Recent English Language Arts standards emphasize teaching students to use text evidence to support their claims and opinions; yet, students often struggle to do so effectively in their writing. To help students develop this skill, clearer understanding of what effective evidence use entails and targeted feedback to guide students' writing…

Twenty-first century literacy requires students to analyze and create images for communication across and within academic disciplines. Thus, literacy teachers are now responsible for supporting students as they engage with visual texts. We must carefully and intentionally choose images for teaching practice and consider the reader, instructional…

Revision is an important aspect of the writing process but is often challenging for students. Peer review can be helpful, but training is needed for it to work effectively. This article suggests an approach to preparing students for peer review by teaching specific evaluation criteria and leading collaborative practice in reviewing papers written…

Among the types of assessment the closest to daily reading instruction is formative assessment. In contrast to summative assessment, which occurs after instruction, formative assessment involves forming judgments frequently in the flow of instruction. Key features of formative assessment include identifying gaps between where students are and…

Building on existing research applying app maps (Israelson, 2015), the authors take an ideological orientation to broaden app evaluations and consider participatory literacies, social and communicational practices relevant to children's everyday digitally mediated lives. Drawing from their North American elementary classroom studies on children's…

In this column, readers are asked to reconsider several traditional instructional strategies, in particular predicting and picture walks, and the role these practices play in the elementary reading curriculum. In addition, what happens after a book has been read must be reconsidered in light of the activities in which life long readers engage. To…

This article introduces a framework designed to improve students' awareness of the need to critically evaluate websites as sources of information and to improve their skill at doing so. The framework, called the WWWDOT framework, encourages students to think about at least six dimensions when evaluating a website: (1) Who wrote this and what…

Proposes criteria for evaluating research reviews. (FL)

Presents a set of criteria (formulated by students) for evaluating student projects. Notes that the method is called "FINE" (Facts, Interesting, Neatness, Effort). (SR)

Reports findings of an evaluation of "The Reading Teacher" that concluded the journal was "a fine publication." (FL)

Suggests 10 questions teachers should ask themselves before buying materials to teach reading skills. (FL)

Reviews the five criteria with which to evaluate instructional materials (content validity, transfer potential, amount of reinforcement, quality of directions and instructional language, and adaptability/flexibility). Presents content bias as the last criterion. Reviews four resources for developing reference and study skills. (MG)

Discusses different types of reading program evaluation. (FL)

Looks at a number of features to consider when choosing a computer for classroom use. (FL)

Examines the quality of basal readers and textbooks, discusses some of the forces affecting textbook quality and selection, and offers suggestions for coping with less-than-adequate reading materials. (FL)