Already Readers and Writers: Honoring Students' Rights to Read and
Write in the Middle Grade Classroom is meant to help all middle school
educators encourage their students to build literate lives both within
the classroom and well beyond it.
Veteran middle school teacher Jennifer Ochoa has brought together middle
school teachers and teacher leaders, children's author and We Need
Diverse Books cofounder Ellen Oh, children's literature scholar Kristin
McIlhagga, reading and writing workshop teacher-author Linda Rief, and
censorship expert Millie Davis to examine current middle school literacy
practices that support students' rights to read and write.
By showcasing their experiences and activities, and positioning NCTE
policy statements--The Students' Right to Read and NCTE Beliefs about
the Students' Right to Write--as foundational guiding documents, Ochoa
and her colleagues prove that even in today's standards-driven
environment, authentic reading and writing practices can create
literacy-rich middle school classrooms.
As a bonus, teachers who don't have strong support in their schools to
implement these practices will find a myriad of suggestions for
developing a virtual personal learning network--a grassroots
professional development tailored to their needs and interests--that
will support them in their efforts to help kids as readers and writers.
About Principles in Practice
Books in the Principles in Practice imprint offer teachers concrete
illustrations of effective classroom practices based in NCTE research
briefs and policy statements.
Each book discusses the research on a specific topic, links the research
to an NCTE brief or policy statement, and then demonstrates how those
principles come alive in practice: by showcasing actual classroom
practices that demonstrate the policies in action; by talking about
research in practical, teacher-friendly language; and by offering
teachers possibilities for rethinking their own practices in light of
the ideas presented in the books.
