Strategies Revolving Around Trends

Below are a couple of examples of how we can take different reading and writing strategies and utilize them through new literacies and differentiation.  RAFT:  is a writing strategy that helps students understand their role as a writer, the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing, and the topic they'll be writing about. By using this strategy, teachers encourage students to write creatively, to consider a topic from a different perspective, and to gain practice writing for different audiences.

You will see this is an interactive website that allow student to digitally complete RAFT using the internet and modern technology.  

The second attachment is from http://www.vocabulary.co.il/ which lets students interactively play games, complete task, and utilize the website by learning different reading and vocabulary strategies. Teachers or students are able to pick the grade level and various activities in which can be completed in or out of the classroom setting.  

When teachers vary instructional strategies and activities, more students learn content and information, and they develop the necessary skills. "Differentiated instruction allows all students to access the same classroom curriculum by providing entry points, learning tasks, and outcomes tailored to students’ learning needs"(Watts-Taffe, S., 2012. p. 304). Studies within the research by Watts-Taffe showed that "students greater gains in word reading and reading comprehension when their teachers differentiated instruction, using small, flexible learning groups during a center or station time, than did students whose" (Watts-Taffe., p. 305).  The article by Watts-Taffe carries out different instructional strategies for reading and writing in the classroom. The author also notes on e-books which is also a new literacies interactive ways for students to interact with the text in the most effective ways. 

References

Robb, L. (2013). New Angles on Differentiating Reading Instruction: Five Best Practices That Deserve a New Chapter in the Common Core Era. New England Reading Association Journal, 49(1), 13-21.

Watts-Taffe, S. (2012). Differentiated Instruction: Making Informed Teacher Decisions. Reading 

Teacher, 66(4), 303-314.