Illinois Reading Council Journal

Teaching English language arts at grades K-5 is both a science and an art. Educators must teach literacy skills and content with best practices, while also keeping focus on each student's individual needs. They are challenged to monitor students working independently while also conducting small group instruction. And they must focus on providing differentiated support with a rather complicated text. With increased attention to rigor, requirements, and personalized instruction, it can be a challenge to make sure all students are receiving instruction that is just right. Comprehensive Literacy Basics: An Anthology by Capstone Professional contains useful tips to support educators. Chapters focus on each part of the literacy and language arts block, including whole group, small group, writing, and differentiation. A collection of expert authors specializing in literacy and language arts instruction contributed chapters to the book. The quick tips and suggestions within will reinforce current practices while providing an invaluable go-to reference.

The latest edition of Pamela Farris’s popular, value-priced text continues to
offer pre- and in-service teachers creative strategies and proven techniques sensitive to the needs of all elementary and middle school learners. Coverage includes the C3 Framework and the four sets of learning from the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Farris, together with contributors who specialize in implementing successful teaching methods and theories, demonstrate how classroom teachers can excite and inspire their students to be engaged learners.

Teacher leadership is a critical component of effective curriculum assessment and professional development. With teacher-led inquiry being utilized, schools can better improve their learning programs. Literacy Program Evaluation and Development Initiatives for P-12 Teaching is a pivotal resource for the latest research on the benefits of using teacher educators to facilitate the assessment and improvements of school literacy programs. Highlighting a range of relevant topics on professional learning and teacher leadership, this book is ideally designed for school administrators, teachers, researchers, and academics.

Contemporary Readings in Literacy Education is designed to provide students with high-quality journal and research articles in literacy education. The readings are contextualized with introductions and discussion questions by the editors of the text. The text will help instructors to easily integrate the latest research into their course in a meaningful way. This reader, with edited content and contextualizing material, makes the latest research more interesting and accessible to the students of literacy education.

(Sponsored by the Middle Level Education Research SIG and the National Middle School Association) The Young Adolescent and the Middle School focuses on issues related to the nature of young adolescence and the intersection of young adolescence with middle level schooling. This volume of the Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education marks the sixth installment in the series. The Handbook series, begun in 2001 by Vince Anfara, the series editor, has addressed varying thematic issues important to middle level education research. This volume, The Young Adolescent and the Middle School, focuses on the unique developmental needs of young adolescents and the role of the middle school in attending to these needs. The contributing authors in this volume address one of three developmental areas critical to young adolescents—physical development, intellectual/cognitive development, or social and personal development—and how these developmental characteristics affect the educational environment and the organization of middle schools.

Bringing together leading experts, this book presents the principles of effective literacy leadership and describes proven methods for improving instruction, assessment, and schoolwide professional development. The book shows how all school staff--including reading specialists and coaches, administrators, teachers, and special educators--can play an active role in nurturing a culture of collaboration and promoting student achievement. Best practices are identified for creating strong elementary and secondary literacy programs, differentiating instruction, supporting English language learners, utilizing technology, building home-school partnerships, and much more. User-friendly features include case examples, guiding questions, and engagement activities in each chapter.