Instruction and Assessment Resources (PDF Files)

 

Teaching the READING Process

Reading & Literature:    

 

FAVORITE LINKS FOR TEACHING READING:

 

Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site
A collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics

   

CIERA [Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement]
An archived repository for publications useful to researchers and practitioners in the field of early literacy. Three types of documents collected here include: 1) Progress reports: Updates on upcoming research reports, containing important new information and analysis. 2) CIERA-related pieces relevant to the center's goals and research interests. 3) Miscellaneous materials

Doucette Index: K-12 Literature-Based Teaching Ideas: An Index to Books and Websites (University of Calgary)
Provides access to books and websites that contain useful teaching suggestions related to books for children and young adults, and the creators of those books

Reading Strategies: Scaffolding Students’ Interactions with Texts (Greece Central School District)
An excellent collection of active before-, during-, and after-reading strategies with explanations of how to use them in a reading or content area classroom; includes purposes/goals of each strategy, when to use the strategy, what it looks like, targeted reading skills, and examples of how to modify/differentiate each strategy

Language Resource Guide (Greece Central School District)
Excellent collection of downloadable (PDF) files of reading, writing, thinking, speaking, and listening skills and strategies; essentially, a how-to-teach English Language Arts guide

Instructional Strategies for Targeting Essential Skills (Greece Central School District)
An excellent collection of teaching strategies for addressing students’ ability to understand stated information and comprehend texts, to make inferences and draw conclusions, and to comprehend vocabulary in context

Tools for Reading, Writing, and Thinking (Greece Central School District)
An excellent collection of graphic planning and organizing tools to help students engage in rigorous thinking, organize complex ideas, and scaffold their interactions with texts 

ELA Best Practices: A Resource of Constructivist Teaching Strategies to Promote Active Student Learning (Greece Central School District)
An excellent collection of strategies and teaching activities that promote critical thinking

Themes and Essential Questions: Framing Inquiry and Promoting Critical Thinking (Greece Central School District)
A collection of questions to promote inquiry, clustered around common themes. Such questions are open-ended and resist a simple or single right answer, are deliberately thought-provoking, counterintuitive, and/or controversial; require students to draw upon content knowledge and personal experience; can be revisited throughout a unit to engage students in evolving dialogue and debate; and lead to other essential questions posed by students themselves

Multi-Genre Thematic Literature Lists (Greece Central School District)
An excellent collection of annotated literature titles for employing a thematic, multi-genre approach to teaching literature in grades 6-12 and suggesting how the titles might be used to explore themes designated for each grade level

Kim’s Korner: Ideas for Teaching Reading and Literature
A collection of elementary to middle level reading skills and strategies; contains links to other reading and literature sites

National Reading Panel
Home page of the National Reading Panel, which was created to assess the status of research-based knowledge about reading, including the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching children to read

National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC): Teaching Reading
A description of learner-centered instruction and reflective teaching practice, language teaching methodology, and guidance on specific language skill areas; meant for college and university language instructors, but useful for secondary teachers, as well

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory [NWREL] TOPICS: Reading
A collection of professional journal articles from leading researchers and other sources on teaching and promoting reading

Ohio ESL @ Ohio University: Reading Resources for Teachers
A collection of reading resources, including pedagogy, research, and teaching materials and plans for reading; often such ESL techniques work well for many types of readers

Reading Lady
Elementary teacher resource center and downloads on instruction in Four Blocks Literacy,·Six Trait Writing,·Author Studies,·Comprehension,·Guided Reading,·Poetry, &·Readers Theater

Reading Rockets: Techniques for Teaching Reading Effectively
Elementary reading site which strives to help teachers apply findings from research to help all students learn to read, particularly those for whom reading does not come easy

   

Teaching the WRITING Process

Writing:  

 

FAVORITE LINKS FOR TEACHING WRITING:

   

Writing Rubrics: Using Clear and Consistent Criteria to Evaluate Student Work (Greece Central School District)
An excellent collection of task-specific writing rubrics (criteria lists) to used for assessment throughout the curriculum

Annotated Writing Models (Greece Central School District)
An excellent collection of annotated models of writing in the various genres of: Expository; Persuasive; Literary Response; Creative & Expressive; Reflective; and (true) Essay genres of writing

Assessment: 6+1 Trait® Writing – Scoring @ Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Excellent site for scoring practice for six trait writing [plus additional trait of presentation]; this educational lab pioneered the concept of the traits which make up all good writing: 1) Ideas, the heart of the message; 2) Organization, the internal structure of the piece; 3) Voice, the personal tone and flavor of the author's message; 4) Word Choice, the vocabulary a writer chooses to convey meaning; 5) Sentence Fluency, the rhythm and flow of the language; 6) Conventions, the mechanical correctness; and 7) Presentation, how the writing actually looks on the page

Interactive Six Traits Writing Process
An interdisciplinary approach to teaching and improving student writing based on the Six Traits Writing model; links provide an overview of the model along with the scoring rubrics for each trait and exercises with sample writings, & ratings made by English teachers for scoring practice

Six Trait Web Resources: Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits @ Wired Instructor
Excellent site for lesson plans, rubrics, writing resources, student samples & demonstration papers, rubric rewrites, using literature to teach the six traits, and a bibliography for the six trait writing model

Six Trait Writing Links and Lessons
Excellent site from Arizona school district for lesson plans, rubrics, writing resources, and publishing sites for six trait writing model

Using Picture Books to Teach Narrative and Six Trait Writing
Excellent site for picture book models for each of the six traits of writing; original bibliography of picture books is now separated into individual lists according to writing traits. Annotations for curriculum connections and character traits are still included. While still applicable to Six Trait Writing, some information reflects changes in the writing traits scored in North Carolina

Kim’s Korner
Good site for Six Trait Analytic Writing Model in which writing has been divided into six areas, or traits, that teachers value most: ideas and content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and writing conventions. 

