Reading Aloud Across the Curriculum: How to Build Bridges in Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies » (1st Edition)

Reba Wadsworth, a former elementary classroom teacher and guidance counselor, is now in her thirteenth year as an elementary principal, currently at Woodmeade Elementary School in Decatur, Alabama. She has conducted numerous literacy workshops at the local, state, and national level for administrators and teachers. She has worked as an adjunct professor of literacy for three north Alabama universities at both the undergraduate and graduate level. In addition, Reba was named the 2005-2006 Alabama Administrator of the Year for Leadership in Literacy by the Alabama Reading Association.

Lester L. Laminack is a recently retired professor from the department of Birth-Kindergarten, Elementary and Middle Grades Education, at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina where he taught graduate and undergraduate courses in literacy education. He is the recipient of two awards for excellence in teaching at WCU, the Botner Superior Teaching Award and the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award. Lester is an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English and served three years as co-editor of the NCTE journal Primary Voices. He also served as a teaching editor for the magazine Teaching K-8 and wrote the Parent Connection column (2000-2002). He is currently editor of the Children's Book Review Department of the NCTE journal Language Arts (2003-2006). He is a former member of the Whole Language Umbrella Governing Board, a former member of the Governing Board and Secretary of the North Carolina Association for the Education of Young Children, and a former member of the Board of Directors for the Center for the Expansion of Language and Thinking. He served as the Basic Reading Consultant to Literacy Volunteers of America from 1987 through 2001. His academic publications include several books (including Learning with Zachary, Spelling in Use, Volunteers Working with Young Readers, and his contributions to The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts) and a new book, Learning Under the Influence of Language and Literature scheduled for publication in February 2006 from Heinemann. In addition he has several articles published in journals such as The Reading Teacher, Science and Children, Language Arts, Primary Voices, and Young Children. Lester is also the author of three children's books: The Sunsets of Miss Olivia Wiggins, Trevor's Wiggly-Wobbly Tooth, and Saturdays and Tea Cakes in addition to one forthcoming title (fall 2005) Jake's 100th Day of School all of which are published by Peachtree Publishers, Ltd. Lester will be retiring from the university in June 2005 to pursue writing, his research interests, and consulting on a full time basis.

In Learning Under the Influence of Language and Literature, Lester Laminack and Reba Wadsworth demonstrated how to make the read-aloud a strong supporting structure for literacy learning across the day. Now with Reading Aloud Across the Curriculum they reveal how the read-aloud can strengthen students abilities and achievement in other subject areas.

Reading Aloud Across the Curriculum is a practical guide to expanding your read-aloud instruction to accomplish literacy-based goals in four key subject areas-math, social studies, language arts, and science. You ll find strategic advice for planning thematic, content-driven units that use reading aloud to scaffold understanding and increase engagement. Beginning with smart ideas for introducing students to new content through picture books, Laminack and Wadsworth share ideas for assembling themed sets of children s literature that help kids use the predictable structures of the read-aloud to connect with new ideas. Then Reading Aloud Across the Curriculum provides suggestions for helping students do research that extends the knowledge they ve gotten from whole-class readings and build a bridge from literacy skills to content knowledge. Laminack and Wadsworth give you three specific units of study each for social studies, language arts, science, and even math-twelve units altogether. Each comes with dozens of recommended titles, over 400 in all!

Full of useful planning tips, classroom-tested strategies, and Laminack and Wadsworth s trademark enthusiasm for children s literature, Reading Aloud Across the Curriculum doesn t just pick up where its predecessor left off-it takes you and your students to whole new levels of cross-curricular engagement.