Building Academic Literacy

Building Academic Literacy is a coach-in-a-pocket for educators seeking to build strong academic literacy and higher-order thinking. This book is for anyone with responsibility for instruction – teachers, instructional coaches, professional developers, principals, curriculum leaders, teacher preparation faculty. It provides pathways to developing higher-order thinking in every student and setting.

Key to its success is that it connects reading, writing, listening, thinking, and speaking. Readers will find that they can engage all students with content, but more importantly, students will process content in ways appropriate to a particular subject. They also develop independent learning skills -- exactly what the Common Core State Standards call for.

The text is engaging yet practical and practicable – grounded and useful to teachers in enacting more student-centered classrooms. Its strategies serve to actively engage all students in high-level thinking and learning, those who have always found school easy and those who have not. Not a prescription, but a book designed to deepen individual and group teacher competencies to implement learning strategies in new ways and to continually refine and develop their craft.

Janet Angelis was a classroom teacher early in her career. She has devoted the latter part of her career to linking the worlds of research and practice. She has authored or coauthored numerous articles for practitioners, researchers, and the public and with Kristen Wilcox is the author of two books about effective practices.

Karen Polsinelli taught social studies at the upper elementary and middle level for more than 30 years. She is an experienced writer, presenter, and professional developer in a variety of research-based strategies for improving student learning.

Eija Rougle earned a PhD. in language and education and has been coaching teachers for over a decade; with Mary Adler, she is coauthor of Building Literacy through Classroom Discussion. Sheisa frequent speaker on language and literacy and is multi-lingual.

Johanna Shogan taught English language arts at the secondary level for 35 years and received recognized in Who’s Who among America’s Teachers. She has served as an officer of the New York State English Council and is a contributing writer for The Storytelling Classroom.