Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Name Change Alert!


Concurrent with the addition of a new title to our Critical Literacy series (Comparative Reading), we've changed the series title from Critical Literacy to Adolescent Literacy.
We change series titles infrequently, so this deserves a little explanation. All too often, "literacy" is thought of as pertaining almost exclusively to the K-3 or maybe K-5 world. You're taught reading when you're young and then...you're on your own. The reality is that literacy needs continue right up through middle school, in other words, through adolescence. And adolescent literacy has come to be seen as important in its own right: the reinforcement of literacy concepts and approaches while students are working their way through middle school. So we now have three titles in our Adolescent Literacy series: Figurative Language, Making Inferences, and Comparative Reading. This newest title, by the way, gives students ways to analyze and compare different texts and their elements. Topics include "Mostly the Same or Mostly Different?", "Dear Editor,", and "Same Place, Different Map." You can find out more at http://walch.com/Critical-Literacy-Comparative-Reading.html.

Gee, I Need Geography!


It's true. Most students today -- heck, most people -- are challenged by geography. Where their street is on a city map, where their country is on a world map, how geography affects politics and culture, how geography defines our local and global economy, etc. etc.

That's why we've developed a new series, Thinking Critically About Geography. We've started out with three titles, focusing on 1) United States, Canada, and Greenland; 2) South America; and 3) The Middle East. Each is jam-packed with maps, lessons, key vocabulary, hints for how to read the maps, and so on. And each coems with a CD-ROM that has all of the contents on an easy-to-use PDF.


The Middle East title is particularly exciting, given how central that region is to our nation's future. Lots of maps and critiques that help you understand how and why the different countries relate to one another and the world at large. Need more info? Go to http://walch.com/Critical-Thinking-About-Geography-Series.html