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Professional Library
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Inform your teaching with the latest research, find practical teaching tips, or get inspired. This selection of books, journals, and position statements comes to you from the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English.
Books
Text Complexity: Raising Rigor in Reading
Selecting appropriate reading material for students is hard. For decades, teachers have known that quality instruction requires a careful matching of materials to students. The goal is to select materials that are neither too difficult nor too easy for students--a phenomenon sometimes called the Goldilocks Rule.
Lesson Plans for Developing Digital Literacies
Editors Mary T. Christel and Scott Sullivan present a new set of lessons designed to help you integrate a variety of digital applications—Web 2.0 and beyond—into the courses and units you're already teaching.
Journals & Other Publications
Language Arts
Are you interested in language arts learning and teaching of students in grades K-8? Articles from this journal discuss both theory and classroom practice.
Sample Article:
Mar-10 | Violent Red, Ogre Green, and Delicious White: Expanding Meaning Potential through Media
If you're a literacy professional who works with children up to age 12, you'll find a wealth of information in this journal, including practical, evidence-based teaching ideas and information on the latest research.
Voices from the Middle
If you work with students in grades 5-8, you'll find research and best practices in middle-level reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the visual and language arts in these articles.
Sample Article:
Mar-10 | Fresh Perspectives on New Literacies and Technology Integration
This journal, aimed for teachers of older learners, includes practical ideas for instruction, including tips on how to integrate technology, media, and popular culture in your classroom.
English Journal
In this award-winning journal for English language arts teachers in secondary schools, you'll find information on the teaching of writing and reading, literature, and language, and best uses for technology.
Sample Article:
Jul-11 | Ethics as a Form of Critical and Rhetorical Inquiry in the Writing Classroom
Position Statements
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Lesson Plans Related to the Professional Library | ![]() |
Grades 1 – 2 | Lesson Plan
Amelia Bedelia Up Close! Closely Reading a Classic Story
Through a close reading of Amelia Bedelia, students reread the material to discuss text-dependent questions, promoting deep thinking about the text and its characters.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan
Making Memories: An End-of-Year Digital Scrapbook
Students reflect on their school year, creating a digital scrapbook consisting of images and text to present to their school community.
Grades 3 – 6 | Lesson Plan
Color My World: Expanding Meaning Potential through Media
Using different writing/drawing materials (e.g., markers, color pencils, pastels, etc.), students learn how to communicate different moods and/or feelings to support their written ideas and how authors do the same through their work.
Based on Violent Red, Ogre Green, and Delicious White: Expanding Meaning Potential through Media
Grades 5 – 8 | Lesson Plan
Huge Mistakes that Led to Catastrophe: Learning about Human-made Disasters throughout History
After researching various human-made disasters such as the BP oil spill, the sinking of the Titanic, and the Great Chicago Fire, students share their research in oral presentations. Then students pair up to compare and contrast their disasters using the Venn Diagram Student Interactive or the Venn diagram Mobile App.
Based on Fresh Perspectives on New Literacies and Technology Integration
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan
Developing Persuasive Arguments through Ethical Inquiry: Two Prewriting Strategies
In this lesson, students use focused prewriting strategies to explore content and ethical issues related to a persuasive assignment.
Based on Ethics as a Form of Critical and Rhetorical Inquiry in the Writing Classroom
Grades 5 – 12 | Lesson Plan
e-Book Reading and Response: Innovative Ways to Engage with Texts
Students in grades 5 through 12 read and respond to electronic books by using e-book tools and features, including digital note-taking capabilities.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan
Exploring Audience and Purpose with a Single Issue
Students explore the concepts of audience and purpose by focusing on an issue that divided Americans in 1925, the debate of evolution versus creationism raised by the Scopes Monkey Trial.