This article presents the concept of tri-texts as a potential next step from paired texts following a collaborative inquiry with fifth-grade students. Paired texts are two texts intertextually connected, whereas tri-texts are three texts connected this way. The authors begin the article with a short literature review highlighting some of the…

Content vocabulary is essential for children's comprehension of informational text. Teachers will need to support children in developing the technical or specialized words they need for informational text and in linking these words to key concepts in content area instruction. This article describes the vocabulary instruction that was observed…

This teaching tip highlights a strategy that assists teachers in structuring classroom discussions about texts. Specifically, this conversational technique helps students think and talk about a text beyond its literal meaning. During classroom conversations that employ this strategy, teachers help students extend their overall understanding of a…

In contemporary contexts, young people are accustomed to life story; indeed, their lives are saturated with constructions of their stories and those of others, whether created by themselves or their "friends" on social networks. Multimedia outlets convey often detailed stories of more-famous others, whether celebrities or those experiencing…

The purpose of this "teaching tips" article is to describe practical classroom instruction that helps elementary students write expository responses to narrative texts. It focuses on the importance of scaffolded, interactive discussions comprised of a combination of teacher think alouds and similar student responses before, during, and…

The author does not really like "Hamlet." He loves the play, the language, and the characters, but always finds it difficult to teach. Part of this is because he prefers to assign students scenes to perform as they read a Shakespeare text, but Hamlet does not divide nicely into manageable scenes, and he usually does not have enough teenage Ken…

Discusses Julia Kristeva's notion of text--the tension between the semiotic and the symbolic--and how the tension can be made visible through typeface variation and other shaping techniques possible with word-processing software. Shares ways the author encourages students in first-year English classes to explore possibilities for incorporating…

Describes the storyline instructional strategy and its application to social studies. Storyline consists of incorporating content area material into an evolving narrative with subsequent material added to the story. Includes examples from grades 2, 9, and 11 storyline instructional units. (MJP)