Content-Area Literacy

Students Write Tabloid Tabulations in a Math Gossip Magazine

Author: Joe Bellacero and Tom Murray Summary: If you are looking for an example of work that integrates mathematics and writing, this one is creative and supported through research related to math. This is a teacher and teacher-consultant’s account of a “writing and math” strategy used in the middle school...

This Is Who I Want to Be! Exploring Possible Selves by Interviewing Women in Science

Author: Jessica Singer Early Summary: This article examines how a classroom-based writing project, centered on interviewing and writing profiles of women in science, helped a group of high-school girls explore and articulate new possibilities for their future selves. It could serve as a useful model for educators engaged in equity...

Reading, Writing, and Mentor Texts: Imagining Possibilities (NWP Radio)

Summary: Mentor texts can support writers and inspire writing in all genres in the classroom and beyond. This NWP Radio show is of particular interest to study groups and teacher leaders designing professional development that explores the use of mentor texts to support writing in academic disciplines. Presenters share resources...

Disciplinary Literacy and Reading Across the Content Areas

Author: Art Peterson Summary: For teachers in the content areas, Elizabeth Birr Moje’s work provides strong guidance for improving disciplinary literacy. Moje’s argues that focusing on disciplinary literacy helps teachers understand the thinking and learning demands students face as they move through different content area classes that make up a typical high...

Improving Assignments With the Writing Assignment Framework

Author: National Writing Project and Mary Ann Smith Summary: Featuring a range of protocols, tools, and student samples, the Writing Assignment Framework and Overview was designed as a resource for use in planning instruction and professional development. Growing out of work NWP did with the Authentic Intellectual Work framework, these...

“Why I Write” Resources

Summary: The “Why I Write” series highlights people who write as professionals across disciplines including science, geology, music, environmental studies and education, among others. This collection includes a few short videos that accompany the articles and is especially useful in connecting writing in school to the real world purposes of...

Math Blogs: Fostering Voice, Ownership, and Understanding Online

Author: Howard Rheingold Summary: This article describes how a mathematics teachers became a connected educator, and how he and his precalculus students in Winnipeg began blogging. Students took turns with daily scribing — reflecting, summarizing, and connecting with each other locally and, serendipitously, with others beyond their school, e.g., a...

Reimagining Learning in Libraries and Museums (NWP Radio)

Summary: Imagine out-of-school learning spaces where museum and library educators create digital access for youth. The discussion focuses on students as makers rather than as consumers. Organizational partners discuss ways in which YOUmedia Network has impacted educators’ commitments to teen learning.

C3WP Mini-Units

Summary: This resource from the College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) features one-minute videos that define mini-units and explain the value of using nonfiction sources/texts. There are links to related pages on the C3WP website that focus on creating text sets and on developing and sequencing mini-units. These resources...

What Is Reading? An Excerpt from Reading for Understanding

Author: Christine Cziko, Cynthia Greenleaf, Lori Hurwitz, and Ruth Schoenbach Summary: Reading is a complex process that involves much more than the ability to decode. This short article offers a foundational way to conceptualize what readers need to do as they develop proficiency in reading different kinds of texts for...