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Chart Sense: Common Sense Charts to Teach 3-8 Informational Text and Literature by Rozlyn Linder, The Literacy Initiative, 2014, 189 pp., ISBN 978-0-9889505-1-1
There is an increased emphasis on helping students explore, read, and understand complex texts. In concert, students are also expected to be able to produce clear and coherent understanding of these complex texts through writing in a variety of formats. The reading and writing expectations for students are more demanding as a result of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010), and teachers are looking for instructional resources to help their students meet those demands. Rozlyn Linder's book Chart Sense: Common Sense Charts to Teach 3-8 Informational Text and Literature is sure to be a popular professional text choice for teachers as they navigate the new reading and writing territory of the CCSS.
Teachers have made use of anchor charts as an instructional and learning strategy in their classrooms for many years. These charts help students learn and represent key ideas, vocabulary, concepts, and other important information being studied; they also help students see the connections between reading and writing. Anchor charts are thinking charts that demonstrate proficient reading and writing; they are mental pictures, constituting...