Reading in the Content Area: English
Articles
Readers
rely on their prior knowledge and world experience when trying to comprehend
a text. It is this organized knowledge that is accessed during reading that
is referred to as schema.
Researchers
consistently posit that metacognition plays an important role in reading.
Metacognition has been defined as "having knowledge (cognition) and having
understanding, control over, and appropriate use of that knowledge" (Tei
& Stewart, 1985).
Proponents
of writing across the curriculum are quick to clarify that writing to learn
is not the same as learning to write; but as flip sides of a single coin,
the two support one another.
The
need to teach higher order thinking skills is not a recent one. Education
pundits have called for renewed interest in problem solving for years.
Problem-based
learning (PBL) is an educational approach that challenges students to "learn
to learn". Students work cooperatively in groups to seek solutions to
real-world problems and more importantly, to develop skills to become self-directed
learners.
COOPERATIVE
LEARNING FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS 
Cooperative
learning is an instructional strategy that provides the social structure for
learners to work cooperatively in groups. Although it was developed for use
with native English speakers, cooperative learning has been found to be effective
forpromoting the academic achievement, language acquisition, and social development
of English language learners (Calderon & Slavin, 1999; Ovando & Collier,
1998).
VOCABULARY AND READING/WRITING ACHIEVEMENT
There
is extensive research indicating that a rich vocabulary is a critical element
of reading ability. Laflamme (1997) states that recent research has identified
vocabulary knowledge as the single most important factor in reading comprehension.
There is, likewise, no shortage of studies documenting a strong link between
reading and writing.
SIGNIFICANCE OF VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
Word
knowledge has particular importance in literate societies. It contributes
significantly to achievement in the subjects of the school curriculum, as
well as in formal and informal speaking and writing.
Web Sites
This is a great
web site for finding useful ideas for teaching vocabulary, spelling, punctuation,
novels, and much more! http://highschoolhub.org/hub/english.cfm
An excellent site for comprehension strategies, writing response strategies, selecting literature, assessments, resources, web links and lesson plans, Literacy Matters is the central location where teachers can find information about what matters most in adolescent literacy development.
This
is a good web site for helping teach etymology: http://www.etymologic.com/
This
is "Outta Ray's Head". It's a great web site for helping in many
areas of teaching English: http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/lessons3.html
Puzzlemaker
lets you make puzzles for your students, or you can have students make puzzles
for the class: http://www.puzzlemaker.com/
Rubistar
allows you to customize rubrics for many types of projects - EASILY! http://rubistar.4teachers.org/view_rubric.php3?id=297463
This
is a good web site for getting ideas for how to teach grammar: http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/tips/sentence/index.htm
This
is a good web site for vocabulary lessons: http://www.allamericareads.org/lessonplan/vocab.htm
