About Conley's Thirteen Principles

Conley talks about using diverse texts, which are texts at a difficulty levels and on a variety of topics in #6. I think this refers to making texts concerning different topics and interests available to the students. We know children learn more when they are interested in the subject matter. Allowing a child to choose some of their material for themselves based on their interests should allow the students to have an advantage in the classroom. Adding in different difficulty levels will also give the student a variety of experiences. In fact, this approach should also add interest for the child and contribute to a student's success. Furthermore, allowing a student to read easier material will give them a break and exposing them to more difficult text will spark their interest in this type of reading. Sometimes being allowed to experiment with a difficult text without the pressure of having to worry about being assessed on it or being responsible for comprehending it fully will allow the students to appreciate this level of text that otherwise would not occur.

Conley's Chapter 3

• Teachers are expected to produce achievement for all students.
• NCLB mandates the use of research-based teaching and learning practice
• The more pathways teachers use while teaching, the more likely it will be that one will connect with the special strengths and needs of individual students.
• Learning strategies are ways to learn in a content area.
• Through flexible and varied approaches to the curriculum and texts, teachers can use content area literacy to help all of today's adolescents learn to be successful.
• Whenever possible, focus classroom conversations on students' experiences such as connecting rap music to poetry literature analogies and having students consider everyday uses and misuses of numbers and data.

Questions:
1) How can a teacher be punished if a child just cannot meet adequately yearly progress?
2) To what extent should the students' lives outside the classroom be embedded into the concepts taught inside the classroom?