Inspire Young Writers Scholastic Teacher Site
Good site for focused writing activities and resources to promote writing across subject areas;  covers everything from grammar basics to fantasy-writing inspiration – story starters & craft lessons

Writing Resources for Teachers @ Ohio ESL
Includes pedagogy (computers & writing, journaling, process approach, & writing across the curriculum); evaluation (grading rubrics and portfolios); research; and teaching materials and plans

OWL [Online Writing Lab] @ Purdue:  English as a Second Language (ESL) Resources, Handouts and Exercises
Excellent site for many different materials for English as a Second Language (ESL) students and teachers of writing; includes resource pages, handouts, and exercises; on writing and grammar, resources to assist ESL students with general questions about the English language, grammar problems, idioms, and academic conventions, pointers to listservs and online English courses; links to various pedagogical resources, online journals, and an annotated bibliography for ESL instructors

Using Microsoft WORD Tools to Comment on Student Essays
Site contains valuable links for learning how to use various computer tools and process to respond to student writing; includes: 3 specific tools for responding to writing: how to AutoCorrect entries, how to insert comments, and how to tracking changes through several drafts, in addition to tips on word processing ideas, free writing, musical computers, abstracting, and UGH Drafts for self editing

Creative Writing for Teens: Resources for Teaching Writing
Good site for many lesson plans, ideas, exercises and more resources for teaching writing to teens (and others)


Write in the Middle @ Annennberg Media/learner.org
Site contains PDF versions of Dr. Charles Whitaker’s detailed description of the “Best Practices in Teaching Writing” for download, plus annotations of the related 8-workshop video series of writing lessons called Write in the Middle


Institute for Elementary and Secondary Education [IESE] @ Brown University: Teacher Resources: The Teaching of Writing
Good site for pedagogy of teaching writing; includes: general resources, balanced literacy, ESL & the teaching of writing, sites for young writers, and computers and writing sites

Resources for Writing Instruction: General Writing References for Teachers @Literacy Connections
Good bibliography for books about the teaching of writing, although it fails to mention the work of Marcia Freeman and her followers [Building a Writing Community & others- Maupin House Publishing]

      

 

Teaching the RESEARCH Process

 

 

FAVORITE LINKS FOR TEACHING RESEARCH:

 

The Big 6™: An Information Problem-Solving Process

Developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz, the Big6 is the most widely-known and widely-used approach to teaching information and technology skills in the world. When you apply the Big6 steps, you have an essential framework to approach any information-based question.

 

Wrapping Up Research: Teaching Information Skills for the Middle Years of Schooling

Site that provides an overview of the research process and how to teach it; including Defining; Locating; Selecting; Processing; Creating; Evaluating; Outcomes; Teaching Strategies; Student Assessment Sheet; Bibliographies;

 

Librarians Information Online Network: Lesson Plans & Teaching Activities for School Librarians
Site provides links to library and information skills curriculum documents, and related books and periodicals

 

Library of Congress: Learning Page

Front door to more than 100 American Memory collections; lessons, features, activities, tips, & tricks for using over 7 million historical documents, maps, photographs, films, & audio recordings in your classroom.

 

OWL [Online Writing Lab] @ Purdue: Powerpoint Presentations

Provides a variety of PowerPoint presentations to provide instructors support in teaching concepts of writing; to instruct students on the elements of writing; to foster a classroom forum conducive to promoting dialogue and interactivity between students and instructors; to empower writers with opportunities for making informed decisions in their writing endeavors

 

OWL [Online Writing Lab] @ Purdue: Internet Resources & Research: Writing On and With the Internet

Provides a variety of information about searching the World Wide Web; Search Engines & Directories; Online (Writing) Resources; & other Online Writing Labs

 

Corvalis School District: Research Process - Student Questions

Site provides a printer-friendly PDF file of step-by-step Research Process questions for students

 

Teaching Research Papers: Articles & Resources

Site provides a wealth of articles and examples of how to teach the research process, including the I-Search Paper

 

New South Wales Department of Education and Training: School Libraries & Information Literacy Page

Site provides many ideas for teacher-librarians and teachers working together to teach information resources

 

Web English Teacher: Media Literacy & Information Literacy

Excellent site for a variety of ideas for teacher-librarians and teachers working together to teach information resources, including advertising and media literacy, as well as links to webquests

 

 

 

Teaching Study Skills

 

 

Study Skills: 

 

Copyright 2005 Jefferson Parish Public School System Department of Instruction - English Language Arts All Rights Reserved.