Building Academic Literacy is a coach-in-a-pocket for educators seeking to build strong academic literacy and higher-order thinking. This book is for anyone with responsibility for instruction - teachers, instructional coaches, professional developers, principals, curriculum leaders, teacher preparation faculty. It provides pathways to developing higher-order thinking in every student and setting. Key to its success is that it connects reading, writing, listening, thinking, and speaking. Readers will find that they can engage all students with content, but more importantly, students will process content in ways appropriate to a particular subject. They also develop independent learning skills -- exactly what the Common Core State Standards call for. The text is engaging yet practical and practicable - grounded and useful to teachers in enacting more student-centered classrooms. Its strategies serve to actively engage all students in high-level thinking and learning, those who have always found school easy and those who have not. Not a prescription, but a book designed to deepen individual and group teacher competencies to implement learning strategies in new ways and to continually refine and develop their craft.