Connecting Across Disciplines: Collaborating with Informational Text

While the Common Core has made informational text a focal point in English/language arts classrooms around the country, it has also made literacy a key concern in other subjects. Teaching literacy in the disciplines and navigating informational texts are challenging prospects. How can content-area teachers find high-quality informational texts that will enhance their curriculum? How do they go about working with these new texts? Most importantly, how do teachers balance their responsibility towards their subject matter with the new charge to incorporate disciplinary literacy? The key is to connect, communicate, and collaborate. Teachers can meet these challenges together and enhance student literacy, engagement, and motivation along the way. This volume offers a practical model that teachers in any discipline can use to incorporate informational texts into their classrooms on their own or in collaboration with colleagues in other content areas. We also share suggestions and ideas for initiating and implementing collaboration between teachers of any discipline, even those working at the secondary level with complex schedules and curricula.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgements Permissions Chapter 1: Literacy: Everyone’s Responsibility (and Opportunity) Chapter 2: Collaboration: The Gift of the Common Core Chapter 3: Our Model for Finding and Using Great Informational Texts Chapter 4: Preparing an Informational Text Chapter 5: Making Vocabulary Work Chapter 6: Supporting Active Reading Chapter 7: Checking for Understanding Chapter 8: Extending Learning: Writing and Discussion Activities Chapter 9: Thinking Big: Class Activities and Projects Chapter 10: Using Hooks: Multimedia Chapter 11: Alignment with Common Core Assessments Chapter 12: You Can Do This: Keys to Implementation Appendix: The Fruit Fly Unit About the Authors