Empowering Learners

Anna J. Small Roseboro, a wife, mother, and National Board-Certified Teacher has over four decades of experience teaching in public, parochial, and private schools and colleges, mentoring early career educators, and facilitating leadership institutes. While residing in San Diego, Roseboro served as Chair of the English Department at The Bishop's School and as President of the California Association of Teachers of English.Dr. Susan Steffel, professor emeritus of English at Central Michigan University (CMU), taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in English education and young adult literature. Steffel has served as president of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English, editor of the Language Arts Journal of Michigan, and president of the Michigan Conference on English Education.

• DedicationAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Pre-Planning for Effective Use of Class TimeChapter 2: Laying the Roadbed for Smoother TravelChapter 3: Networking with Narratives to Create CommunityChapter 4: Crossing Into Novel Territory - Read Contemporary FictionChapter 5: Developing Critical Thinking Reading Historical FictionChapter 6: Reading Essays, Speeches, and the MediaChapter 7: Taking T.I.M.E. to Teach PoetryChapter 8: Reading to Write and Writing to be ReadNotesBibliographyAbout Our ContributorsAbout the Authors

Empowering Learners offers literacy teachers a rich array of strategies and resources for helping their students interrogate and understand texts. It encourages teachers to put readers in an active role by connecting reading and writing through journaling, writing to learn, and conversing through writing with their peers. In addition, students are encouraged to use talking and listening, pair-share, open class discussions and literature circles to unlock texts they encounter. The emphasis on both individual exploration and collaborative work is one of the real strengths of this resource. The authors offer detailed examples and discussions of these strategies, as well as a multitude of other resources to extend or adapt to individual classrooms. Empowering Learners is a carefully researched, clearly articulated resource to which teachers will often return.