Improved English Language Arts instruction within classrooms and schools that typically serve low-income, English Language Learners, and Students with Special Needs is important for ensuring all students receive rigorous and inclusive instruction. From the case of a Networked Improvement Community focused on improving instructional practices…

Current research on instructional practices for secondary student writing reveals little emphasis on compositions requiring analysis, interpretation, and argumentation. Indeed, written expression in English language arts classes is generally confined to writing assignments of very limited length. Additionally, recent efforts for educational reform…

This commentary is based on two of the lessons the author learned as the professor in residence at ASU Preparatory Academy-Phoenix (ASU Prep), a Title I school operated in partnership with the Phoenix Elementary School District. Her role as a university professor on special assignment as a literacy coach, staff developer, and co-researcher. The…

This study examined how content area teachers' literacy knowledge developed during a yearlong professional development initiative focused on using the framework of Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) within explicit instruction. The initiative focused on the metacognitive thinking in which teachers engage during QAR instruction. The participating…

The progress and effects of a collaborative study group as a method of job-embedded professional development were studied. Eight high school teachers representing a variety of disciplines and the author (a literacy specialist) met monthly as a collaborative group for one school year to investigate materials and methods for literacy strategy…

Presents a remodeled reading strategy for high school students that is based on K-W-L and some of its variations. Develops a strategy handout that both teachers and students could use and that would facilitate teaching the curriculum rather than take time away from it. Notes that the "B-D-A" labels the essential before, during, and after…

Notes how the author has developed the Teaching and Learning Cues (TLC) approach, an offspring of textbook organizational patterns instruction that stresses the significance of certain words and phrases in reading. Concludes that with the TLC approach, students learn to appreciate the important role cue words and phrases play in understanding…

Considers what literacy teachers can do to prevent subsequent school failure and lowered test scores with media attention on school violence and trauma in and out of schools. Suggests bibliotherapy, a familiar tool used in earlier decades by teachers to counsel students with problems, is useful today in dealing with students who suffer from…

Provides some historical perspectives on bilingual instruction for adults. Discusses several factors that currently have an impact on education for language-minority adults. Makes a case for the development of bilingual instruction for adults. Concludes with an example of what bilingual instruction might look like in a classroom and with a call…

Explores "fanfiction" (fiction written by fans of mass culture, such as "anime," Japanese animation) as a valid literacy practice in the context of the Multiliteracies framework. Strives to understand youth culture better and to make school literacy instruction more responsive to learners' needs. Discusses "Anime" as…

Highlights how positive and productive student-teacher relationships were developed and sustained using new communication technologies during a program aimed at developing technological literacies for groups of Indigenous middle-school students in Australia. Suggests that incidental e-mail communication between teacher and student provides a new…

Addresses the precise planning needed to use graphic organizers in the classroom by offering four instructional suggestions for their use: be authentically prepared; promote interaction among students; use graphic organizers with discrimination; and expand use of graphic organizers. Offers teachers an opportunity to use a graphic organizer…

Presents a teaching method that provides students with the necessary tools to analyze college-level poetry. Suggests that because reader response has greatly overplayed its corrective to "New Criticism," the HEI (Hypothesis-Experiment-Instruction) method of teaching literature could serve as a third choice among teachers interested in avoiding the…

Describes how Estonian language and literature have been taught at Russian-language schools in Estonia. Notes a lack of interesting reading materials, and describes how this instruction could be improved. (SR)

Describes how subject area teachers at one high school used grant money to change their teaching styles, significantly improving students' reading abilities. Details how reading achievement testing was conducted and the results were translated into effective literacy reforms designed to go beyond "teaching to the middle." Tracks the experiences of…