Does your classroom reflect a balance of rich reading, authentic writing, fundamental word study skills or phonics, and joyous read alouds? Does your practice release responsibility of the cognitive heavy-lifting gradually to your students through thinking aloud, explicit modeling, guided practice, and independent application? Has post-common core testing caused you to rethink every anchor chart…
If you read the March blog article titled, Shepherding Students through the Gates of PCR, did you find yourself thinking, “What shifts in my instruction will be necessary to usher students through the gates of thinking about complex text?” Did the linear progression through the gates of analysis, inference, and synthesis offer intrigue…along with yearning…
The arrival of Common Core State Standards is now five years in our collective rear view mirror. But how far have we come in our instructional practices? With PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments (or next generation-MCAS in Massachusetts) looming, a new sense of urgency appears in our headlights: prose constructed response (PCR). These new performance…
Knee-deep in the fall of the school year, you take stock of your current successes. Maybe your launch of Readers’ Workshop is growing avid bibliophiles. Perhaps an intervention strategy is yielding gains among your most vulnerable students. Maybe you finally carved out time to enjoy your lunch at 4:00PM on the ride home. While the…
Are you besieged with reluctant readers or writers in your classroom? Confounded by lack of stamina during independent practice? Challenged by raising comprehension rigor for language learners while providing significant vocabulary support? Graphic novels and narrative offer an emerging genre to help address all these needs in your elementary, middle, and high school classroom. Graphic…
The never-ending quest for mind-blowing mentor text can be overwhelming. For some, there is the perpetual search for new books to convey critical teaching points while sparking engagement through unfamiliar titles. For others, it’s the hunt for the perfect demonstration of an author’s craft, the ideal tangle of tricky vocabulary, or the excerpt perfectly poised…
In the spirit of a feverish week in sports, we’ll return to our Book Basket this week to review Take Me Out to the Yakyu, by Aaron Meshon. This 2014 ALA Notable Children’s Book illuminates the experiences of a growing number of children living between two countries and two cultures. In this story, one little…
A Book Review and Classroom Tips for The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak As the title makes clear, there are no pictures anywhere in this text by B.J. Novak. Nevertheless, young children will love having this book read to them while being shown the imaginative, vibrant text. The text won’t necessarily be a…
Have you heard the news? A newly unearthed Dr. Seuss treasure was just published for the first time this fall! Dr. Seuss fans, rejoice the publication of Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories (Random House, 2014)! Dr. Charles D. Cohen, who has written extensively about Theodor Seuss Geisel and amassed the largest private…
Educators implementing balanced literacy practices are noticing the difference. Explicit modeling of strategy is empowering students to apply approaches in novel situations. Thinking aloud is revealing previously cloaked cognitive processes. Accountable talk is raising the rigor of academic conversation and collaboration. Independent practice is leading to authentic application and differentiated support for all learners. Practitioners…