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…

In this article, Victoria Risko discusses the power of professional learning that is supported by knowledgeable others and recommends a multi-talented approach that draws on the expertise of reading specialists, literacy coaches, and classroom teachers. Next, she discusses the challenges one faces when implementing professional learning…

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…

This article addresses the relationship among theories related to classroom language and literacy events by first examining the researcher's theoretical perspective on discourse and sociocultural theories of learning development. The analytical heuristic for a microethnographic approach using a variety of theoretical tools is discussed and…

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…

This teacher's manual is a resource to assist teachers in expanding and refining their repertoire of teaching strategies and to guide them in instructional planning and decision making when teaching reading in the content areas. The manual does not prescribe a particular style of teaching--it is of value to teachers as they consider their…

This review examines all data-based ecologically valid studies published in "Learning Disability Quarterly" or "Journal of Learning Disabilities" that addressed reading instruction and were published from 1980 to 1990. It first looks at studies focusing on comprehension, including such reader factors as prior knowledge, metacognition, and visual…