To practice reading skills either as a student or a teacher, you can download the skills and strategies bookmarks that accompany A Novel Approach. Each set is available for free download and filled with steps that readers can take with them in whatever text they're currently reading. (continue reading)
Today on the Heinemann podcast Jennifer Serravallo introduces A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences, which is part of Heinemann’s Classroom Essentials series. Jen says that while conferring with readers might seem intimidating or out of reach, it is attainable -and necessary- in every classroom. (continue reading)
Writing workshop is not a time where where students prepare to someday write a letter to the editor, or prepare a speech for their local school board. They are doing it right now, every day, in ways that shape their schools and communities in important ways. (continue reading)
The ability to listen will not make teaching easier. It will not take the painful parts away, but listening can give us our children back. If we listen to what children and communities are saying, and we respond accordingly, we can be ourselves again. We can be people. (continue reading)
Lucy Calkins's leadership is rooted in her practice of reading and writing workshop instruction, but where did that instruction begin and how was she called to literacy work to become the leader we know today? How has Lucy Calkins nurtured her own culture of continuous study? (continue reading)
Doing well can mean many different things to a child (and a teacher). It can entail winning, improving, executing a plan, finishing a task, or fulfilling a personal goal. It’s only in recent years that psychologists have begun to tease apart the big glob we casually think of as motivation. (continue reading)
Welcome back to the PLC Series for the 2018-19 school year! Each month, we'll share a post designed to provoke thinking and discussion through a simple framework, incorporating mini-collections of linked content... (continue reading)
When you confer, you tailor your instruction to each student’s strengths and needs. But you do so much more than that. Conferring is where the magic happens. It’s the heartbeat of the literacy block. (continue reading)
Book clubs provide an authentic purpose for reading closely, note-taking, and writing about reading--to prepare for great conversation. When book clubs meet, the conversations are usually open-ended and completely student-directed. (continue reading)
Conferring is built on learning what students are doing and how they are thinking. In the first stage of a math conference, the teachers looks, listens, and asks with the goal of building an interpretation of student thinking. (continue reading)
