in school and beyond. Adolescent readers learn age-appropriate comprehension strategies and practice applying them as they discuss, analyze, and write about their reading.…

Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Communication Theory, Communication Research Methods, Introduction to Communication Studies. Objectives: This is an introductory exercise that acquaints students with rhetorical criticism as a means of communication inquiry. By the end of the exercise, students will be able to: understand symbols as connected and…

"High Attention Reading" offers a new way to get students of all reading levels to independently read informational texts with more effort, attention, and stamina. Hale argues that increasing the number of informational texts children read is important but not enough to achieve this goal. In order to prepare students for the reading…

In this secondary-level lesson, students will generate and prioritize questions about the novel coronavirus and evaluate scientific and/or technical information from multiple authoritative sources, assessing the evidence and usefulness of each source for answering their prioritized questions. This lesson consists of three segments: (1) connecting…

Since "Reading Power" was launched ten years ago in an elementary school in Vancouver, it has evolved into a recognized approach to comprehension instruction being implemented across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and China. This groundbreaking approach shows teachers how to help students think while they…

In this new edition of their groundbreaking book "Strategies That Work," Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis share the work and thinking they've done since the second edition came out a decade ago and offer new perspectives on how to explicitly teach thinking strategies so that students become engaged, thoughtful, independent readers.…

"Getting Beyond "I Like the Book": Creating Space for Critical Literacy in K-6 Classrooms" (second edition) draws you into life in classrooms where students and teachers together use critical literacy as a framework for taking on local and global issues like racism and gender using books and everyday texts such as school posters and…

One of the greatest challenges for English language arts teachers today is the call to engage students in more complex texts. Tim Gillespie, who has taught in public schools for almost four decades, has found the lenses of literary criticism a powerful tool for helping students tackle challenging literary texts. Tim breaks down the dense language…

Suggests the technique of set diagraming, used for reviewing the rhetoric of an argument, as a method for helping students critically analyze arguments in their reading. (SJL)

Examines the nature of comprehension from a linguist's, researcher's and teacher's perspectives. Suggests teaching inferential comprehension keeping the reader's experience in mind. (MKM)

The dimensions of critical thinking and reading encompass the levels of analysis, reaction, evaluation, and growth in self-image. Historically, the four major views of critical reading have seen it as a cognitive process, a way of detecting propaganda devices, a way of examining distorted and dishonest use of language, and a way of applying the…

Describes how to adapt a film study technique (Richard Lacey's image sound skim) to literary study (the image or scene skim) to develop students' skill in perceptive reading. (DD)

Shows how a single passage might be handled by New Criticism, structuralism, deconstructionism, psychological criticism, and feminist criticism. Concludes that a plurality of critical approaches is better than a unity of approach. (RS)

Describes how the works of Dr. Seuss--particularly "On Beyond Zebra"--provide an ideal medium to engage children in critical reading, discussion, and reflection. (MM)

Many teachers have probably read numerous pieces of writing that reflect students personal lives but don't reveal new understandings about themselves and their world. Use this resource to take upper elementary students writing to a deeper level with a critical approach that focuses on questioning multiple viewpoints, exploring social issues, and…