When someone asks me why the arts are important to learning, I usually respond by describing my own experience in using the arts to excite learners. One such experience follows. Here is the scene: A narrow, windowless room in an urban middle school, with twelve desks and twelve teenage bodies that don’t quite fit sitting in them. Read More →
We know that for students to be ready for the complexity of college and career texts, all students need opportunity to closely read literary and informational complex texts with appropriate and necessary scaffolding. Read More →
The National Adolescent Literacy Coalition (NALC) recently announced that CTL’s Ashley Perkins has been named to serve on its steering committee. Read More →
Simply stated, the more teachers view vocabulary learning as an integral part of content learning rather than as an extra, isolated step in instruction, the more effectively their students will be able to talk and use the language of the discipline. Read More →
Guest Blogger Stella Baker is an English Language Arts teacher at Owsley County Middle School. She has been teaching in Kentucky schools for 29 years. … Read More →
Research on infants and language reveals the power of language learning–and suggests the potential to use talk in the classroom to build literacy skills. Read More →
Summer reading is the single summer activity that is most related to summer learning (Heyns, 1978). However, summer reading experiences… Read More →
Our grown son is a journalist and author. On a recent visit home, he did a reading, discussion and signing of his new book at … Read More →
There’s been some interesting news out of Great Britain lately. First, there was the announcement confirming the discovery of the remains of King Richard lll, the 15th century monarch… Read More →
School leaders face a significant challenge in implementing new reforms, which seem to come with increasing frequency. While the Common Core Standards hold promise for … Read More →