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Home > News & Features > Newslinks > Newslinks Archive > Newslinks Jan. 12, 2007

Stenhouse Newslinks
January 12, 2007

C O N T E N T S

1) PD Corner: Supporting comprehension through conversation
2) Author Conversations: Cheryl Dozier
3) 11 teaching techniques to improve adolescent writing
4) An interview with Pat Johnson
5) 10 strategies for teaching fluency

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1) PD Corner: Supporting comprehension through conversation
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*January Quote of the Month*

"A single conversation across the table with a wise person is
worth a month's study of books."
--Chinese Proverb

In recent years, links between comprehension and conversation have
grown in classrooms as teachers have seen the power of talk in
building strategic readers and writers. Richard Allington and
Peter Johnston led a study on what characterizes effective fourth
grade literacy instruction, and classroom talk emerged as a key
practice:

http://cela.albany.edu/newsletters.htm#spring2001
(Click on the "Entire Issue" link under "Spring 2001.")

You can learn more about Peter Johnston's research connecting talk
and literacy development in his book, Choice Words. Read the
introductory chapter, "The Language of Influence in Teaching":

http://www.stenhouse.com/0389.asp?r=n103
(Click on the Chapter 1 link in the Table of Contents.)

A lesson from ReadWriteThink shows how teachers can help students
make the connection between conversation and comprehension, and
includes links to reflective assessment guides for students to
complete after classroom conversations:

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=913

The Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis video Read, Write, and Talk
takes you into a classroom for a demonstration lesson that shows
how the Read, Write, and Talk process can be used across the
curriculum to foster more thoughtful conversations about text. You
can watch a sample clip from the video here:

http://www.stenhouse.com/0460.asp?r=n103
(Click on one of the links next to "TV turn off week.")

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2) Author Conversations: Cheryl Dozier
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"What's most important about coaching is that it's a continuous
deliberation...that as coaches help teachers take on agentive
stances in their classrooms, coaches also take on these agentive
stances."

Our latest Author Conversations podcast features Cheryl Dozier,
author of the new book Responsive Literacy Coaching. Cheryl talks
about some key issues facing coaches including allocating time,
separating evaluation from coaching, and how to help teachers
develop a wide range of tools for solving problems in the
classroom:

http://www.stenhouse.com/html/mp3cheryldozier1.htm

Browse the entire text of Responsive Literacy Coaching online:

http://www.stenhouse.com/0463.asp?r=n103

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3) 11 teaching techniques to improve adolescent writing
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The Alliance for Excellent Education recently published "Writing
Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in
Middle and High School." This report discusses eleven specific
teaching techniques that research suggests will help improve
student writing in grades 4-12:

http://www.all4ed.org/publications/WritingNext/index.html

"Writing Next" is a companion to the Alliance's 2004 report,
"Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle School
and High School Literacy" (also available from the link above).

For even more practical ways to help your middle and high school
students write effectively, check out Kelly Gallagher's new book,
Teaching Adolescent Writers. You can review the book online in its
entirety:

http://www.stenhouse.com/0422.asp?r=n103

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4) An interview with Pat Johnson
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EdNews has just posted an interview with Pat Johnson, author of
the new book One Child at a Time: Making the Most of Your Time
with Struggling Readers, K-6. Pat discusses the importance of
self-monitoring in early literacy, working with English language
learners, and teaching fluency:

http://www.stenhouse.com/rdjohnson.htm

Browse the entire text of One Child at a Time here:

http://www.stenhouse.com/0434.asp?r=n103

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5) 10 strategies for teaching fluency
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It was the first day of school, well into the afternoon,
when my principal, Tom, dropped by. "I've got a new
student for you and this story is a little different,"
he said wryly. "Aaron is twelve and he's never been to
school. Not at all. Not even home schooling."

Stenhouse author Max Brand writes about the challenge of teaching
reading to a fifth-grader new to schooling and presents ten
strategies he found to be effective for fluency instruction in
this article from Instructor magazine:

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=7520

Learn more about Max and Gayle Brand's book, Practical Fluency,
and read Chapter 1 online:

http://www.stenhouse.com/0410.asp?r=n103


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