In this nonfiction piece, Julianna Fields tells the story of Bailey and his two fathers. After protecting Bailey from onlookers' scorn when he was a child, the family decided to participate in a project showcasing the diversity found in local families.
In shared reading, learners observe experts reading with fluency and expression while following along or otherwise engaging with the text. This strategy should focus on a specific instructional element (or mini-lesson) that improves targeted reading comprehension skills and promotes Common Core readiness.
Tens of thousands of unaccompanied children have fled to the United States. What does this mean for communities, including schools, across the country?
Amy is a language arts and reading teacher. She is the author of Re-engaging Disconnected Youth: Transformative Learning Through Restorative and Social Justice Education and is a recipient of the 2014 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching.
In reading against the grain students analyze the dominant reading of a text and engage in alternative or "resistant" readings. Resistant readings scrutinize the beliefs and attitudes that typically go unexamined in a text, drawing attention to the gaps, silences and contradictions.
Agree/disagree statements challenge students to think critically about their knowledge of a topic, theme or text. The strategy exposes students to the major ideas in a text before reading—engaging their thinking and motivating them to learn more. It also requires them to reconsider their original thinking after reading the text and to use textual evidence to support and explain their thinking.