Richard L. Allington

Kelly Gallagher

Argues that the decline in reading by children in the United States is furthered by schools by focusing on test-taking and focusing solely on academic texts with guidance for educators on how to conteract this trend.

How Schools are Killing Reading and what You Can Do about it

Readicide

Penny Kittle

"Teaching is art-creation-and a curriculum map is only as good as the teacher who considers it, who questions it, and who revises it to meet the needs of each year's students." -Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle Two teachers. Two classrooms. One school year. 180 Days represents the collaboration of two master teachers-Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle-over an entire school year: planning, teaching, and reflecting within their own and each other's classrooms in California and New Hampshire. Inspired by a teacher's question, "How do you fit it all in?" they identified and prioritized the daily, essential, belief-based practices that are worth spending time on. They asked, "Who will these students be as readers and writers after a year under our care?" What we make time for matters: what we plan, how we revise our plans while teaching, and how we reflect and decide what's next. The decision-making in the moment is the most essential work of teaching, and it's the ongoing study of the adolescents in front of us that has the greatest impact on our thinking. With both the demands of time and the complexity of diverse students in mind, Kelly and Penny mapped out a year of engaging literacy practices aligned to their core beliefs about what matters most. They share their insights on managing time and tasks and offer teaching strategies for engaging students in both whole class and independent work. Video clips of Kelly and Penny teaching in each other's classrooms bring this year to life and show you what a steadfast commitment to belief-based instruction looks like in action. 180 Days. Make every moment matter. Teach fearlessly. Empower all students to live literate lives.

Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents

180 Days

"Describes strategies for teaching writing to adolescents, including teaching the reasons writing is important, meeting student needs in learning writing, modeling good writing by the teacher, using real-world models of writing, giving students choice, writing for authentic, real-world purposes, and assessing student writing"--Provided by publisher.

Teaching Adolescent Writers

Identifies the elements of an effective reading lesson, and presents strategies teachers may use to help secondary students read and understand challenging fiction and nonfiction books.

Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12

Deeper Reading

Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency

4 Essential Studies

Motivational Mini-Lessons for Middle and High School

Reading Reasons

"Why should I read?" Can your students answer that question? Do they have trouble seeing the importance that reading may have in their lives? Are they lacking motivation, both in academic and recreational reading? Do you think you can effectively teach reading strategies if students don't understand the benefits of literacy? In Reading Reasons, Kelly Gallagher offers a series of mini-lessons specifically tailored to motivate middle and high school students to read, and in doing so, to help them understand the importance and relevance reading will take in their lives. This book introduces and explains in detail nine specific "real-world" reasons why students should be readers. The book contains forty practical, classroom-tested and reproducible mini-lessons that get to the heart of reading motivation and that can be used immediately in English (as well as other content-area) classrooms. These easy-to-use motivational lessons serve as weekly reading "boostershots" that help maintain reading enthusiasm in your classroom from September through June. The mini-lessons, ranging from five to twenty minutes in length, hit home with adolescents, and in turn, enable them to internalize the importance reading will play in their lives. Rather than telling students reading is good for them, the lessons in this book show them the benefits of reading.

Motivational Mini-lessons for Middle and High School

Recognizing the importance that modeling plays in the learning process, high school English teacher Kelly Gallagher shares how he gets his students to stand next to and pay close attention to model writers, and how doing so elevates his students' writing abilities. --from publisher description.

Teaching Real-world Writing Through Modeling & Mentor Texts

Write Like this

In Reading Reasons: Motivational Mini-Lessons for Middle and High School , author and teacher Kelly Gallagher offers a series of mini-lessons specifically tailored to motivate middle and high school students to read, and in doing so, to help them understand the importance and relevance reading will take in their lives. This book introduces and explains in detail nine specific "real-world" reasons why students should be readers. The book contains 40 practical, classroom-tested and reproducible mini-lessons that get to the heart of reading motivation and that can be used immediately in English and other content-area classrooms. These easy-to-use motivational lessons serve as weekly reading "booster shots" that help maintain reading enthusiasm in your classroom from September through June. The mini-lessons, ranging from 5-20 minutes in length, hit home with adolescents, and in turn, enable them to internalize the importance reading will play in their lives. Rather than telling students reading is good for them, the lessons in this book show them the benefits of reading.

Do your students often struggle with difficult novels and other challenging texts? Do you feel that you are doing more work teaching the novel than they are reading it? Building on twenty years of teaching language arts, Kelly Gallagher shows how students can be taught to successfully read a broad range of challenging and difficult texts with deeper levels of comprehension. In Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12 , he shares effective, classroom-tested strategies that enable your students to: Accept the challenge of reading difficult books and move beyond a "first draft" understanding Consciously monitor their comprehension as they read and employ effective "fix-it" strategies when comprehension starts to falter Use meaningful collaboration and metaphorical thinking to achieve deeper understanding of texts Reflect on the relevance the book holds for themselves and their peers by using critical thinking skills to analyze real-world issues Gallagher also provides guidance on effective lesson planning that incorporates strategies for deeper reading. Funny, poignant, and packed with practical ideas that work in real classrooms, Deeper Reading is a valuable resource for any teacher whose students need new tools to uncover the riches found in complex texts.

What is in the best interest of our students? Is it teaching to the newest standards movement, like the Common Core? Teaching that prepares students to take a test? Or is it something more meaningful and authentic? In his new book, In the Best Interest of Students, Kelly Gallagher notes that there are real strengths in the Common Core standards, and there are significant weaknesses as well. He takes the long view, reminding us that standards come and go but what remains constant is the need to stay true to what we know works in the teaching of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Instead of blindly adhering to the latest standards movement, Kelly advocates: · Dialing up the amount of reading and writing students are doing. · Balancing rigorous, high-quality literature and non-fiction with high-interest, student-selected titles. · Giving students much more choice when it comes to reading and writing activities. · Encouraging readers to deepen their comprehension by moving beyond the "four corners of the text." · Using modeling to enrich students' writing skills in the prewriting, drafting, and revision stages. · Helping young writers to achieve more authenticity through the blending of genres. · Resisting the de-emphasis of narrative and imaginative reading and writing. · Providing students with more opportunities to sharpen their listening and speaking skills · Planning lessons that move beyond Common Core expectations. In this provocative and insightful new book, Kelly surveys the teaching landscape since the publication of his highly regarded book Readicide, and finds that although some progress has been made, more needs to be done. Amid the frenzy of trying to teach to a new set of standards, Kelly Gallagher is a strong voice of reason, reminding us that instruction should be anchored around one guiding question: What is in the best interest of our students?

Kelly Gallagher

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