Heinemann Blog

To be a good teacher, you need to be smart, energetic, and knowledgeable, and you need to really like kids. But that’s not enough.

This week on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re talking about how to support your students during writing conferences. Writing conferences help students build confidence in their writing ability and find joy in the writing process.

Educators have relied on levels as a valuable tool to help them match students to texts they can read independently with fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. However, the truth is that leveling books and using levels as a tool to match students to texts isn’t as straightforward as we might hope

In her newest book, Being the Change, author Sara Ahmed explores the importance of social comprehension in the classroom… In July Sara spoke at the Nerd Camp literacy conference in Michigan about the tensions many of us feel during big moments in history.

Teacher engagement and student engagement in the focus on this PLC series. Featuring a video from Tom Newkirk and Ellin Keene.

It is often difficult to imagine how students can move from where they are to the longer papers they will need to write. This book shows the way forward, with invitations wide enough, attractive enough, and manageable enough—that students will, I believe, decide they no longer need to hide.

It may seem a paradox that consistency breeds creativity. It seems that creativity would stem from the new, the original, the constantly changing. But often, underpinning creative endeavors is predictability and order.

For change to stick, we need to create a school culture focused on the purposeful development of numerical fluency as an integral part of K–5 mathematics in every classroom and among all students regardless of labels, languages, or learning needs.

This wonderful book focuses upon one of the most important moments in teaching—the time when teachers and students talk together and there is an opportunity for students to learn.

This week on the Heinemann podcast, how do we create a culture for our classrooms that can last a full school year? Sonja Cherry-Paul and Dana Johansen, co-authors of Flip Your Writing Workshop and Teaching Interpretation: Using Text-Based Evidence to Construct Meaning, are currently finishing up their third book.

Back-to-school is the perfect time to try new time-management strategies like these. Test them out to see what works, and what doesn't.

Workshop has a predicable routine, and predictable tools, and predicable expectations, students are freed up from having to guess what is expected of them day after day. They are not stymied by waiting for instructions. Instead, they know how workshop will go, and they know what is expected of them

Here are a few ways literacy leaders can help support classroom teachers at the beginning of the school year.

There is a pervasive belief in our culture that being good at math is an innate ability. As teachers, we need to reinforce a growth mindset in our students. Here's where you can start...

Understanding Texts & Readers works in conjunction with The Reading Strategies Book, and helps you connect comprehension goals to text levels and reading responses.

In their new book, Developing Numerical Fluency, Patsy and Steve present what they call pivotal understandings, and put an emphasis on a school-wide culture that values and nurtures numerical fluency.

At the start of a new school year, it is important to take clear and intentional actions that put kids first from day one. Below are four simple and fun activities that build community, encourage engagement, and value student voices.

Choice within routines and environment is essential for instilling agency. Without choice, children are blindly following our rules and expectations.