What Independent Readers Do (2 articles)

What Independent Readers Do
October 12, 2017 | Volume 13 | Issue 3
ASCD Express

Accelerate Learning Through Independent Reading

Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher

In his address to the American Library Association in 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama noted that "literacy is the most basic currency of the knowledge economy." The knowledge economy relies on people who can communicate with others, engage in self-reflection and self-direction, and learn autonomously. In a world where information and technology are moving at ever-increasing rates of speed, our students need to know how to build their

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Five Ways to Intentionally Support

 Reading Independence

Gretchen Bridgers

Teachers don't just walk into a classroom, hand over a basal reader, and expect all students to read on the same level or at the same rate of speed. Nor do they expect that students independently read for lengthy chunks of time while deeply comprehending everything that they are reading.

Teaching students to read requires intentional planning, instruction, assessment, and support. Successful teachers create a classroom environment where reading doesn't just happen through luck but grows because of small, simple actions by both teacher and student.

Here are five tips to help teachers get started:

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Character Scrapbook: Analyze Stories

Another post to share from Free Technology for Teachers site ....

Character Scrapbook Helps Students Analyze Stories

Scholastic's Character Scrapbook is an online activity that could help your students analyze the characters in the books that they read. The Character Scrapbook asks students to create a digital drawing of what they think a character from a book looks like. The Character Scrapbook allows students to create digital drawings of people or animals. After creating their drawings students then complete a list of ten things that they know about the character, ten words to describe the character, ten details about the character, ten challenges facing the character, and ten things about the character's personality. When students have completed each page of the Character Scrapbook the pages can be printed.

Applications for Education
Character Scrapbook isn't a revolutionary tool. In fact, you could do the same activity on paper. The one thing that I really like about Character Scrapbook is that digital drawing tool allows students who might not think of themselves as creative artists to create a visual representation of their favorite characters from the books that they read.

ASCD Express Vol. 12 Issue 24, August 24, 2017

Here are some great articles on argumentative, persuasive, writing from the online publication ASCD Express.
(Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development)

Well-Argued Writing

Rather than an act of domination, a good argument can be "an invitation to collaborate, to reason together and, perhaps, to find and inhabit common ground," writes Notre Dame English professor John Duffy. This issue will look at how teachers, in all subject areas, are helping students approach argument writing with a sense of inquiry—generating relevant theses or claims that are supported with clear reasoning and vetted evidence. Use the many tools and activities in this issue to help your students judge and deliver sound arguments.

Features

Thesis Writing Activities: Blocks, Graphic Organizers, and Superman

Corey Thornblad and Gretchen Hazlin

Just like students write hypotheses in science class, they should be writing evidence-based thesis statements in early grades. These activities inject hands-on fun and a sense of play into what can be a daunting task.

State Your Case (as Seen on TV)

John Hayward

A well-argued paragraph is like a court case. Any weakness in evidence, research, and organization can cost one side the whole trial. Here's how to help students build a case, one body paragraph at a time.

The Game of Why

Jessica F. Handley

In this interactive, scaffolded, prewriting activity, teachers build the expectation that students will use evidence—not ego—to make strong and compelling justifications for their arguments. By turning "why" questions into a game, teachers help students become more confident and capable writers.