Love & Literacy: A Practical Guide to Finding the Magic in Literature (Grades 5-12)

When our students enter middle and high school, the saying goes that they stop learning to read and start reading to learn. Then why is literacy still a struggle for so many of our students? The reality is that elementary school isn't designed to prepare students for Othello and Song of Solomon: so what do we do?

Love and Literacy steps into the classrooms of extraordinary teachers who have guided students to the highest levels of literacy. There is magic in their teaching, but that magic is replicable. It starts with a simple premise: kids fall in love with texts when they understand them, and that understanding comes from the right knowledge and/or the right strategy at the right time.

Love and Literacy dissects the moves of successful teachers and schools and leaves you with the tools to make these your own:

• Research-based best practices in facilitating discourse, building curriculum, guiding student comprehension and analysis, creating a class culture where literacy thrives, and more
• Video clips of middle and high school teachers implementing these practices
• An online, print-ready Reading and Writing Handbook that places every tool at your fingertips to implement effectively
• Discussion questions for your own professional learning or book study group

Great reading is more than just liking books: it's having the knowledge, skill, and desire to experience any text in all its fullness. Love and Literacy guides you to create environments where students can build the will and wherewithal to truly fall in love with literacy.

PAUL BAMBRICK-SANTOYO is the Founder and Dean of the Leverage Leadership Institute and Chief Schools Officer for Uncommon Schools. He is author of several books, including Leverage Leadership 2.0, Driven by Data 2.0, Great Habits, Great Readers, and Get Better Faster.

STEPHEN CHIGER is a Director of Literacy for Uncommon Schools. Named 2015 Educator of the Year by the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, Chiger taught high school English and journalism for more than a decade.