WSRA Journal
Volume 47, No. 1 Fall 2007
The WSRA Journal is available to WSRA members.
Click here for the WSRA Membership Form.
Abstracts
FEATURE ARTICLES:
1. Making a case for independent reading. An experienced teacher discusses her experiences with incorporating successful independent reading programs through practiced modeling, independent journaling, and student led goal setting activities.
2. Building Opportunities for Success: Collaboration during Reading Recovery® Building Opportunities for Success: Collaboration during Reading Recovery® details strategies teachers can use to aid struggling readers entering an early intervention program and emphasizes the importance of developing a partnership amongst Reading Recovery teachers and classroom teachers.
3. Caught in Literacy Limbo: Transitioning Intermediate Students from Guided Reading to Independence. (AKA WSRA article revised). A teacher’s successful experiences with guided reading and discussion groups that led to increased comprehension and developed higher level thinking skills, and a dialogue of how to achieve this goal is any classroom.
4. Bridging the Gap: Moving Effective Reading Strategies into the High School Angella Costellos highlights some authentic reading strategies including book clubs, read-alouds, classroom libraries, and booktalks to encourage high school-aged students to enjoy reading beyond graduation.
5. Paying Attention to the Parent Voice Author Mary Peck invites teachers to take the next step by gathering parents for weekly meetings to discuss reading strategies and the importance of reading aloud to children, as well as to provide materials parents could use at home to foster early literacy. The results were strengthened relationships with the students, parents, and families.
6. Why I Use Poetry in My Classroom Teachers all know that we should use poetry in our classroom. We should teach students to read poetry. We should teach students to write poetry. This article explains how to use poetry to teach writing and reading and the benefits author Gail Halsey Bertram has found from using these methods.
7. The Rainbow Table: Balancing Structure and Choice in a Readers’ Workshop The Rainbow Table: Balancing Structure and Choice in a Readers’ Workshop suggests using a rainbow colored table as an efficient yet appealing differentiated reading tool.
8. Some Assembly Required: Creating an organized and inviting classroom library Author Tracy Ostwald Kowald cleverly details her classroom library set-up and offers tips for teachers who are struggling with an appetizing, organized library of their own.
9. Student-Involved Classroom Assessment: A Journey to Excellence The Wisconsin Assessment Consortium in partnership with many collaborating professionals detail their journey towards on-going professional development by implementing student-involved classroom assessments and instructional materials.
10. Programs That Promise Reading Gains to Schools and Students A graduate class at UW—Superior, most of whom are teachers in the field of both regular and special education attempt to analyze the successes and failures of popular programs in schools such as Accelerated Reader, Direct Instruction, Read 180, and Success for All.
11. Spelling the Word Journeys Way: Will It Help Students with SLD? Classroom teacher Elizabeth Mileski conducts a study of the developmental spelling program and its affects on her sixth grade student’s spelling accuracy and details her findings.
