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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/dozierpodcast.asp?r=n103

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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