Professional+Resource+Sharing+Page

Fall 2008 – Reading 780 Professional Resource Sharing Page

Week 1 – Elizabeth Alderton //WSRA Journal// This journal is published by the Wisconsin State Reading Association. It is a valuable resource for reading teachers and it provides practical ideas as well as research. This journal is published three times a year. As a member of WSRA, you receive this as will as //WSRA Update// bimonthly. I highly suggest this publication for reading professionals in Wisconsin. The WSRA website is www.wsra.org

Week 2- Mara Nelson National Geographic Explorer (for elementary students) This magazine is a great one to subscribe to for use in the classroom. Each student receives their own magazine and as the teacher you get extra materials containing teaching ideas, important vocabulary, comprehension questions, before and after reading ideas, answers keys, etc. that are benefical resources. National Geographic Explorer is a great resource to use with teaching science and social studies in the classroom. There are awesome colorful pictures as well as text for the students to read and learn from. At the end of each magazine there are also activites for them complete.

Week 3 - Julie Lardinois //Creating Strategic Readers: Techniques for Developing Competency in Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension// by Valerie Ellery (2005 International Reading Association) This book is packed full of useful strategies and techniques to teach phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension in the classroom. Each strategy has an explanation given, which explains why the strategy is important and how it helps students. Then different techniques are given to help teach the strategy. Suggestions are given for teaching emergent, early, transitional, and fluent readers. I like the variety of techniques given because I can find ones that will meet my students’ needs.

Week 4 - Kim Trent //To Understand// by: Ellin Keene (2007, Heinemann) In this book, Ellin Keene stresses the importance for students K-12 to achieve deep understanding of the text they read. She believes the best way to do this is through having conversations with our students. Talking about what they read and having them ask questions in order to probe deeper understanding. She knows this is a difficult task since teachers are so bogged down by having to teach 20+ pages of curriculum and having to complete so many assessments. In order to "fix" this problem she asserts that teachers teach only what is essential in literacy development. Ellin Keene developed a K-12 curriculum. This curriculum is divided into two main parts: surface structure system which contains subsets (grapho-phonic, lexical, syntactic) and deep structure system which contains semantic, schematic, and pragmatic. After each of these systems she asks "What do children need to know and be able to do in each system to show us they can use each system independently?" She also firmly believes less is more. By reducing the number of concepts that we teach, we can teach more in depth what is really important. Students need to be able to retain and reapply what they learn. Ellin provides many examples and provides a great message for all teachers.

Week 5 - Abbi Wills Phillips "What's NEW in Young Adult Literature and How to Use it in Your Program (grades 6-12) 2008" Conference Resource Handbook by: Deborah Hipes This handbook gives annotated bibliographies of new young adult literature and lots of ideas for using books in your classroom. Deborah gives listings for novels, nonfiction, graphic novels, collections, picture books and poetry. She also gives ideas on how to introduce and use award winning books. She finishes out the handbook with a huge section on using fairy tales with older students. This is an awsome resource and the conference it came from was totally worth the time and money.

Week 6—//Educational Leadership--//  Amanda Benson This publication is put out by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. My reading specialist recommended it to me because she finds it helpful as a resource for many different topics. //Educational Leadership//  is published eight times per year, and is circulated to over 175,000 people throughout the world. ASCD states on its website that they are an “authoritative source of information about teaching and learning, new ideas and practices relevant to practicing educators, and the latest trends and issues affecting prekindergarten through higher education.”    Recently, //Educational Leadership//   has won three awards APEX Awards for Publication Excellence, the Society of National Association Publications (SNAP) and Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) Award. More information or subscription details can be found at  www.ascd.org  .  Week Seven-Jennifer Schoonover //What Great Teachers Do DIFFERENTLY: 14 Things That Matter Most// by Todd Whitaker (2004, Eye on Educaion, Inc.) Though this book does not focusing on reading specifically, I feel it is one every people working in the field of education should read. We are currently doing a book study using this book at my school and it is nice because not only is this book an easy read, but it also inspires teachers to really take a look at their teaching practices.

