Language Arts: Patterns of Practice

The new edition of 50 Literacy Strategies: Step by Step by Gail E. Tompkins is a conveniently organized resource for teachers, providing research-based and classroom-tested strategies to develop literacy skills. Everything you need to know to implement, adapt, and enrich each strategy is included in a consistent, easy-to-understand format. It’s a wonderful resource for elementary and middle school teachers in literacy and language arts!

New to this edition

· New strategies, including Possible Sentences, Process Drama, and RAFT.

· Differentiating Instruction feature in certain chapters describes ways to adapt the instructional strategy to meet the needs of all students.

· Go digital! feature in certain chapters suggest ways to integrate digital technology resources such as podcasts and Inspiration software into the instructional strategy.

· Common Core State Standards for the English Language Arts feature pinpoints the ways individual strategies connect to this important set of standards.

· Booklists are features that identify mentor texts teachers can use when teaching a particular instructional strategy.

What readers have to say

My students keep this text. This book is captivating to students, and they report that it encourages them to think from various perspectives. It contains helpful text lists, assessments and reproducible materials.

Angela J. Cox, Georgetown College

There are so many strategies available, the ones listed in the book are some of the major and successful strategies. The Instructional Focus helps to narrow down strategies to what the students want to build their lessons about. Grade Level Designation is very useful, allowing students to make sure they are using appropriate grade-level strategies.

Deborah A. H. Williams, Wayne State University

The strategies are the essential ones I use in my course. English Language Learner features are a critical component because few of my students have had any interaction with English learners and need significant help understanding second language literacy.

Charlotte L. Pass, SUNY Cortland

Language Arts: Patterns of Practice has long been a highly valued resource to pre-service teachers.  Built on a solid research base, this exceptionally applied and teacher-friendly text addresses all six language arts, modeling their integration into the curriculum through authentic student artifacts, classroom vignettes, and footage of master teachers in their language arts classrooms.  The seventh edition of the text, streamlined to provide a succinct, manageable model of language arts instruction, retains the rich classroom orientation, accessible writing style, and numerous features that have been the text’s hallmark, adding a sharpened focus on English Learners, deepened classroom application of the four patterns of practice, and integrated treatment of the almost limitless resources of the Teacher Prep website.  These new ideas and revisions have been crafted to help you prepare for, plan for, and implement successful language arts instruction.   

Preparing for the Language Arts Classroom

• New!Patterns of Practice features pinpoint the ways to use the four patterns of practice — literature circles, literature focus units, reading and writing workshop, and thematic units — with each chapter’s topic.
• Full color inserts identify the Patterns of Practice — the four instructional approaches most appropriate for integrating the six language arts.  The insert details procedures and processes for using each instructional approach.
• Chapter opening vignettes describe how individual teachers usethe different instructional approaches to develop language arts skills.  These features set the tone for each chapter, clearly illustrating chapter concepts as they are played out in successful language arts classrooms.

Planning for the Language Arts Classroom

• New! How to Plan for Instruction features throughout the text help you prepare for teaching with three elements.  First, a list of concepts, strategies, and topics help you plan meaningful minilessons.  Second, a detailed minilesson example models effective instructional practice.  Finally, the Teacher Prep connection leads you to one or two video clips on our Teacher Prep website that illustrate a minilesson from the topic list as it plays out in an authentic classroom.
• New!Meeting the Needs of English Learners features help prepare you for the diverse needs of today’s students with concrete advice for providing the instruction each student needs.

Tools for the Language Arts Classroom

• LA Essentials provide guidelines, lists, tools, and resources ready to take right into the classroom.
• Step by Step features provide detailed instructions for preparing and carrying out specific instructional strategies.
• Weaving Assessment into Practice features present authentic artifacts and guidelines for assessing language arts skill development.

Gail Tompkins   I’m a teacher, first and foremost.  I began my career as a first-grade teacher in Virginia in the 1970s.  I remember one first grader who cried as the first day of school was ending.  When I tried to comfort him, he sobbed accusingly, “I came to first grade to learn to read and write and you forgot to teach me.”  The next day, I taught that child and his classmates to read and write! We made a small patterned book about one of the stuffed animals in the classroom.  I wrote some of the words and the students supplied the others, and I duplicated copies of the book for each child.  We practiced reading it until everyone memorized our little book.  The children proudly took their books home to read to their parents. I’ve never forgotten that child’s comment and what it taught me:  Teachers must understand their students and meet their expectations.

            My first few years of teaching left me with more questions than answers, and I wanted to become a more effective teacher so I started taking graduate courses.  In time I earned a master’s degree and then a doctorate in Reading/Language Arts, both from Virginia Tech.  Through my graduate studies, I learned a lot of answers, but more importantly, I learned to keep on asking questions.

            Then I began teaching at the university level.  First I taught at Miami University in Ohio, then at the University of Oklahoma, and finally at California State University, Fresno. I’vetaught preservice teachers and practicing teachers working on master’s degrees, and I’ve directed doctoral dissertations. I’ve received awards for my teaching, including the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at California State University, Fresno, and I was inducted into the California Reading Association’s Reading Hall of Fame. Throughout the years, my students have taught me as much as I taught them.  I’m grateful to all of them for what I’ve learned.

            I’ve been writing college textbooks for more than 20 years, and I think of the books I write as teaching, too.  I’ll be teaching you as you read this text.  As I write a book, I try to anticipate the questions you might ask and provide that information.  I also include students’ samples so you can see concepts that I’m explaining, and I include lists of trade books that you can refer to as you work with students.

            When I’m not teaching, I like to make quilts, and piecing together a quilt is a lot like planning effective language arts instruction.   Instead of using pieces of cloth, teachers use the patterns of practice and other instructional procedures described in this text to design instruction for the diverse students in today’s classrooms.  That’s why I like to use quilts on the cover of Language Arts.  I want to thank quilter Cher Cartwright and illustrator Linda Bronson for their superb artistic contributions.  You’ll see their art on the cover and inside this book.