Full Description
Filling a vital need for grades 6-8 educators, this practical guide presents a field-tested framework for promoting students' reading, writing, and collaborative learning in the middle school years. The expert authors describe ways to scaffold the development of content knowledge and core literacy skills using challenging, full-length anchor texts and connected text sets. They provide specific differentiation strategies and instructional routines, all emphasizing culturally responsive practice. Teachers see how students with varying support needs can engage productively in lessons focused on reading, discussion, grammar and language, writing, and research. In a convenient large-size format, the book includes links to two complete lesson modules, numerous "Try It Yourself!" activities for teachers, and 19 reproducible/downloadable forms.
Contents
1. Introduction
- A Design Opportunity
- The Need for Evidence-Based Knowledge Building
- The Role of Text Sets
- Deciding to Center Students
2. Middle School Students and Their Teachers
- What Do We Want Middle School Students to Know and Be Able to Do?
- Demographics and Achievement
- Defining Adolescent Readers
- Serving Middle School Teachers
- Positioning Curriculum
3. Feasible Differentiation in Middle School
- Early Leaders in Differentiation
- Persistent Questions
- So, Is Differentiation Feasible and Effective?
- The Need for a Change
- Curriculum in the Mix
4. Choosing Anchor Texts and Building Text Sets
- Reading Comprehension and Text Representation
- Building Background Knowledge through Quad Text Sets
- Selecting Anchor Texts
- Text Complexity
- Quantitative Complexity
- Qualitative Complexity
- Readers and Tasks
- Quad Texts in Action
- Try It Yourself!
5. Planning for Equity
- Achievement Gap
- Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Pedagogy
- Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework
- CRSE Guidance for ELA Instructional Solutions
- Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard
- Using Outside Readers
- Beyond a Single Story
- Try It Yourself!
6. Routines for Knowledge Building
- Starting with Evidence
- Addressing Standards
- Identifying Affordances for Teaching with Text
- Instructional Routines for Building Topic and Vocabulary Knowledge
- Opportunities for Differentiation
- Try It Yourself!
7. Routines for Reading
- Starting with Evidence
- Addressing Standards
- Identifying Affordances for Teaching with Text
- Creating a Robust Sequence of Steps in a Lesson
- Instructional Routines for Reading the Anchor Text
- Instructional Routines for Reading Text Sets
- Building Challenge over Time
- Opportunities for Differentiation
- Try It Yourself!
8. Routines for Discussion
- Starting with Evidence
- Addressing Standards
- Identifying Affordances for Teaching with Text
- Creating a Robust Sequence of Steps in a Lesson
- Instructional Routines for Targeted Discussions
- Building Challenge over Time
- Opportunities for Differentiation
- Try It Yourself!
9. Routines for Grammar and Language
- Starting with Evidence
- Addressing Standards
- Identifying Affordances for Teaching with Text
- Creating a Robust Sequence of Steps in a Lesson
- Instructional Routines for Grammar and Language
- Building Challenge over Time
- Opportunities for Differentiation
- Try It Yourself!
10. Routines for Writing
- Starting with Evidence
- Addressing Standards
- Creating a Robust Sequence of Steps in a Lesson
- Instructional Routines for Teaching Writing
- Modeling the Writing Process
- Guiding Students to Revise
- Modeling the Revision
- Feedback
- Building Challenge over Time
- Opportunities for Differentiation
- Try It Yourself!
- 11. Routines for Research
- Starting with Evidence
- Addressing Standards
- Creating a Robust Sequence of Steps in a Lesson
- Instructional Routines for Research
- Instructional Routines for Presenting Information
- Building Challenge over Time
- Opportunities for Differentiation
- Try It Yourself!
12. Routines for Assessment
- Starting with Evidence
- Addressing Standards
- Model-Practice-Assess Assessment Series
- Try It Yourself!
- Comprehension Assessment
- Try It Yourself!
- Culminating Tasks
- Try It Yourself!
13. Changing the Status Quo in Middle School
- Try It Yourself!
References
Index