"This book describes the beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that form the fabric of life in our best classrooms and schools. It focuses on the specific things that great teachers do ... that others do not. It answers these essential questions: - Is it high expectations for students that matter? - How do great teachers respond when students misbehave? - Do great teachers filter differently than their peers? - How do the best teachers approach standardized testing? (amazon.com)"

Overall, I would recommend this book to **__anyone__** who works with students on a daily basis.

Week Eight-Seth Breunig //The Reading Teacher// (journal of the International Reading Association) - http://www.reading.org/publications/journals/rt/index.html

I found this journal when doing research for my group's discussion. Its articles deal with everything pertaining to literacy and classroom practices. I liked that the articles generally have direct connections to how a teacher might put the research and theory presented into practice, as well as the many articles by teachers. It can be found in print at Polk as well as through the library's internet search tools. Their website even invites articles from teachers on certain subjects. I found this journal very helpful concerning research, and I believe it will be just as helpful in the classroom.

Week Eight- Jenny Hengel //Book Links// by American Library Association

This publication is put out by the ALA and is great not only for library media specialists, but also literacy specialists/coaches. In the magazine you will find sections entitled: what's new, quick tips, classroom connections, and books/authors. The what's new sections provides a list of the best new classroom books grades prek-12. In quick tips, you will find resources to aid in classroom literacy instruction. The books/authors section is interesting in that it focuses on newly released books/authors- it serves almost as a book talk. Finally in classroom connections, the articles provided are researched based techniques in how to improve/promote literacy in the classroom environment. I found each section of this publication facinating and very applicable.

Week Nine-Nikki Nelson //Reading Aloud and Beyond, Fostering the Intellectual Life with Older Readers//, by Frank Serafini and Cyndi Giorgis

This book helps you find and use read alouds with your older students. It also contains ideas to use in the classroom before, during and after you have done the read aloud. I like it because I work with middle school students, however their academic abilites range more in the Pre K-3rd grade range.

//Strategies for Reading Assessment and Instruction, Helping Every Child Succeed//, by D. Ray Reutzel and Robert B. Cooter Jr.

This book provides pratical resources for understanding reading instruction and ready to use assessment tools for a comprehensive reading program.

Week 11- Nadine Mathu //Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?// by Cris Tovani, Stenhouse Publishing The title of this book says a great deal. It is designed to assist content area teachers with fostering comprehension strategies in their students grades 6-12. It directly addresses the belief that //all// teachers benefit from training in helping students improve literacy skills.

I think the biggest strength of Tovani's book is that she takes her expertise in teaching reading and applies it with secondary students in mind. It doesn't just take elementary strategies and try to bring them up a level. She orginates the ideas with older students' mindsets and content, and there are relatively few books that do this for secondary teachers.

Week10- Sarah Warren //Pre-Referral Intervention Mannual: Third Edition// This book lists the most common learning and behavior problems encounterd in the educational envirorment. The book lists problems teachers face and gives a lenghly list of different interventions to try. It is a very helpful resource and lots of suggestions. It is a great tool for teachers!

Week 12 - Melanie Sickinger //Response to Intervention: Blueprints for Implementation//

These RtI blueprints consider the three stages of implementation: **consensus building** (RtI concepts are "communicated and the 'whys' are taught, discussed and embraced"), **infrastructure building** (examine the site's current implementation versus the components of RtI and address gaps in instruction), and **implementation** (provide the structure and support to "stabilize and institutionalize RtI practices). These two documents provide the steps involved in the action plan, the resources available, and some "wisdom from the field". Between the two documents, it lays out both an overall district plan as well as a school building plan.

Published in 2008, this resource was compiled by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) and the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE).

Week 13 __The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists__ and __The Big Book of Children's Reading Lists__ Nancy J Keane

These books contain lists that are seperated into genres or themes that contain titles and a description of the book. Great books!