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
Rethinking Mentor Texts
Shari Frost writes about the ways our perfectly organized bins may limit the teaching possibilities for many books. She takes readers step by step through her process of determining ways to use a sample mentor text to teach a multitude of lessons and strategies.
New Books to Celebrate Poetry
Franki Sibberson shares some of her favorite new poetry collections in an annotated booklist.
Planning Small Groups to Teach Phonetic Skills
The gap between a child learning a phonetic rule and actually being able to apply it is one that often vexes teachers. Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan find systematic planning and routines for focused small-group work help many of their colleagues succeed in their phonics instruction.
Newbery Club Wrap-Up
Even though their Newbery Club of 5th graders didn't read the winning book in advance, Maria Caplin and Bill Prosser consider the club a success. They close out their series on the club with thoughts on how they will do things differently next fall.
The Amazing School Librarian: An Interview with John Schumacher (PODCAST)
Franki Sibberson interviews extraordinary school librarian and blogger John Schumacher in an inspiring podcast that will get you thinking in new ways about school librarians and their role in your learning community.
Kelly Gallagher on Readicide (PODCAST)
High school teacher and best-selling author Kelly Gallagher talks about "readicide" – what teachers and schools do to systematically kill a love of reading in students.
Writers, Choice and Independence (Part I)
What does true independence look like among young readers and writers? A chance comment from a visitor to Aimee Buckner's classroom gets her pondering the amount of choice children have during units of study.
Great Lead Investigators
Katie Doherty turns her middle school students into lead investigators – an activity that is a terrific combination of mentor texts, group work, and connections to student writing.
It May Be a Mess, But It’s Our Mess: Creating a Student-Organized Classroom Library
Jennifer McDonough explains why it’s important for her to share the sorting, categorizing, and labeling of texts with her students early in the year while organizing the classroom library.
Wonderopolis: Nonfiction, Technology, and Web-Based Independent Learning
Wonderopolis hits the sweet spot so many of us are looking for in web resources for students, delivering free, engaging, high-quality nonfiction text and video in small chunks that can easily be integrated into literacy and science workshops. Andrea Smith explains how she uses Wonderopolis daily with her students.
Spring Reading Interviews (TEMPLATE)
Kindergartners may be too young for reading interviews early in the fall, but Mandy Robek finds spring reading interviews are an excellent bridge to families and summer reading suggestions.
Catching Struggling Readers Before They Fall with Pat Johnson and Katie Keier (PODCAST)
Pat Johnson and Katie Keier share their thoughts on how a comprehensive literacy approach best meets the needs of all learners, especially those students who struggle.
Digital Reading: Another Facet of a Classroom Library
The good news? There are lots of free and low-cost digital books for young readers on the web. The bad news? The quality of many of them is mediocre at best. Andrea Smith highlights three web-based resources for digital books that are affordable and also high quality.
One Book/Four Hands: Mentoring Younger Readers Using Picture Books
Paul Hankins describes the power of pairing high school and elementary students in a partner reading program.
The Power of Checklists in Primary Literacy Workshops
Knowing our most sophisticated professions use checklists to get it right, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share and explain checklists that work well for students.
Updating Reading Interviews: Technology and Changing Habits
Reading Interviews are a staple in many literacy programs – a terrific tool for learning more about the history and habits of students. Franki Sibberson explains how she has updated her reading interview to include questions about digital resources and tools.
Raising Readers: Independent Reading, Choices, and Intentional Reading Practices
How can teachers promote good independent reading choices for English language learners? Stella Villalba has suggestions.
Literacy Rights and Responsibilities
Something bad was happening in Katie Doherty’s middle school classroom—it was time to rebuild the class community with a reality check.
Choosing 5th Grade Read Alouds for the New Year
So many wonderful choices, so little time! Karen Terlecky makes her selections for a year of 5th grade read alouds.
Next Steps: Thinking about Retelling During Reading
Retelling is an essential skill for readers, and it’s one that is crucial for success on most state exams too. In Part 2 of a two-part series, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share strategies and sample lessons in this installment.
Reading Preferences: Social, Pleasurable, and Sometimes Awkward
Karen Terlecky connects an honest appraisal of her reading habits with an unvarnished look at her 5th grade students.
Primary Series Study
Katie DiCesare describes the primary series study unit she completes with her 1st and 2nd graders, combining reading, writing, and community building.
Book Matchmaker: Teaching Point of View
In this installment of Book Matchmaker, Franki Sibberson provides a range of books for teaching point of view for grades 3-5 students.
Uncovering Reading Behaviors
Teachers value the assessment of student skills and needs that come from close observation in classrooms, but may not know how to focus those observations. Ruth Shagoury documents some of those behaviors that put students on the path of becoming accomplished independent readers in a middle school classroom.
Content Connections in Reading Workshop
In this four-minute video, Andrea Smith confers with a 4th grade student interested in immigration, helping her set up an independent reading and learning plan.
Revising Titles Minilesson
In this minilesson from Franki Sibberson’s grades 3 and 4 classroom, Franki takes students through the process of selecting and revising titles. She uses the poem “Confessions of a Reader” by Carol Wilcox as a mentor text.
Book Matchmaker: Helping a Struggling Reader in 5th Grade
In this installment of Book Matchmaker, Franki Sibberson shares books and genres a struggling 5th grader might enjoy.
Preschool Book Browsing Time
This five-minute video from Kelly Petrin's preschool classroom shows the value of book browsing time. Kelly explains the skills children develop in language, book handling skills, and literacy independence during this time.
Book Matchmaker: New Books for Intermediate Readers
From humor to novels in verse, Franki Sibberson shares her top picks for intermediate readers in this Book Matchmaker.
Linking Reading, Writing, and Getting to Know You Activities During the First Week of Middle School
Want to get your middle school students’ attention on the first day of school? Read a book about how to ruin it for them.
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