This book offers middle and high school teachers useful suggestions and strategies for cultivating literacy in their classrooms, focusing primarily on the key skills of reading and writing. It discusses the nature of standards-based education and emphasizes the power and importance of good literature in the ELA curriculum. Included are detailed approaches to reading and writing with simple strategies for teaching close reading of complex text, as well as textual evidence and elaboration. A variety of sample performance tasks are included for commonly taught works of American and world literature as well as a variety of strategies to strengthen students reading and writing skills needed for success in college and the workplace. This book is a practical handbook for teachers, who can easily find appropriate strategies to use in their classrooms and begin implementing them right away. It is a useful collection of tips with suggestions and instructions for implementing effective and engaging literacy strategies and performance tasks.

By Gregory Berry

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter One: English Language Arts, Educational Reform, and the Common Core State Standards Movement
Cycles of ChangeThe Common Core State Standards: Promise and ControversyHolding on To Literature in the English CurriculumChapter Two: Cultivating Literacy Learning through Close Reading
The Importance of Integrating Reading and WritingClose Reading Strategies for Literary and Informational Text Close Reading: What it Is and Why It's ImportantClose Reading ControversyWhat is Complex TextSuggested Close Reading StrategiesStrategy One: Four Basic QuestionsStrategy Two: Think-AloudStrategy Three: Vocabulary: Structural Analysis and Context CluesStrategy Four: Reading Like a WriterStrategy Five: Text MarkingStrategy Six: Charting the TextStrategy Seven: Interactive Shared ReadingStrategy Eight: Monitoring ComprehensionStrategy Nine: Multiple ReadingsStrategy Ten: Using Evidence from TextStrategy Eleven: Student-Determined Text-Dependent QuestionsStrategy Twelve: Teaching Text StructureStrategy Thirteen: Color Coding of TextStrategy Fourteen: CommentaryStrategy Fifteen: Analyzing a SourceStrategy Sixteen: ParaphrasingStrategy Seventeen: KNOWSStrategy Eighteen: Apps for Promoting Reading SkillStrategy Nineteen: The One PagerChapter Three: Textual Evidence and Elaboration
Textual Evidence: What it is and Why it's ImportantSimple Ways to Teach Textual EvidenceSample Strategies Color Coding StrategyPoetry Explication: Supporting Your Reading by Citing Textual EvidenceUsing TransitionsA Time to Dig Deeper: Answering Text-Based QuestionChapter Four: Performance Tasks for Specific Literary Texts
What are Performance Tasks?Performance Tasks for Specific TextsHuckleberry Finn and 19th Century Literature Performance Task Cyrano De Bergerac Performance TaskThe Great Gatsby Performance TaskOur Town Performance TaskOf Mice and Men Performance TaskThe Crucible Performance TaskRicochet River Performance TaskThe Bean TreesHouse on Mango Street Performance TaskPoetry Performance TasksPart One: Literary Analysis of ThemePart Two: Layered CurriculumPoverty Performance TaskAfterword: Letting Our Garden Grow