The Missouri Reader Vol. 37, Issue 1 | Page 46

unit. Fourth-grade teacher Lori Elliott completed her
unit on cowboys with an after-school campfire
cookout on the playground. She invited her students
and their families to come dressed for the occasion.
This certainly created a lasting impression on
everyone involved. It helped to cement in the minds
of her students all the reading, writing, and learning
they had accomplished during the unit.
Zinsser (1994) told us that ―every successful piece
of nonfiction should leave the reader with one
provocative thought he or she didn‘t have before. Not
two thoughts, or five—just one. So decide what
single point you most want to leave on your reader‘s
mind‖ (p.53-54). What lasting impression do you
want to leave on your readers? Perhaps you want to
leave them with specific suggestions for how to write
a thematic unit. We want to leave you with the
confidence to write the article you have dreamed of
writing. Sometimes the hardest part is believing you
can do it. In writing an article you are doing what you
know how to do—you are teaching. You know how
to teach—so go ahead and use that knowledge.
Special Note: Hurst, B., & Camp, D. (1999/2000).
―If you can write a lesson plan, you can write an
article‖. The Reading Teacher, 53(1), 22-23. This
material is reproduced with permission of John Wiley
& Sons, Inc.

References
Armbruster, B.B., & Nagy, W.E. (1992). Vocabulary
in content area lessons. The Reading Teacher, 45,
550-551.
Betts, E.A. (1946). Foundation of reading instruction.
New York: American.
Blanton, W.E., Wood, K.D., & Moorman, G.B.
(1990). The role of purpose in reading
instruction. The Reading Teacher, 43, 486-493.
Burns, P.C., Roe, B.D., & Ross, E.P. (1996).
Teaching reading in today‘s elementary schools
(6th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Cunningham, P.M., Moore, S.A., Cunningham,
J.W., & Moore, D.W. (1995). Reading and
writing in elementary classrooms: Strategies and
observations (3rd ed.). White Plains, NY:
Longman.
Davey, B. (1983). Think-aloud—Modeling the
cognitive processes of reading comprehension.
Journal of Reading, 27, 44-47.

Hunter, M. (1984). Knowing, teaching, and
supervising. In P.L. Hosford (Ed.), Using what we
know about teaching (pp.169-192). Alexandria,
VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Reutzel, D.R., & Cooter, R.B. (1992). Teaching
children to read: From basals to books. New York:
Macmillan.
Smith, F. (1975) Comprehension and learning: A
Conceptual framework for teachers. New York: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston.
Stevens, K.C. (1982). Can we improve reading by
teaching background information? Journal of
Reading, 25, 326-329.
Wyrick, J. (1979). Steps to writing well. New York:
Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Zinsser, W. (1994). On writing well (5th ed.). New
York: Harper Perennial.

Resources for implementing the
ELA Common Core Standards
The International Reading Association offers
a variety of tools to help you in the process of
implementing the ELA Common Core State
Standards.
You can link to books and journal articles,
resources from Reading Today, and our
members-only section. They also offer
professional development opportunities such
as webinars and live events, community
conversations, and non-IRA websites that
contain quality information.
Please visit http://www.reading.org and click
on Common Core.

©The Missouri Reader, 37 (1) p.46