Across grade levels, teachers and students are encouraged to engage in inquiry-based practices. The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) "Framework" (National Council for the Social Studies, 2013) and the Common Core State "Standards" (Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association, 2010), as well…

The ability to comprehend informational texts is critical to students' academic success in a range of content areas. However, informational texts pose challenges to the reading comprehension of adolescents with or at risk for learning disabilities (LD). One such challenge is the use of multiple text structures in a single text. Text structure…

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…

Finding materials to help students make connections is difficult for many teachers across all grade levels. Traditionally, the textbook is the primary resource for instruction. Textbooks, however, do not naturally support students in making connections across texts. To do this, teachers must find other resources. Finding other resources is…

The authors share a demonstration lesson for preservice teachers that used chants and cadences to teach content area material across the curriculum. They begin with a rationale for developing and implementing interdisciplinary curriculum and for using chants and cadences, in particular, in content area literacy instruction. Next, they describe the…

Response to Intervention (RTI) has the potential to have a positive impact on adolescent literacy by requiring content-area teachers to provide Tier 1 literacy instruction. This commentary suggests that content-area teachers can help their students improve their content knowledge and literacy skills by providing discipline-specific strategy…

Graphic novels (book-length fiction or nonfiction narratives told using the conventions of a comic book) bring together text and image in a way that seems to capture students' imaginations. Right now, there is little more than anecdotal research about how graphic novels can be used within specific middle school and high school disciplines. As…

This article tells the story of one second grade teacher and the ways she integrated informational texts into her classroom. Reported by the classroom teacher and a researcher who studied her practice for a year, the manuscripts detail the ways Michelle (the classroom teacher) embedded informational texts in her classroom primarily within the…

As teachers struggle to balance the needs of their students with the requirements of commercial reading materials, educators need to consider how teachers will create space for children's literature in today's classrooms. In this article, 10 practical recommendations for incorporating children's literature in the reading instructional framework…

Independent reading in the content areas is essential for advancing students' literacy growth through the grades. Middle school students, in particular, profit from opportunities to engage in actual reading and, simultaneously, to be supported from an appropriate structure. Specifically, they need substantial time to read, frequent immersion in a…

Research has shown that the use of pre-reading activities, such as graphic or advance organizers can positively affect student acquisition of vocabulary and meaning when reading new concepts presented in text. One particularly effective strategy, semantic mapping, can significantly impact students who previously had a lack of prior knowledge on…

This article discusses the benefits of using picture books with adolescent readers, describes strategies that can be taught with picture books, and provides examples of books the author has used. Some of the topics discussed include: reading comprehension, visual literacy, interactive read-aloud with facilitative talk, literary elements, and…

Science education depends on literacy. But adding reading to a curriculum that is already packed with content, experiments, and activities can be tough. So how can a teacher accomplish this, while ensuring that students have multiple opportunities for valuable inquiry learning? This Idea Bank provides three strategies for integrating reading into…

Career and technical education (CTE) is emerging as a reading content area similar to other academic areas such as social studies, math and science. The primary reason for this is that CTE is more integrated with academic subjects. This trend is prompting CTE teachers to become more active in supporting their students' reading through their CTE…

Developing and implementing curriculum that is relevant, challenging, integrative, and exploratory is central to successful middle grades education (Erb, 2005; Jackson & Davis, 2000; National Middle School Association [NMSA], 2003, 2010). However, as one language arts teacher suggests, it can be difficult to create curricula that meet these…