Strategy Instruction and Lessons Learned in Teaching Higher Level Thinking Skills in an Urban Middle School Classroom

Through a compilation of standards-based lesson plans for small- and whole-group instruction, this chapter offers a humorous and heartbreaking perspective of the author\u27s experiences during a yearlong university partnership “Book Bistro” in a 7th grade classroom with urban adolescent struggling readers. Using a combination of leveled, fictional, nonfictional, and culturally relevant text, the chapter is written as a personal narrative to address higher level thinking through systematic instruction in comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and structural analysis. A step-by-step implementation procedure for each of the research-based strategies is presented, including concept of definition, discussion web, probable passage, pointed reading, semantic feature analysis, and others. A table within the chapter provides a description of each of the strategies, alignment with the 2009 NAEP framework, and an instructional scaffold for using the strategy within a specific phase of the reading process

A Clinical Practicum Experience to Prepare Teacher Candidates for Early Literacy Instruction

The purpose of this article is to explore teacher candidates’ tutoring experiences within a university clinical practicum to acquire an understanding about how their unique interactions with struggling readers and research-based methodology contribute to their pedagogical understandings of literacy instruction. This article spotlights teacher education and addresses the question of how teacher educators can guide teacher candidates in putting theory into practice with early readers. The author describes a scaffolded clinical practicum in which preservice teachers have the opportunity assess, teach and reflect on their work with children

School, Home, and Community: A Symbiosis for a Literacy Partnership

With the belief that fertile ground for a literate environment is created through lots of oral language, ancestral anecdotes, and reading a variety of genre in fiction and nonfiction, it is possible to link home and school literacy communities. This chapter describes the connection between district literacy events and functional home activities as the basis for a partnership in developing higher level thinking that transcends the classroom. At monthly get-togethers, families were encouraged to participate in the very activities that were used in the classroom as part of the district\u27s literacy block. In helping families acquire a few basic strategies for helping their children, we, in turn, were helped in doing our jobs—teaching children to read and write. Using grant funding from federal and state programs, and live music as a universal medium for bringing people together, parents, teachers, and administrators experienced a sociocultural symbiosis of partnership and friendship

Literacy Initiatives in the Urban Setting That Promote Higher Level Thinking

How does an urban district become a twice-nominated candidate by the Broad Foundation? In a district in which 72 languages are spoken, 38% of the students live in homes in which English is not the dominant language, and 91% of the population is minority (African American, Asian, and Hispanic), this largest school district in Connecticut not only made student learning a priority, but focused on higher level thinking as part of the process. This chapter provides insight to grassroots implementation of district and department initiatives over the course of five years that emphasized cognitive and metacognitive strategies in advancing the reading achievement of all students. This is what happens when a district comes together to participate in university partnerships, communities of practice, intensive literacy training for administrators, literacy coaches, and teachers alike, curriculum revision, the development of comprehensive district literacy plans, and looking at student work and data to inform instruction and shape professional development

Using Shared Reading and Close Reading to Bridge Intervention and the Common Core

While classroom teachers are grappling with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and its implications for instruction in the core curriculum, designing effective intervention to meet the needs of diverse struggling readers poses another challenge, especially because Response to Intervention (RTI) as an instructional framework frequently emphasizes the teaching of discrete skills. Experts have concluded that intervention focusing primarily on foundational skills without instruction in comprehension is not only contrary to literacy research, but also antithetical to the shift to contextualized literacy instruction, resulting in fragmented instruction for those most in need. At the same time, inherent within both CCSS and RTI is the goal for students to read increasingly complex texts. While the CCSS presumes the internalization of the foundational skills to identify the central ideas and themes of a text, isolated skill instruction continues to dominate RTI. Bridging the divide between RTI and the CCSS will require thoughtful and deliberate scaffolding to provide universal access for all students. Two approaches for advancing student reading achievement include the time-honored strategy of shared reading and not-quite-as-familiar-strategy of close reading, which provide the pedagogical anchors for this article

Creating a Culture of Literacy: Strengthening the Core of Secondary Reading Instruction

The purpose of this paper is to articulate a plan to provide high quality literacy instruction in secondary content area classes that will yield the highest impact on student learning while addressing the needs of the lowest-performing students whose literacy needs cannot be ignored. This will necessitate a restructuring of the three-tiered format within which a systems approach for school improvement embeds a well-defined professional learning plan, and strong collaboration among content area teachers, reading professionals, and special educators to collaborate on the delivery of differentiated, cross-curricular instructional supports

Sleep disordered breathing and its treatment in children

The establishment of a dedicated paediatric sleep unit over the past three years has allowed detailed investigation of a large number of children with sleep associated upper airway obstruction. This thesis explores the characteristics of upper airway obstruction and sleep associated breathing control abnormalities, in children who have been investigated in that unit. The "unit" began with three or four people performing children’s sleep studies at the Sleep Unit (for adults) at RPAH; the results presented here include those studies. The methods used in this thesis have evolved through practical experience acquired in caring for children with breathing disorders in sleep. This thesis is presented in two parts. The studies in the first section provide an overview of the presentation and treatment of the syndrome of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) as it occurs in infants and children. The second section is a more detailed exploration of OSA and its treatment in achondroplasia. These latter studies provide further insights into the disorder in this specific group, and therefore into some aspects of OSA in the broader population of children

Family-Centered Coaching: A Toolkit to Transform Practice & Engage Families

A set of strategies, tools, and resources that can help programs, agencies, case managers, coaches, and others change the ways they work with families striving to reach their goals. With this set of resources, we are hoping to undo, and redo, how we approach working with families – to see families holistically, even though the funding streams and programs within which we work may not. The toolkit includes: family-centered tools and resources for coaches and parents, a family-centered coaching curriculum and organizational assessment, "Process and Content Wheels" on coaching approaches for the whole family, and the nine dimensions of family coaching

Fathers' needs in a surgical neonatal intensive care unit : assuring the other parent

Objectives: Fathers of infants admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) play an important role and have individual needs that are often not recognised. While there is considerable evidence regarding mothers’ needs in the NICU, information about fathers’ is particularly limited. This study identifies the needs of fathers of newborns admitted to NICU for general surgery of major congenital anomalies, and whether health-care professionals meet these needs. Methods: Forty-eight fathers of infants admitted for surgery between February 2014 and September 2015 were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. Fathers completed the Neonatal Family Needs Inventory comprising 56 items in 5 subscales (Support, Comfort, Information, Proximity, Assurance) at admission and discharge and whether these needs were met; as well as the Social Desirability Scale. Results: Responses showed Assurance was the most important subscale (M 3.8, SD .26). Having questions answered honestly (M 3.9, SD .20) and knowing staff provide comfort to their infant (M 3.94, SD .24) were fathers’ most important needs. By discharge, fathers expressed a greater importance on being recognised and more involved in their infant’s care. More than 91% indicated their ten most important needs were met by the NICU health-care professionals, with no significant changes at discharge. Clergical visits (M 2.08, SD 1.21) were least important. Conclusions: Reassurance is a priority for fathers of neonates in a surgical NICU, particularly regarding infant pain management and comfort. It is important that health-care professionals provide reliable, honest information and open-access visiting. Notably, fathers seek greater recognition of their role in the NICU—beyond being the ‘other’ parent