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When Kelly Gallagher learned that his 9th grade students could not name the vice president of the United States, and when two seniors asked him in all seriousness, "Who is this guy, Al Qaeda?", Kelly was shocked into realising he needed to do something outside the standard curriculum to build his students' background knowledge. In response, he developed the Article of the week activity to address the serious gaps in his students' education. Each week, students read a short article that informs them about the world. Students highlight passages and words they don't understand, consider the author's purpose and intended audience, and work through any confusion. The class then discusses how the structure and craft of the article informs reader comprehension and how they can implement these elements into their own writing. In 15-minutes, Kelly shows teachers how to integrate the Article of the week into their own classrooms in a manner that provides the background knowledge that is the foundation for critical reading. About the author Kelly Gallagher is a teacher with over twenty years of high school teaching experience behind him. He is currently a full-time teacher at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, California. He believes that "there is no greater pleasure than teaching someone something." Teaching is "artistic, it matters a great deal, and I can never get the job down perfectly."

Originally produced by Stenhouse Publishers in 2009

Mode of access: World Wide Web