Thinking Tools for Young Readers and Writers: Strategies to Promote Higher Literacy in Grades 2–8

In her new book, bestselling author and professional developer Carol Booth Olson and colleagues show teachers how to help young readers and writers construct meaning from and with texts. This practical resource offers a rich array of research-based teaching strategies, activities, and extended lessons focused on the “thinking tools” employed by experienced readers and writers. It shows teachers how to draw on the natural connections between reading and writing, and how cognitive strategies can be embedded into the teaching of narrative, informational, and argumentative texts. Including artifacts and written work produced by students across the grade levels, the authors connect the cognitive and affective domains for full student engagement. Readers can use this book to:

• Help students develop critical thinking skills to meet the CCSS and other state standards.
• Plan and set goals for literacy instruction.
• Supplement existing English language arts curricula with teacher-tested strategies, activities, and lessons.
• Design and implement engaging instruction.
• Develop a community of learners by creating safe classroom spaces in which all students are encouraged to “think big.”

Book Features:

• Web links throughout the text connect readers to student samples, color versions of resources, anchor charts, videos, extended lesson plans, and more!
• Lessons and activities for embedding cognitive strategy instruction seamlessly into the classroom.
• A detailed look at the genres of narrative, information, and argument, including how to teach them from both a reading and writing perspective.
• Classroom vignettes with National Writing Project teachers who are conversant with the current research literature.