Heinemann Blog

Anne Whitney, Colleen McCracken, and Deana Washell think that young kids can reflect and, once they know what it does for them, usually want to reflect. However, this doesn’t mean they know how to reflect. We need to teach reflection, not just expect reflection.

Creating a visual image of a process as dynamic in nature as purposeful talk is challenging at best. But visuals are incredibly helpful for both internalizing the process, and pushing against misconceptions.

Today on the podcast Lester Laminack and Katie Kelly want students and teachers to learn the ways that reading can change lives. In their new book 'Reading to Make a Difference,' Lester and Katie build a framework for diverse and inclusive literature practices.

Think about aligning beliefs and practices not within the classroom, but in your personal life.

In what ways might middle-grade students’ math agency deepen by writing about their learning or discoveries in math class, including, but not limited to, journaling, explaining math ideas, and writing conjectures and proofs about their mathematical discoveries?

To foster a conversation and culture of collaboration, it is vital that assignments not be treated as though they were written in stone. How could they be when the kids and conditions we work with change so much each year?

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re joined by author Maria Nichols. In her new book “Building Bigger Ideas: A Process for Teaching Purposeful Talk,” Maria drives home the growing importance of purposeful, face-to-face communication.

Janelle Henderson invites us to reflect on serving the needs of the boys of color in classrooms.

Consider your nonfiction collection in your own classroom, as well as the way that you use nonfiction texts with your students. Do you read aloud nonfiction for enjoyment? Do your students know how to approach different types of nonfiction reading with different strategies?

When student writers know how to reflect, they know how to learn from their writing experiences. It’s one thing to experience something, but if the experience is then forgotten or not connected in any direct way to other experiences, how is it useful?

Talk has a purpose—and that purpose is to tackle the unknown—to strategize, to innovate, to problem-solve, to construct understanding. This use of talk “in the wild” frames the “why” behind purposeful talk in the classroom—our rationale for designing teaching and learning that’s dialogic in nature.

Today on the Heinemann podcast author Tom Newkirk explores the value of creating worlds through fiction writing. As Tom says, “our minds were made for stories,” so he decided to sit down with high school students to hear about the fiction they write in and out of school…

Over the years, the “library” space came to be used for professional development, math labs, anything but literacy programming, and collection development slowed down significantly.

The Comprehension Toolkit series offers robust instruction to encourage students to develop the reading comprehension skills that lead to lifelong learning. See what's inside in this unboxing video!

How can we actively and intentionally involve students in the chart-making process so charts become an integral part of instruction? Let’s take a look at one way to involve students through the use of interactive writing.

When the reader stands in his or her own worldview, unable to see or conceive of any other perspective, a book can be a bridge. The right book, at the right time, can span the divide between where the reader stands in this moment and alternate views, new ideas, and options not yet considered.

While a whole book assessment is still a part of Complete Comprehension as it was IRA, there are numerous updates and improvements worth noting.

The teaching of phonics is a means to an end. Children need to decode in order to independently read and write. Phonics shouldn’t feel like an interruption or detour away from these authentic experiences. Phonics should be the building of a curiosity.