Scholastic Launches Two New Professional Books And Celebrates Author Awards At 2016 NCTE Annual Convention

NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, is launching two new professional books for educators at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention this month: The Reading Zone by Nancie Atwell and Anne Atwell Merkel, and Mastering Short-Response Writing by Alan Lawrence Sitomer.  In addition, Scholastic professional authors Laura Robb, Michael Smith and Jeff Wilhelm will be honored with prestigious awards at the Convention to be held November 17-20, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia.

To learn more and also find an impressive list of Scholastic professional authors and children's book authors and illustrators who will be featured at NCTE, visit: http://bit.ly/2fqKU5U

The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers, Second Edition by Nancie Atwell & Anne Atwell Merkel

• Nancie Atwell, inaugural recipient of the Global Teacher Prize and author of the acclaimed classic In the Middle, has teamed up with her daughter, Anne, to create a blueprint for building readers for a lifetime. Drawing on a combined 50 years of expert teaching, the duo shows how K-8 classrooms can be transformed into reading zones: places where students have access to good books, choose their own, enjoy time to read them, and develop accuracy, the reading habit, and a love of literature. The authors explain methods that inspire voracious reading, including daily check-ins, mini-lessons, booktalks, books-we-love displays, and curated classroom libraries. This second edition features new chapters about conferences, close reading and discussion, written responses to books, fiction vs. nonfiction, and reading in high school, plus two lexicons to introduce and support literary analysis. The Reading Zone is a must-read for teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents, with a reproducible newsletter of practical guidelines about how they can help us help kids become the readers we all dream of.

Mastering Short-Response Writing: Claim It! Cite It! Cement It! by Alan Lawrence Sitomer

• In his newest instructional title, Mastering Short-Response Writing: Claim It! Cite It! Cement It!, 2007 California Teacher of the Year and celebrated trade author, Alan Sitomer, outlines the "Triple C writing system"—a sequence of writing steps that helps students, grades 3-8, write concisely and convincingly and build the skills necessary to compose evidence-based responses. Throughout Mastering Short-Response Writing, Alan leverages both his experience as an educator and professional writer by sharing practical tips and strategies to build students' writing skills and demystify writing instruction for both novice and experienced educators throughout.

Also during the 2016 NCTE Annual Convention, Scholastic authors, Laura Robb, Michael Smith and Jeff Wilhelm will be honored for their work in the field of education.

• Teacher, author and literacy coach, Laura Robb, has been named the winner of the Richard W. Halle Award for Outstanding Middle Level Educator. With more than 43 years of teaching experience in grades 4–8, and as the author of more than 25 professional books for educators, Robb's life and work exemplify the tenets of the Halle Award—a spirit of inquiry, exemplary professional involvement, and a dedication to fostering the development of literacy education at the middle level.
• Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm, Boise State University and Michael W. Smith, Temple University, will receive the David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English for their professional book, Reading Unbound: Why Kids Need to Read What They Want—and Why We Should Let Them. The award honors outstanding research in language, literature, rhetoric, or pedagogy and learning which Wilhelm and Smith displayed in Reading Unbound as they explored what educators can learn from teens' pleasure reading, and explain the implications for instruction.

"The mission of Scholastic Education has always been to provide a comprehensive system of professional learning resources and services that meets the unique needs of district and school leaders, teachers, families, and communities," said Dr. Lois Bridges, Vice President & Publisher, Scholastic Education. "Today, as we announce the launch of two new resources for literacy instruction and celebrate two author awards, we are honored and reminded of the important partnership created between Scholastic and the experts we so admire in the education field. Together, one resource at a time, we are helping all educators learn how to build on children's strengths, teach toward independence and deep understanding, and ensure children's academic success and social and emotional well-being from birth to grade 12

Scholastic professional authors and children's book authors and illustrators who will be featured and/or speaking at NCTE include: Kwame Alexander, Pam Allyn, Anne Atwell Merkel, Nancie Atwell, Kylene Beers, Karen Biggs-Tucker, Jim Burke, Ruth Culham, Ralph Fletcher, Stephanie Harvey, Linda Hoyt, Lester Laminack, Donalyn Miller, Ernest Morrell, Bob Probst, Tim Rasinski, Jan Richardson, Linda Rief, Laura Robb, Jennifer Serravallo, Alan Sitomer, Michael Smith, Maria Walther, Annie Ward, Jeff Wilhelm, Neal Bascomb , Ann Burg, Troy Cummings , Eric Gansworth , Alyson Gerber, Alan Gratz, Tommy Greenwald, Nikki Grimes, Deborah Hopkinson, Mike Jung, Christine Kendall, A.S King, Bill Konigsburg, Mary Lambert, Kirby Larson, Ann R. Martin, Kate Messner, Peadar O' Guilen, Daniel Jose Older, Dav Pilkey,Augusta Scattergood, Jordan Sonnenblick, Maggie Stiefvater, Lauren Tarshis, Gita Varadarajan, Sarah Weeks, Amy L. VanDerwater.

For more information about Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), visit our online Media Room at http://mediaroom.scholastic.com.

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SOURCE Scholastic