Content-Area Literacy

How to Build Better Engineers: A Practical Approach to the Mechanics of Text

Author: Ron E. Smelser Summary: How do engineers write: in what ways, for what audiences, and for what purposes? How do we, as teachers, support students in understanding that writing clearly to communicate arguments in proposals and presentations is an important skill for college and careers? This article presents a...

Joined at the Hip: The Joys and Travails of Teaching “Linked” Courses

Author: Matthew Teorey Summary: This article features one university’s program offering “Freshman Learning Communities” in which two instructors from different disciplines work together developing curriculum by coordinating two sets of complementary readings and assignments. In this cross-disciplinary approach, a community environment helps the students succeed in their freshman year. The...

Finding Support for Teaching Civic Literacy Skills in the Common Core Standards

Author: Nicole Mirra Summary: Rather than viewing civic education as a particular body of knowledge, belonging in social studies class, Mirra argues that civic literacy is a set of skills that can be incorporated throughout the curriculum, reinforcing Common Core standards along the way.

Making the Right Connections in High School: Developing Teaching Teams to Integrate the Curriculum

Author: Carla Gubitz Jankowski Summary: Integrating high school curricula isn’t easy, but it is worth the effort and produces powerful results for students and teachers. In this resource, a teacher describes her award-winning project to develop teaching teams that designed cross-curricular units in order to foster students’ personal and intellectual connections...

Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing

Summary: Developed collaboratively among representatives from the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Writing Project, Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing describes the rhetorical and twenty-first-century skills that are critical for college success based on current research in writing and writing...

Why I Write: Scientist Timothy Ferris on Writing to Learn

Author: Timothy Ferris Summary: Ferris explains that he writes as a way to learn science and describes the vital role that science has played in changing the world for the better. He discusses how writing for general audiences can help scientists to “clarify their own thinking, by obliging them to...

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...

The Story of SCORE: The Mississippi Writing/Thinking Institute Takes on a Statewide Reading Initiative

Author: Lynette Herring-Harris and Cassandria Hansbrough Summary: The SCORE monograph (Secondary Content Opening to Reading Excellence) from the Mississippi Writing/Thinking Institute offers an overview of programming for content area teachers as part of a statewide reading initiative. A useful resource for teacher leaders, the monograph includes a rich description of...

Literacy, ELL, and Digital Storytelling: 21st Century Skills in Action

Author: Yumi Matsui and Clifford Lee Summary: This inspiring video documents how an English and a history teacher collaborated to have their high school history students created digital stories as part of the American Immigration Project. The semester-long multimodal project incorporated interviews, transcription. discussion, writing voiceover scripts, and digital production....

Creating Multimedia Persuasive Commentaries: Adaptable Resources from Let’s Talk About Election 2020

Summary: This resource contains materials and discussions originally created for the KQED Let’s Talk About Election 2020 campaign, but would be useful to anyone who is looking to give students an opportunity to engage in topics, issues, and/or controversies that are relevant to their lives and their communities. The lessons...