Additional Resources

In this section, I have included materials for certain topics that I do not address or do not address fully in this website but that are related and important. When possible, I have included open source resources. Readers who have full access to academic journals can search for articles published in journals by some of these same authors.

Motivation/Engagement

Motivation is critical for students for whom reading and/or school is challenging. Angela McRae and John Guthrie's open source article entitled "Teaching Practices that Impact Motivation" provides excellent insights into motivation and engagement. Also, project-based approaches address issues of motivation and engagement.

Reader Identity

Scholars recommend Leigh Hall's work on reader identity. Here is a short article by Leigh Hall that captures some of essential ideas around reader identity.

Extensive Reading

I am a strong proponent of choice extensive reading, at-home reading, and structured and scaffolded independent reading during class. Since this is already part of my practice and knowledge base, I did not opt to include this in my research questions. Please see description of the contents of Authentic Assessments for the English Classroom in the assessment section of this website and MS and HS 223 under school models for some ideas around extensive reading. Also, Strategic Literacy Initiative has outstanding tools to support extensive independent choice reading. This link created by the School Media Library Research contains a summary of some research about the benefits of extensive reading.

Fluency

I recommend Tim Rasinski's website for resources related to fluency. Many are geared to younger children but can be adapted to secondary students. Timothy Rasinski also has an excellent chapter about current pedagogy and recommendations for fluency in Research-Based Practices for Teaching Common Core.

Vocabulary

I found many scholars and professional development organizations disagree about the role of frontloading vocabulary and explicit vocabulary instruction, particularly in regards to its impact on reading comprehension. Regardless of what approach to vocabulary teachers use, I found one resource, Word Sift, that I believe could be helpful for any number of approaches. I learned about it during an interview with Kenji Hakuta, the scholar behind the creation of the program.

Oral language

The connection between oral language and reading achievement is a theory and a hypothesis at this point, as is the connection between rich talk about text and reading achievement. While these connections have not been empirically proven, they seem promising.

For ideas for oral language development to support reading development and as an end in itself, I highly recommend the work of Jeff Zweirs. His website contains high-quality open source resources, and his books are outstanding.

I also recommend a related site, Academic Language Development Network.

Writing

The writing and reading connection is extremely important. An approach that I learned about during my sabbatical and found compelling is the Hochman Method.

Teacher Talk

I highly recommend Choice Words by Peter Johnson. In his introduction, he describes the importance of how teachers talk with students:

Teachers play a critical role in arranging the discursive histories from which these children speak. Talk is the central tool of their trade. With it, they mediate children's activity experience, and help them make sense of learning, literacy, life and themselves. (Johnson, p. 4)

While the book is geared to elementary school teachers, I found it highly relevant to my work as a secondary teacher and in particular to my work with students who do have confidence in their reading skills.

Other

The following are some organizations doing high-quality work in the area of literacy:

Understanding Language

SCALE

Buck's Institute

International Literacy Association