Stenhouse Newslinks
March 28, 2008
C O N T E N T S
1) Put Thinking to the Test
2) Stenhouse authors weigh in on common teaching dilemmas
3) PD Corner: Writing craft
4) Say Yes to Recess
5) Poetry webcasts galore
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1) Put Thinking to the Test
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"These authors take the notion of treating tests as a separate genre to a whole new level by arguing that, in teaching each comprehension strategy, we can teach children ways to apply the strategy in a testing context."
--Ellin Oliver Keene
Can you simultaneously teach reading comprehension strategies and prepare for high-stakes tests without compromising your beliefs about what's best for your students in pursuit of higher scores?
Lori Conrad, Missy Matthews, Cheryl Zimmerman, and Patrick Allen answer this question with a resounding "yes." In their new book, Put Thinking to the Test, they share their insights and understanding of standardized tests from extensive inquiry-based work in their own classrooms and those of fellow teachers.
The authors clearly characterize the format, vocabulary, and procedures of tests and explore the many ways that classroom workshops can help students develop the stamina they need to succeed in test taking.
Put Thinking to the Test is filled with retellings of actual classroom interactions and student samples that vividly illustrate how specific thinking strategies such as asking questions, drawing inferences, and determining importance can be applied to test taking throughout the year.
This new book will be available in print in mid-April, and you can preview the entire text online now:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0731.asp?r=n135
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=n135
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2) Stenhouse authors weigh in on common teaching dilemmas
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"Questions & Authors" is a new website series in which Stenhouse authors give their take on vexing teaching questions. Check out the first three installments:
How private are writers' notebooks?
(Responses by Aimee Buckner, Ralph Fletcher, and Kelly Gallagher)
http://www.stenhouse.com/html/news_44.htm?r=n135
How do you find the right books for reluctant readers?
(Response by Teri Lesesne)
http://www.stenhouse.com/html/news_54.htm?r=n135
How do you find the time to write?
(Responses by Ross Burkhardt and Jeff Anderson)
http://www.stenhouse.com/html/news_66.htm?r=n135
Do you have a teaching dilemma that you'd like to see our authors address? Please submit it to Zsofia McMullin at zmcmullin@stenhouse.com and we will consider it for a future Questions & Authors installment.
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3) PD Corner: Writing craft
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"Writing is not writing skills, but knowing how to see...there are people who can't read or write who are novelists. They've got two
lenses: a telephoto lens for big pictures and a lens a dentist would use. What they do to show the big picture is to use details they see with the small lens."
--Carolyn Chute
Learn how to target specific writing skills with "Teaching the Writing Craft" from Annenberg Media. Focused on grades 3-5, this online PD workshop includes printable resources, video segments, and lesson guides to use individually or with a teacher study
group:
http://www.stenhouse.com/rdcraftworkshop.htm?r=n135
Investigate teaching writer's craft with Elizabeth Hale's new book Crafting Writers, K-6. Filled with apt writing analyses and practical processes, Crafting Writers goes beyond the ready-to- teach lesson by including thoughtful dialogue about how to assess and examine writing. Browse the entire book online:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0739.asp?r=n135
Full of practical ideas, Brenda Power's article "Make Kids'
Writing Shine" from Instructor magazine shares six specific strategies teachers can use with beginnings and endings to teach writing craft:
http://www.stenhouse.com/rdpowercraft.htm?r=n135
Rediscover an old favorite with the second edition of Fletcher & Portalupi's Craft Lessons. Packed with discussions, resources, and step-by-step procedures, this collection of grade-specific lessons invites teachers to engage students in writing craft. You can still browse the entire text here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0706.asp?r=n135
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4) Say Yes to Recess
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In a recent Education Week commentary, tutor and parent Vicky Schippers explores the recent debate over the regulation and relegation of recess, and argues "what is most important about recess is that it is the only unstructured time in a long day for most children."
http://www.stenhouse.com/rdyestorecess.htm?r=n135
(Free registration may be required.)
Herb Broda, author of Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning, adds in a letter to Ed Week that outdoor instruction, in addition to recess, increases student motivation and achievement:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/03/12/27letter-1.h27.html
Wondering where to start in getting your students outdoors? The Children & Nature Network has designated April "Children & Nature Awareness Month" and offers a guide to upcoming regional events such as Johnny Appleseed Day in Fremont, California and a vernal pools walk in Tiverton, Rhode Island:
http://www.cnaturenet.org/movement/index_beta
(Uncheck the "campaigns" checkbox to limit the list to April Awareness events.)
Dig deeper with Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning: Using the Outdoors as an Instructional Tool, K-8, still available online in its
entirety:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0729.asp?r=n135
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5) Poetry webcasts galore
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Tucked into a corner of The Library of Congress website is "Guide to Poetry & Literature Webcasts," a rich resource for locating webcasts of poets reading and discussing their own and other's work. The guide links to other Library of Congress sites as well as general sites that are often "invisible" to search engines:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/webcasts/index.html
And for a quick and easy way to celebrate National Poetry Month, take part in the first national Poem in Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 17:
http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/406
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