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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years because of Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
High on the side of rocky Mount Eskel, far from the valleys where gardens are green and lush, where lowlanders make laws, Miri's family has lived forever, pounding a living from the stone of the mountain itself. For as long as she can...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Bloomability by Sharon Creech
Bloomability, by Newbery medalist Sharon Creech, tells the coming-of-age tale of Dinnie, a thirteen-year-old girl uprooted from her parents' nomadic lifestyle to spend a year in Switzerland. Dinnie is used to change, since her whole life...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Betsy and the Emperor by Staton Rabon
Fourteen-year-old English girl Betsy Balcombe and her family have an unusual houseguest: Napoleon Bonaparte, former emperor of France and the most feared man on earth. Once lord and master to eighty-two million souls, now, in 1815,...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: A Troubled Peace by l.m. Elliott
A Troubled Peace, the sequel to L. M. Elliott's award-winning Under a War-Torn Sky, chronicles nineteen-year-old U.S. Air Force pilot Henry Forester's adventures in France from March through July 1945. Although Henry safely returned from...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: For Middle Schoolers: Activities to Build College Level Reading Skills
ACT has developed this list of activities to help middle-school students improve their reading ability. Parents and educators can use this information to help ensure that these students are on target for college and career readiness.
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Ad lit.org: Tough Choices or Tough Times (Skills of American Workforce)
America's approach to education has lagged behind as industry and technology have continued to advance. To truly prepare students for the 21st century workforce, and to remain competitive in the global economy, the National Center on...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Enhancing Outcomes for Struggling Adolescent Readers
With so much required of high schools today, there is little time or money to spend on the students who lack basic skills. This article presents important factors leading to success for struggling adolescent readers, taken from...
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Ad lit.org: Extra Support for Adolescent El Ls
Before- and after-school programs can play an important role in ELLs' success by providing a place and time for homework, extra academic support, and enrichment activities. These programs are particularly helpful for older students who...
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Ad lit.org: Interventions for Struggling Adolescent Readers
This article presents a round-up of intervention initiatives aimed at struggling adolescent readers. It provides a snapshot of program characteristics and research findings for Reciprocal Teaching, Apprenticeship in Reading, Read 180,...
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Ad lit.org: Classroom Strategies: Seed Discussion
A Seed Discussion is a two-part strategy used to teach students how to engage in discussions about assigned readings. In the first part, students read selected text and identify "seeds" or key concepts of a passage which may need...
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Ad lit.org: Use Easy Nonfiction to Build Background Knowledge
A Texas librarian shares his strategy of using nonfiction picture books to introduce new concepts to struggling adolescent readers and to build their background knowledge. Once students have been exposed to academic content in easy...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Provide Models, Examples and Nonexamples
Similar to expert craftsmen teaching their trades to apprentices, teachers can model thinking and problem-solving skills to their students. Read more about various classroom modeling techniques.
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Ad lit.org: Using Multiple Texts to Teach Content
Each of us, every day, has to contend with multiple messages or texts-in the news, over the Internet, in our workplace, in books, and in conversation. Making sense of these sometimes conflicting messages is critical. But without being...
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Ad lit.org: Lunchroom to Classroom: Authentic Assessment & the Brown Bag Exam
A Brown Bag Exam uses found objects and images to help students activate prior knowledge and creates a framework for students to express their understanding. Students work individually and in collaboration to create concrete connections...
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Ad lit.org: Reading (And Scaffolding) Narrative Texts
Students need to learn the purposes and methods of narration in order to understand the narrative framework and to eliminate frustration when they read. When students know the narrative elements, they can more easily follow the story...
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Ad lit.org: A Reading Initiative With Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
How can school leaders support school-wide reading initiatives? Here are keys to leading the way in the areas of reading curriculum, instruction, assessment, and motivation.
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Paper Towns by John Green
Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign...
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Ad lit.org: Poor Children's Fourth Grade Slump
Teachers have often reported a fourth-grade slump in literacy development, particularly for low-income children, at the critical transition from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." This study uses Chall's stages of reading...
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Ad lit.org: Hooking Reluctant Ell Readers
In this excerpt from her essay "Literacy Development for Latino Students," published in The Best for Our Children: Critical Perspectives on Literacy for Latino Students, Teacher's College Press, the author describes the reading program...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Teaching Elements of Personal Narrative Texts
This resource presents instructional writing practices that support content-area learning, with specific strategies for teaching the thinking skills, processes, and knowledge needed to effectively write personal narrative texts. Some of...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Teaching Persuasive Text: Writing Persuasive Essays
This resource explores instructional practices for persuasive essay writing in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies classes. It uses original content from the Texas Adolescent Literacy Academies: Focus on...
International Reading Association
Reading Online: Fostering High Levels of Reading and Learning in Secondary
In this commentary, the author, Michael Graves, Professor at the University of Minnesota, seeks to include findings related to adolescent reading related to reading for understanding and showing "where" to fit in reading in the secondary...
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Ad lit.org: A Summary of "Writing Next"
What does research tell us about effective teaching techniques to help adolescents develop their writing skills? This article summarizes Writing Next, a 2007 study of adolescent writing instruction.