Instruction is where the rubber meets the road in academic literacy development. A Google search will yield literally millions of approaches for teachers to use.

That can be overwhelming, so this section provides, first, some important background for understanding factors that influence the success of instruction, and then, a curated selection of some effective and flexible strategies and activities.

Teacher Adrian Gonzalez

Photo by Stephanie Estrada

Teacher Mario Romero

Photo by Stephanie Estrada

On the Learning Activities link, you will find activities organized by Best Practices (Morrow & Gambrell, 2011), as well as a link to a section on Vocabulary, organized by Best Practices (Blachowicz, N.D.).

Technology in the Classroom can be applied to many practices, so we include some links of interest here:

• Teacher Training Videos is Russell Stannard's site with extensive background and information on topics such as the Flipped Classroom, Blended Learning, Creating Blogs, Technology and Feedback, Technology and Reflection. Also videos that offer teacher's training with Moodle, Camtasia, Edmodo, YouTube, etc.
• Tablet/iPad apps offer tremendous potential where available. As Apps in Education notes, however, "one of the hardest things with using the iPad in the classroom is finding the time to go through all of the apps" available. This blog attempts to sort and evaluate education apps.
• Google Apps for Education is a free suite of online tools, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Docs (free Word), Sheets (free Excel), Slides (free PowerPoint), Google Sites (website builder), and more. Many schools and districts are already connected. Google offers training
• Google Classroom is a free learning management system offered to users of Google Apps for Education. Watch this brief video to see what it can offer you.