Have you noticed all of the Back to School advertising and displays in your local store? While we are still in the middle of a hot summer, we are turning our thoughts towards the fall and the launch of school. With so many competing narratives in literacy instruction, we wanted to share a few messages…
This school year, amongst the many goals in a school day, we know teachers are working hard to help accelerate their students in reading. And one of our goals is to provide you with high leverage instructional moves for your classroom and especially your small group instructional time. There’s a big buzz around decodable…
If you are reading this blog, chances are you are a literacy coach, reading specialist or elementary teacher who has strong beliefs about readers workshop and balanced literacy. And in light of all of the podcasts, blogs, articles about the science of reading, you might be wrestling with some of the instructional practices that have…
Teaching students to read and write is both a science and an art. One of the tried and true practices that helps support all learners is the sacred time spent one on one with teacher and student, side by side with a text in the middle, modeling, coaching, sharing and supporting deep thinking and more…
As March nears its end, ask yourself, how far have your readers come? Are you still wondering how to satiate your advanced readers? Do you still have readers who are “faking” it? Are students cringing through informational text with milk of magnesia-like reticence? Do some of your students still demonstrate significant deficits in vocabulary or…
Autumn brings tidings of celebration, unless you’re a Red Sox or Trump fan. Classrooms are reveling in seasonal themes such as democracy, suffrage, harvest bounty, family, and giving to those in need. All the while, exhausted educators are searching Pinterest for candy corn martini recipes (yes, it is a thing) and strategies for ramping up…
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…