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
Audioboo, QR Codes, and Authentic Reading Response
Katherine Sokolowski uses audio recordings and other tech resources to build her fifth-grade reading community.
Just-Right Poetry and Individualizing Instruction
Shari Frost describes how a sixth-grade teacher provides a range of poetry options to meet the needs of all students.
March Book Madness
Basketball’s March Madness has many possibilities in schools. Tony Keefer tries a similar format with brackets and voting for March Book Madness.
Poetry and Fluency Minilesson in Second Grade
Sean Moore uses the poem “The Busy Ant” for partner work and discussion of fluency and vocabulary with his second graders.
Beyond Text Features in Nonfiction Instruction
Franki Sibberson considers how the demands of the Common Core and the complex mix of online and offline nonfiction texts are changing the skills she teaches students.
Putting the Search Back in Research
Heather Rader launches a new four-part series on teaching research skills in the primary grades. This first installment highlights search techniques for children.
Science Challenge
Franki Sibberson’s fourth-grade students share results from the weekly science challenge.
Getting More from Wonderopolis
Franki Sibberson uses Wonderopolis with her 4th grade students, helping them learn to research and dig more deeply at the site.
Poetry Minute: Forms and How to Teach Them
Mary Lee Hahn's "Poetry Minute" includes tips and resources for poetry instruction. This month's Poetry Minute focuses on poetry forms and mentor texts to teach them.
Supporting the Transition to Middle School: An Elementary Teacher’s Perspective
Maria Caplin shares how and why she began to collaborate with Gretchen Taylor, a sixth-grade teacher who would soon be the middle school teacher for some of her students.
What Information Is Good Information? Smooth and Effective Transitions to Middle School
Gretchen Taylor explains her role in observing Maria’s fifth-grade classroom, and then building a relationship with students and their families.
Kindergarten Moments Count: Question of the Day
Keri Archer makes the most of the time her kindergarten students spend transitioning into her classroom with her Question of the Day.
Letter Practice Transition in Kindergarten
Mandy Robek “warms up” her kindergartners brains for literacy work with a simple one-minute alphabet activity.
Transitioning to an E-Book Reader in Eighth Grade
Katie Baydo-Reed works with Mike, an eighth grader who is using an ebook reader for the first time.
Building a Reading Community with Edmodo
Katherine Sokolowski discovers Edmodo is a wonderful tech tool for helping her fifth graders become more independent and supportive of everyone’s reading choices.
Supporting Introverts in a First-Grade Classroom
Courtney Pawol looks at how being an introvert affects her role in learning communities, and then moves from insight to practical changes to help the introverts in her first-grade classroom.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Reading and Community in Kindergarten
Mandy Robek leads her kindergartners in a shared reading and performance of the classic tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Introducing Annotation in Eighth Grade
Katie Baydo-Reed introduces the concept of annotating text to her eighth-grade students.
Shared Reading and Annotation in 6th Grade
Gretchen Taylor explains how she uses that old chestnut The Outsiders with her sixth graders for shared reading and to build skills in annotating text. The article includes a video example of a small group.
Weaving Word Study into Writing Workshop in 5th Grade
Maria Caplin describes how she integrates word study with intermediate students in writing workshops.
Integrating Vocabulary and Retelling Strategies into Read-Aloud
Stella Villalba scaffolds the language development of her first- and second-grade English language learners during read-aloud by highlighting vocabulary and providing a tool to assist with a partner retelling activity.
Vocabulary and iPhones: A Four-Step Process for Independent Student Word Learning
Bryce Bennett develops a four-step process to help high school students use their smartphones to master difficult vocabulary while reading.
Linking Movement, Minds, and Literacy in Kindergarten
Max Brand explains how movement activities in classrooms with young learners can be so much more than a brain break or “getting the wiggles out”: movement can forge potent connections between mind, body, and story. The essay includes two video examples.
Student-Selected Vocabulary in Middle School
Katie Doherty shares many ways to make vocabulary learning fun in middle school, beginning with students working together to select words to study each week.
Curating the Classroom and School Library
As classroom budgets get tighter, teachers rely more and more on school libraries for books. Erin Ocon describes how she has changed the way she matches books and readers in her middle school classroom, depending more on school library resources and helping her middle school students navigate them.
Conferring to Build Stamina in First Grade
Katie DiCesare works with first grader JJ to help him meld decoding and comprehension skills.
The Power of Read-Aloud Notebooks
Karen Terlecky shares the process of launching and sustaining read-aloud notebooks with fifth graders.
Backing Up and the Bossy E
In this conference with second grader TJ from Sean Moore’s classroom, the strategies of backing up and rereading as well as attending to the “bossy e” are discussed.
From “Show Me the Lessons” to Sustainable Planning (Part 4 of the Opinion/Argument Writing Series)
This is the final installment in Heather Rader's series on argument and opinion writing in the intermediate grades.
Movement with First Graders
Katie DiCesare leads her first-grade students through movements and a song, and explains in the debrief why movement activities are valuable for young learners.
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