Exemplary Instruction in the Middle Grades Teaching That Supports Engagement and Rigorous Learning

Offering fresh alternatives to common instructional practices that fail to get results, this accessible, highly practical guide highlights ways to motivate middle school students while enhancing content-area learning. Each chapter features an enlightening case study of a teacher whose current strategies are not supported by research; describes effective instructional alternatives, illustrated with concrete examples; and lists online resources and lesson examples. Emphasis is given to supporting critical engagement with texts and drawing on technology and new literacies. The book covers specific content areas—including science, social studies, math, and literature—as well as ways to teach oral literacy and writing across the curriculum.

I. Teaching Content Literacy1. If They Cant Read Their Science BooksTeach Them How, Maria Grant 2. If They Cant Read Their Social Studies BooksSupport Their Learning with Guided Instruction, Karen D. Wood, Jennifer I. Hathaway, and Lina B. Soares3. If You Want to Motivate the Learning of MathematicsUse the Visual Arts as a Lens to Learning, Robin A. Ward and Susan Troutman4. If You Want to Move Beyond the TextbookAdd Young Adult Literature to Content Area Classes, Virginia S. Loh 5. If You Want Students to ReadMotivate Them, Joan Kindig 6. If You Want Students to Use New LiteraciesGive Them the Opportunity, Stephanie Schmier and Marjorie Siegel 7. If You Want Students to Evaluate Online Resources and Other New MediaTeach Them How, Jill Castek 8. If You Think Students Should Be Critically LiterateShow Them How, Peggy Albers II. Developing Spoken and Written Language9. If You Want to Take the Ho-Hum Out of HistoryTeach Writing Thats Right for New Times, Dana L. Grisham and Thomas DeVere Wolsey 10. If Students Are Unmotivated WritersMotivate Them, Jane Hansen and Timothy Shea 11. If Students Are Not Succeeding as WritersTeach Them to Self-Assess Using a Rubric, Judy M. Parr and Rebecca Jesson 12. If You Want Students to Learn Academic EnglishTeach It to Them, Dianna Townsend 13. If You Want Students to Learn VocabularyMove Beyond Copying Words, Kathy Ganske 14. If You Value Student CollaborationHold Students Accountable for Collaborative Group Work, Heather Casey III. Establishing Effective Learning Routines 15. If You Think Book Clubs MatterSet Some Up Online, Thomas DeVere Wolsey and Dana L. Grisham, with Melissa Provost 16. If You Want Students to Read Widely and WellEliminate Round-Robin Reading, Kelly Johnson and Diane Lapp 17. If You Want to Eliminate Misconceptions and ErrorsSupport Learning with Questions, Prompts, Cues, and Explanations, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey 18. If You Want Students to Take Notes Instead of Copying ThemTeach Them How, Christianna Alger and Barbara Moss 19. If You Want to Help Students Organize Their LearningFold, Think, and Write with Three-Dimensional Graphic Organizers, Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher 20. If Homework Really MattersAssign Some Thats Valuable, Cynthia H. Brock, Julie L. Pennington, and Jennifer D. Morrison

Diane Lapp, EdD, is Distinguished Professor of Education in the Department of Teacher Education at San Diego State University. She has taught elementary, middle, and high school and serves as Director of Learning at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Her research and instruction focus on issues related to struggling readers and writers who live in economically deprived urban settings, and their families and teachers. Widely published, Dr. Lapp has received the Outstanding Teacher Educator of the Year Award from the International Literacy Association, among other honors, and is a member of both the International Reading Hall of Fame and the California Reading Hall of Fame.Barbara Moss, PhD, is Professor of Literacy Education in the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University. She has taught English and language arts in elementary, middle, and high school settings and has worked as a reading coach. Dr. Mosss research focuses on the teaching of informational texts at the elementary and secondary levels. She regularly presents at local, state, national, and international conferences and has published numerous journal articles, columns, book chapters, and books. Dr. Moss has served as the Young Adult Literature column editor for Voices in the Middle, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English.