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Supported literacy for adolescents

A book on transforming teaching and content learning 'Supported Literacy for Adolescents introduces innovative and field-tested instructional framework for preparing secondary students to succeed academically in a fast-changing and globally networked world. Taking examples from science, history, literature, and special education classroom the book illustrates how effectively and conveniently teachers can aid students to developing critical thinking and other essential competencies needed for the twentyfirst-century changed learning environment and teaching scenario. The book, critically explains, how to design and conduct rigorous, standard based lessons that emphasis: a) Reading for deep understanding b) Writing to think C) Accountable Talk and d) Digital/media fluency. Page keeley, a senior Science Program Director, Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, praises the book in the following way-" This timely and much -needed book will surely lead to a paradigm shift in the way the middle and high school educators approach literacy integration. The multiliteracy skills used in the Framework take teaching and learning beyond the traditional silos of language arts and the content disciplines and move inquiry learning into twenty-first-century ways of knowing and communicating." Supported Literacy is a new innovative instructional framework to guide student's classroom learning. It is basically a curriculum framework that teachers/instructors can apply to create rigorous and relevant new units an any particular subject to modify and enrich existing units to better address the four key twenty-first-century competencies - conceptual understanding, critical thinking, creative thinking and collaboration and communication. In the twenty-first-century classrooms, writing is an effective and important tool to enable students to express their thinking and to give vent to their emotions, feelings and attitudes. Students in a post- modern classroom set-up understand and try to comprehend the core and salient features of an effective story, technical manual, web-page, book review, editorial, memoir, biographies, oral history, podcast, multimedia presentation or persuasive essay. They try to consider what form will be the most effective and convenient way to communicate their messages to a particular audience; they can give form to feeling and thought with different genres of literature like poetry, drama, memoir and fiction. The book, to a large extent, emphasises on the technology-enhanced learning for the modern classroom. It is outlined that technology-based tools like e-mail, blogs, and online discussions set-up open unlimited opportunities for learners/students beyond the classroom. These technologies enable students to express their own perspective and seek perspectives from other communities. Along with peer and teacher -facilitated discussion existing other oral languages practices can also help building students' understanding and engage them in critical and creative thinking. To cite an example, students can dramatize a scene from a play to represent an interpretation of the meaning of a scene. They can present an oral monologue to express a point -of -view of a historical figure or literary character or they can collect oral histories that provide resources for understanding a historical issue. In the section "A New Vision of Adolescent Literacy" the book suggest-"It is possible for every school to realize a vision of twenty-first-century classrooms in which students direct their own conversations about the issues they are investigating. To reach that goal -however-students must master several discussion skills. They need to know how to use conversations to make sense of a text, to manage responsible roles in peer discussion, and to engage in critical or creative thinking through discussion." Finally the book elaborately features numerous practical tools and includes extensive guidance on working with students who have reading difficulties. It, also, maps out professional development and leadership strategies for engaging the whole school in literacy-building efforts." -Mizanur Rahman Jewel (The reviewer teaches English language and literature in The Millennium University, Dhaka.)