Teaching New Literacies in Grades 4-6: Resources for 21st-Century Classrooms

Upper-elementary students encounter a sometimes dizzying array of traditional and nontraditional texts both in and outside of the classroom. This practical handbook helps teachers in grades 4-6 harness the instructional potential of fiction, poetry, and plays; informational texts; graphic novels; digital storytelling; Web-based and multimodal texts; hip-hop; advertisements; math problems; and many other types of texts. Twenty-four complete lessons promote critical literacy skills such as comprehending, analyzing, and synthesizing information and using writing to communicate new ideas and pose questions. Snapshots of diverse classrooms are accompanied by clear explanations of the research base for instruction in each genre. Ready-to-use reproducibles are included. Contents of this book include: (1) Introduction (Barbara Moss and Diane Lapp); (2) Transforming Traditional Tales to Improve Comprehension and Composition (Terrell A. Young, Laura Tuiaea, and Barbara A. Ward); (3) Every Story Has a Problem: How to Improve Student Narrative Writing in Grades 4-6 (Sue Dymock and Tom Nicholson); (4) Teaching Poetry (Claudia Dybdahl); (5) Using Readers' Theater to Engage Students with Drama (Regina M. Rees); (6) Teaching Journalistic Style: A Newspaper Genre Study (Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher); (7) Using Procedural Texts and Documents to Develop Functional Literacy with Students: The Key to Their Future in a World of Words (Martha D. Collins and Amy B. Horton); (8) Going Beyond Opinion: Teaching Children to Write Persuasively (Dana L. Grisham, Cheryl Wozniak, and Thomas DeVere Wolsey); (9) Reading Biography: Evaluating Information across Texts (Barbara Moss and Diane Lapp); (10) Using Comic Literature with Older Students (Chris Wilson); (11) Using Primary-Source Documents and Digital Storytelling as a Catalyst for Writing Historical Fiction in the Fourth Grade (Carol J. Fuhler); (12) No Stripping Allowed: Reading and Writing Political Cartoons (James Bucky Carter with Kelly Lynn Carter); (13) Self-Expressing through Hip-Hop as Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (Nadjwa E. L. Norton); (14) Exploring High-Stakes Tests as a Genre (Charles Fuhrken and Nancy Roser); (15) Reading a Science Experiment: Deciphering the Language of Scientists (Maria Grant); (16) Reading + Mathematics = SUCCESS: Using Literacy Strategies to Enhance Problem-Solving Skills (Mary Lou DiPillo); (17) Promoting Literacy through Visual Aids: Teaching Students to Read Maps, Charts, Graphs, and Tables (Paola Pilonieta, Karen Wood, and D. Bruce Taylor); (18) Critically Reading Advertisements: Examining Visual Images and Persuasive Language (Lori Czop Assaf and Alina Adonyi); (19) Reading Web-Based Electronic Texts: Using Think-Alouds to Help Students Begin to Understand the Process (Christine A. McKeon); (20) Developing Critical Literacy: Comparatively Reading Multiple Text Sources in a Sixth-Grade Classroom (Jesse Gainer); (21) Using Written Response for Reading Comprehension of Literary Text (Evangeline Newton, Ruth Oswald, and Todd Oswald); (22) Reading Persuasive Texts (Thomas DeVere Wolsey, Cheryl Pham, and Dana L. Grisham); (23) Writing a Biography: Creating Powerful Insights into History and Personal Lives (Dorothy Leal); (24) Monumental Ideas for Teaching Report Writing through a Visit to Washington, DC (Susan K. Leone); (25) Writing Summaries of Expository Text Using the Magnet Summary Strategy (Laurie Elish-Piper and Susan R. Hinrichs); and (26) Conclusion: Looking Back, Looking Forward (Diane Lapp and Barbara Moss).