Our+Go+To+Tools

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Center on Teaching and Learning
Dr. Kevin Feldman offers brief audio clips regarding the big ideas and a few important heuristics for improving adolescent literacy: []

**Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for college and Career Success [4-12]**
//Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success [4-12]// is the capstone report of Carnegie Council for Advancing Adolescent Literacy...The Council has gathered knowledge and ideas from experts nationwide on topics ranging from linguistics to the social science of teachers. This report was released with five corresponding reports, which delve deeper into how to advance literacy and learning for all students. [|Time_To_Act_-_Carnegie_Report.pdf]

[| Vaughn Gross Center Online Courses]
We love the instant access to research-based instructional materials developed by the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts at The University of Texas at Austin **. **For free courses, log in to Searchlight to search the database for instructional guidelines, assessment and progress-monitoring tools, and classroom application of research-based strategies to enhance reading instruction.
 * Download this guide to help you access the FREE, online courses: [|Getting Started with Go Learn.]
 * To search for information on specific **topics** (e.g., secondary comprehension, classroom activities, graphic organizers): []
 * To find specific **courses** (e.g., Special Education Reading Project: Secondary Institute): []

** Cente **r on Instruction: Adolescent Literacy Resour** ces **
//The Center on Instruction// website is one of our favorite comprehensive resources full of research, ppts, and more. It's " a cutting-edge collection of scientifically based research and information on K-12 instruction." Specifically, this link will take you to very valuable resources specific to adolescent literacy. We especially recommend the following tools: > [|Academic Literacy Instruction for Adolescents: A Guidance Document from the Center on Instruction [4-12]]
 * [|Reading in the Disciplines: The Challenges of Adolescent Literacy [4-12]]
 * [|Effective Instruction for Adolescent Struggling Readers [4-12]]
 * [|Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices [4-12]]
 * [|Effective Instruction for Adolescent Struggling Readers: A Practice Brief [4-12]]

//Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching (2011)//
Dr. Anita Archer and Charles Hughes wrote this book to empower teachers in the use of explicit instructional practices that have the greatest chance of dramatically improving student achievement. This is a book for teachers of all content areas as well as administrators. Strategies are illustrated with concrete examples from diverse classrooms. The companion website includes videos and lesson descriptions available for elementary and secondary educators: www.explicitinstruction.org.

Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices
This is a comprehensive summary of research-based recommendations for increasing academic literacy in our secondary schools.
 * [|adlit_pg_082608-1.pdf] **

What Content Area Teachers Should Know About Adolescent Literacy
This report from the National Institute for Literacy "summarizes some of the current literature on adolescent literacy research and practice" and "suggests some methods of building adolescent reading and writing skills in the classroom."
 * [|Nat._Inst._for_Lit._Content_Teachers.pdf] **

Designing Secondary Literacy Programs - Archer
Anita Archer shares a step by step planning tool for districts to follow
 * [|Archer_Secondary_Literacy_Planning.doc] **

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[|Kevin Feldman's Literacy Listserve]
We subscribe to (and love) Feldman's literacy "missives"; sign up at this link. While you're there, check out the Vocabulary/Comprehension and Content Literacy pages as well.

**[|The Meadows Center: Building RtI Capacity]**
This link will lead you to RtI information from the Meadows Center.

[|The Institute for Literacy and Learning]
This is a repository of recorded conference calls and materials from literacy experts such as Dr. Anita Archer, Dr. Joe Torgesen, Dr. Sharon Vaughn, and many more!

Secondary Reading Instruction: Teaching Vocabulary and Comprehension in the Content Areas // Learn about the need for today's students to read across content areas like social studies and science  //
 * IRIS Center STAR Legacy Module **