Thinking Tools for Young Readers and Writers

In her new book, bestselling author and professional developer Carol Booth Olson and colleagues show teachers how to help young readers and writers construct meaning from and with texts. This practical resource offers a rich array of research-based teaching strategies, activities, and extended lessons focused on the “thinking tools” employed by experienced readers and writers. It shows teachers how to draw on the natural connections between reading and writing, and how cognitive strategies can be embedded into the teaching of narrative, informational, and argumentative texts. Including artifacts and written work produced by students across the grade levels, the authors connect the cognitive and affective domains for full student engagement. Readers can use this book to:

• Help students develop critical thinking skills to meet the CCSS and other state standards.
• Plan and set goals for literacy instruction.
• Supplement existing English language arts curricula with teacher-tested strategies, activities, and lessons.
• Design and implement engaging instruction.
• Develop a community of learners by creating safe classroom spaces in which all students are encouraged to “think big.”

Book Features:

• Web links throughout the text connect readers to student samples, color versions of resources, anchor charts, videos, extended lesson plans, and more!
• Lessons and activities for embedding cognitive strategy instruction seamlessly into the classroom.
• A detailed look at the genres of narrative, information, and argument, including how to teach them from both a reading and writing perspective.
• Classroom vignettes with National Writing Project teachers who are conversant with the current research literature.

Carol Booth Olson is director of the UCI/National Writing Project and a professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. She is coauthor of Helping English Learners to Write—Meeting Common Core Standards, Grades 6–12.

"This book seamlessly bridges the gap from research to everyday practice in grades 2–8. Along with the coauthors of this book, actual in-service teachers were collaborators in this research. All in all, you get an extremely well-organized set of overarching instructional principles that are right for our era and brought to life through well-explained instructional guides and classroom activities."
—From the Foreword by Judith Langer, distinguished professor at the University at Albany, SUNY

“I have always admired Carol Booth Olson’s work with secondary students and teachers. But it is ever so special to see how she and master teacher colleagues apply those essential principles and practices to elementary and middle school students. Bravo!”
—P. David Pearson, professor emeritus, University of California, Berkeley

Tentative Table of Contents

Foreword by Judith Langer

Preface

Chapter 1. Why Use Thinking Tools to Promote Higher Literacy in Grades 2–8?
   Reading and Writing Like a Detective: The Mystery Trash Challenge
   What Are Students Expected to Know and Be Able to Do as Readers and Writers in Grades 2–8?
   Why Take a Cognitive Strategies Approach to Reading and Writing Instruction in Grades 2–8?
   Examining the Constraints Faced by Elementary and Middle School Readers and Writers
   An Introduction to the Cognitive Strategies Tool Kit
   Using the Tool Kit in the Classroom
   21st-Century Skills and Technology
   To Sum Up

Chapter 2. Best Practices in Reading and Writing Instruction for Students in Grades 2–8
   Research on Best Practices for Reading and Writing Instruction in Grades 2–8
   Create a Community of Learners
   Big Al: A Cognitive Strategies Reading/Writing Tutorial
   Using Think-Alouds and Play-Doh to Reinforce Cognitive Strategy Use
   Connect Reading and Writing
   Model with Mentor Texts
   Scaffold Instruction to Lessen the Constraints on Readers and Writers
   Offer Frequent Opportunities to Practice Writing Different Text Types Through Writer's Workshop
   Provide Explicit Vocabulary Instruction
   Administer Formative Assessments
   To Sum Up

Chapter 3. Reading and Writing Narrative Texts
   Why Prioritize Reading and Writing Narrative Texts in Your Classroom?
   The Language Demands of Narrative Texts
   Teaching the Elements of Narrative Texts
   Narrative Writing Strategies
   Putting It All Together: Writing Fictional Narratives
   Blending Genres in the Saturation Research Paper
   To Sum Up

Chapter 4. Reading and Writing Informative/Expository Texts
   The Language Demands of Informative/Expository Texts
   Getting Started: Exposing Students to Informational Texts
   Teaching Text Structures for Reading and Writing Informative Texts
   Teaching Text Structures About Tornadoes
   The Initial Report
   Writing Wacky Weather Reports: Teaching the 5 Ws + H and Parts of Speech
   Informative/Expository Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum
   Converting Informative/Expository Reading Into Poetic Writing
   Blending Genres: The Robot Lesson
   To Sum Up

Chapter 5. Reading and Writing Opinion, Persuasive,  Interpretive, and Argumentative Texts
   The Challenges of Argumentative Reading and Writing
   Teaching Response to Literature: Analyzing Theme in an Interpretive Essay on "Ribbons"
   Image Grammar for Sentence Fluency
   Helping Students Acknowledge and Refute Counterarguments in Essays Using Multiple Texts
   Using Picture Books to Teach Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
   Teaching Argument Writing with a Real-World Purpose: A Project-Based Learning Unit on Philanthropy
   To Sum Up

Conclusion: Cognitive Strategies Instruction Revisited

References

Index

About the Authors