Stenhouse Newslinks
February 15, 2008
C O N T E N T S
1) Check out six new spring books
2) PD Corner: Fluency
3) Author Conversations: Janet Allen
4) An interview with Herb Broda
Note: If you'd rather not receive Newslinks in the future, just forward this message to unsubscribe@stenhouse.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------
1) Check out six new spring books
----------------------------------------------------------------
Six new Stenhouse books will be published this spring. You can get details on our website and pre-order now. We'll let you know when the full text of each is available to preview online!
TeamWork: Setting the Standard for Collaborative Teaching, Grades
5-9
Monique Wild, Amanda Mayeaux, and Kathryn Edmonds
Foreword by Jack Berckemeyer
192 pp/paper * $18.00 * Available mid-March
http://www.stenhouse.com/0711.asp?r=n132
An insider's guide for those who are ready to move beyond the structural elements of teaming to a coordinated effort that includes curriculum integration, inclusion, meeting standards, and bringing together all the stakeholders in a child's life.
Crafting Writers, K-6
Elizabeth Hale
264 pp/paper * $22.50 * Available early April
http://www.stenhouse.com/0739.asp?r=n132
"Liz Hale shows us how to make good writing more tangible for our students" (Lucy Calkins). Learn how to identify specific elements of craft that make good writing and teach them in mini-lessons and conferences. Includes numerous practical charts and lessons.
Put Thinking to the Test
Lori L. Conrad, Missy Matthews, Cheryl Zimmerman, and Patrick A.
Allen
Foreword by Ellin Oliver Keene
184 pp/paper * $21.00 * Available mid-April
http://www.stenhouse.com/0731.asp?r=n132
"I can't imagine how this book could be more practical or immediately useful to classroom teachers" (Ellin Oliver Keene).
Shows how comprehension strategies can help students become not just better readers and thinkers but also better test takers.
Filled with classroom vignettes and student work samples.
Greater Expectations: Teaching Academic Literacy to Underrepresented Students
Robin Turner
248 pp/paper * $18.00 * Available late April
http://www.stenhouse.com/0740.asp?r=n132
Enables teachers to tap into students' strengths to better prepare them for college, providing both philosophical approaches to teaching students of color as well as practical lesson plans and a host of student writing samples.
Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators
David Sobel
144 pp/paper * $17.50 * Available early May
http://www.stenhouse.com/0741.asp?r=n132
Presents seven principles for structuring place-based learning experiences and details projects that will help you teach language arts, math, science, social studies, and essential problem-solving and social skills through involvement with nature and communities.
Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension, 2-6
Terry Thompson
200 pp/paper * $18.50 * Available early May
http://www.stenhouse.com/0712.asp?r=n132
Introduces teachers to this popular medium and shows how to use it in comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency instruction. Also provides sources of appropriate graphica for the classroom and for particular students.
----------------------------------------------------------------
2) PD Corner: Fluency
----------------------------------------------------------------
"The fluent reader sounds good, is easy to listen to, and reads with enough expression to help the listener understand and enjoy the material."
--Charles H. Clark
Take advantage of fluency tools that students can use to assess themselves and each other with OKAPI!, an online reading probe generator. Type or paste curriculum-based text and get a reading probe complete with fluency heading, numbered lines, and passage
statistics:
http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/tools/okapi/okapi.php
Students often need audio support. Find fluent models at Lit2Go, a free online collection of poems, stories, and novels in MP3 format. Search the online collection by title, author, or reading
level:
http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/index.htm
For more audio try LibriVox, a site that offers free audiobooks from public domain works, created by volunteers. From the Bill of Rights to Wordsworth and Wodehouse, you'll be amazed by the titles recorded and available:
Do you wonder where your students stand? Quickly check average oral reading fluency rates in "Assessing Reading Fluency" by Timothy Rasinski. Practical and accessible, Rasinski's article reviews fluency basics as well as pointing out limits to fluency
assessment:
http://www.prel.org/products/re_/assessing-fluency.htm
Dig deeper with the book Practical Fluency by Max and Gayle Brand.
Learn how to integrate fluency instruction into authentic classroom practice. Read Chapter 1 online:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0410.asp?r=n132
And you can drop in on Lisa Gregory's classroom and watch Debbie Diller explain fluency and the fluency rubric to third graders in her new DVD, Fluency Rubric:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0723.asp?r=n132
----------------------------------------------------------------
3) Author Conversations: Janet Allen
----------------------------------------------------------------
"The single biggest reason that students don't read textbooks is because they don't understand the vocabulary words. That becomes not only an impediment to their reading but it becomes the single biggest problem with their writing, because if you don't have insider vocabulary it's almost impossible to write about content."
In today's Author Conversations podcast, Janet Allen talks about her new book Inside Words and how it complements her previous books, Words, Words, Words and Tools for Teaching Content Literacy. Listen here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/html/janetallen2.htm?r=n132
----------------------------------------------------------------
4) An interview with Herb Broda
----------------------------------------------------------------
"One of the major stumbling blocks to using the outdoors for instruction is the old notion that 'real' learning has to take place within the four walls of a classroom. Often teachers feel that going outside is something extra and nice, but not really solid 'teaching.' After carefully looking at the research concerning outdoor learning and place-based education, I feel that teachers concerned about academic progress cannot afford to keep their students indoors!"
EdNews recently posted an interview with Herb Broda, author of the new book Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning: Using the Outdoors as an Instructional Tool, K-8:
http://www.stenhouse.com/rdbroda.htm?r=n132
And you can browse the entire text of Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning
here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0729.asp?r=n132
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please send comments and questions to Chuck Lerch, Newslinks Editor, at newsletter@stenhouse.com or call (800) 988-9812.
View archives of past issues here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/html/newlinksarchive.htm
We encourage you to forward this newsletter to colleagues. To subscribe to Stenhouse Newslinks, send an e-mail with your request to newsletter@stenhouse.com or visit our Web site at:
http://www.stenhouse.com/html/newsletter.htm
Stenhouse respects your privacy, and we never share e-mail addresses with anyone. If you no longer wish to receive e-mail communications from us, just forward this message to:
unsubscribe@stenhouse.com
Stenhouse Publishers
PO Box 11020 / 480 Congress Street
Portland, ME 04104-7020
Tel (800) 988-9812
Fax (800) 833-9164
http://www.stenhouse.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2008 Stenhouse Publishers
Prices are subject to change without notice
