Teaching Reading
Our contributors lead reading workshops in classrooms with creative flair. Over the past 12 years, we've filled our site with loads of suggestions, tools, and tips for using engaging books throughout the curriculum to hook kids on reading. Here is where you will find many stories of successful and not-so-successful workshop days, and what we learned from them. We bring these stories to life through hundreds of video examples.
Latest Content
Celebrating Completed Books and Presenting New Ones
Gigi McAllister shares a quick daily routine of asking students to celebrate books they have finished reading before she introduces a new book to the class.
In Search of Just-Right Reading Spots
If children can choose just-right reading spots, they will have more stamina for reading. Heather Fisher explains how she works with first-grade teachers and students to build this skill.
Building Better Book Baggies
What happens when you establish a routine early in the year, only to discover students aren't using it a few months later? Shari Frost mentors a teacher who is helping his young students improve their book selection skills.
Student (and Teacher) Risk-Taking
Carly Ullmer ponders what it means to take risks in her middle school classroom as she and her students experiment with different response options.
Using Paired Texts with Beginning Readers
Shari Frost explains how teachers can use paired texts to help young readers build their skills, starting with books they already know and love.
Book Talk: Boy21
Christy Rush-Levine piques interest in Boy21 through a book talk to her middle school students.
Creating a Culture of Book Love
Tara Smith shares some of her favorite online resources for keeping up with new books, as well as organizing tips for classroom libraries.
No More Strong Girls?
Are there ways for girls in literature to be heroic without fighting? Shari Frost asks herself this question in compiling her latest booklist.
Picture Walks for Comprehension: Conferring with Dylan
Katrina Edwards confers with first grader Dylan, teaching this young English language learner the value of picture walks for comprehension.
The Power of Group Conferences in Fifth Grade
Katherine Sokolowski explains why group conferences can be a powerful tool for building a reading community. The article includes a video of a group conference in her fifth-grade classroom.
Previewing a Book with Zoe
Andrea Smith uses a reading conference with fourth grader Zoe to preview a book.
“Old Age Sticks”: Poetry Analysis in Eighth Grade
Christy Rush-Levine leads her middle school students in a choral reading and analysis of “Old Age Sticks” by E. E. Cummings. This is the first installment in a two-part series.
Playful Texts for Beginning Readers
Shari Frost uses playful texts to increase interest and stamina in emergent readers. She shares many of her favorites in this booklist.
Loving Books or Reading?
Justin Stygles wonders why a love of books doesn't necessarily translate into a love of reading for his fifth and sixth graders.
Toward More Meaningful Extension Activities
Shari Frost challenges assignments in reading workshop that kill a love of wordplay and vocabulary development.
Replicating or Deepening?
Jennifer Schwanke finds teachers can get territorial about texts, “claiming” them for their grade level. She explores when it is appropriate to repeat the use of a text in subsequent grades.
Beyond the Comfort Zone: Books for Our Times
Christy Rush-Levine explains why she stocks some books in her middle school classroom library that can provoke concerns from families, and how she deals with conflicts.
Charts as Tools, Charts as Teachers
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills give three principles they use to help avoid the “charts as wallpaper” syndrome in their fourth-grade classroom.
Pulling Weeds
Leigh Anne Eck works to overcome years of student reliance on a reading incentives and rewards program by fostering reflection and intrinsic motivation with her sixth graders.
Critical Thinking and Captain Underpants
Christy Rush-Levine and some struggling eighth-grade readers consider misogyny in a popular children’s book.
Embracing the Books My Students Love
Franki Sibberson explains why we need to move beyond our cherished definitions of quality when working with third graders in transition and embrace the books students love.
Superpowers and a Middle School Classroom Library
Christy Rush-Levine explains how she gradually stocked her middle school classroom library, as well as how she uses student librarians to ensure books aren’t lost.
Helping Young Readers Focus on Print
Shari Frost observes a teacher conferring with a first grader who is mystified at the advice to "get your mouth ready," and it leads her to consider what works best in helping young readers.
Thinking About Fluency
Cathy Mere finds that with young learners, not all issues with fluency are created equally — different needs require different strategies.
The Living: Book Talk
Christy Rush-Levine introduces The Living to her eighth graders.
Book Talk: Trouble
Christy Rush-Levine previews the book Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt.
Book Talk: When We Broke Up
Christy Rush-Levine piques the interest of her eighth graders in When We Broke Up by Daniel Handler.
Tweets in the High School Classroom
Gretchen Schroeder finds that tweets are a terrific quick assessment tool for analyzing student understanding of everything from nonfiction texts to character development in classic literature.
Tweeting a Favorite Author
Katherine Sokolowski helps one of her fifth-grade students compose a tweet to a favorite author.
Making Plans for Summer Reading
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills begin a few days before the start of break to help students develop summer reading goals and plans.
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