20 Literacy Strategies to Meet the Common Core: Increasing Rigor in Middle & High School Classrooms, Oct/2012

With the advent of the Common Core State Standards and high expectations with regard to content literacy, some secondary teachers are scrambling for what to do and how to do it. This book provides an accessible plan for implementing content literacy and offers 20 research-based literacy strategies designed to help students meet those standards and become expert readers.

Benefits

1. Learn 20 literacy strategies to help students become expert readers.
2. Access activities, lesson plans, organizers, and other research-based tools that promote secondary content literacy.
3. Strengthen your understanding of CCSS for English language arts and literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects for grades 6–12.

Review
Whose responsibility is it to provide consistent, explicit instruction in literacy? Recent research could not be clearer: every teacher must do so, no matter what subject or grade level. The writers of the Common Core State Standards agree. Allyson Burnett and Elaine McEwan-Adkins have compiled an essential literacy toolbox for today's conscientious educator. Each strategy is clear, simple, easy to follow, and rooted in current literacy research. Each strategy is applicable across multiple texts in multiple subject areas. What is most impressive is that each strategy balances the unique demands of reading comprehension, writing clarity, and metacognition. This toolbox has been invaluable in my own planning, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
--Christopher D. Schmidt, Secondary English Teacher, Dallas, TX

Teaching literacy and strategic thinking skills to students must be the responsibility of a school's entire faculty. 20 Literacy Strategies to Meet the Common Core now provides every teacher, regardless of content area, a practical, focused set of tools to prepare his or students not only to become critical thinkers but also to become independent learners.
--Raymond Lowery, Principal, Global Paradigm School, Cairo, Egypt

20 Literacy Strategies to Meet the Common Core demystifies the academic rigor demanded of the Common Core State Standards. The authors present immediately usable strategies founded on evidence-based practices and detailed graphic organizers that will relieve teachers of the burden of marrying the intent of the standards with the reality of the materials typically available in schools. Whether used in the lesson preparation or during professional development activities, this guide virtually guarantees success in making the transition away from random standards to the Common Core.
--Beth Madison, Principal, Robert Gray Middle School, Portland, Oregon

About The Authors:
Elaine K. McEwan-Adkins, EdD, is a consultant who has served as a teacher, a librarian, a principal, and an assistant superintendent for instruction in several suburban Chicago school districts.
Dr. McEwan-Adkins has been honored by the Illinois Principals Association as an outstanding instructional leader, by the Illinois State Board of Education with an Award of Excellence in the Those Who Excel Program, and by the National Association of Elementary School Principals as the 1991 National Distinguished Principal from Illinois.

Dr. McEwan-Adkins is the author of more than 35 books for parents and educators. Her titles include Teach Them All to Read; and Ten Traits of Highly Effective Schools.

She received an undergraduate degree in education from Wheaton College and a master's degree in library science and a doctorate in educational administration from Northern Illinois University.

Allyson J. Burnett is a retired teaching veteran with 20 years of experience in the classroom and 10 years in instructional leadership. A reading specialist and independent consultant, she presents at regional, state, and national conventions. Through her work, Allyson shows content teachers how to use strategies to help students master the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12.

Allyson has traveled all over the country to consult with schools in a variety of areas. She specializes in helping schools implement literacy strategies into all classrooms by creating and building the capacity of a cross-curricular literacy cohort. Her expertise is in helping these cohorts become experts at making text accessible to students and guiding the cohorts as they become presenters to and peer coaches for their content colleagues.

Allyson has coauthored a comprehension workbook for grades 4-8, as well as articles published in Principal Leadership and the Texas Study of Secondary Education.