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.
Living Words is a quick routine from Andrea Smith that helps students see the power of rich vocabulary for describing the natural world around them.
Teachers can accomplish plenty in a minute if they want to add more nonfiction to their day. Learn how from Andrea Smith.
Karen Terlecky brings lessons from her adult book club to her structure of book clubs in her 5th grade classroom. The article includes launching and management tips.
Franki Sibberson discovers new ways technology can expand and enrich how students preview books.
Cathy Mere reminds us that the excitement of facing new students is always tempered and enriched by the lessons from last year’s students that we carry with us.
Shared reading builds skills and community in Katie DiCesare's 1st grade classroom.
Word Storms help students see the power of rich vocabulary for describing the natural world around them. While Andrea Smith is working with 4th graders, the activities can be adapted for older or younger students.
Katie DiCesare remembers books that were fought over among the boys in her 1st grade classroom, and this leads to creating a new basket for the fall on cars and trucks. She shares a booklist of fun titles in the basket.
Stella Villalba shares her favorite bilingual (English/Spanish) books for helping young English language learners feel at home in new classrooms early in the year.
Teachers of young children often face the difficult choice of using leveled books that aren't necessarily engaging, or children's literature that isn't as easy to peg for readability. Franki Sibberson is on the hunt for wonderful children's literature that can easilysupplement or replace those lowest level "six-packs" of texts.
Karen Terlecky develops a plan for read alouds with her 5th grade students. She explains her choices, comparing selections to last year's list.
Sometimes the pendulum swings so hard in education that it’s hard not to feel whiplash. Shari Frost considers critiques of strategy instruction, analyzing what’s valid and what’s not in attacks on the flurry of post-its in classrooms.
Expedition Mondays launch every week in Andrea Smith's classroom with a healthy dose of nonfiction.
Many second-grade readers are in transition – they can decode almost any text and are eager to read chapter books. Yet many don't have the stamina for reading even very short chapter books on their own. Katie DiCesare presents a booklist of her top picks of new fiction and nonfiction books that might engage and challenge her second-grade students.
Mandy Robek finds a punctuation unit study with her third graders is a fun alternative to yet another genre study. Her essay includes booklists of children's literature and professional texts.
Kelly Petrin and Ruth Shagoury connect globes and children's literature with a map theme to inspire young children to write more and include visual representations in their drafts. While the examples are from a Head Start classroom, the booklist and activities are appropriate for any K-2 students.
Lisa Koch found herself a bit irritated as her high school students would discreetly send text messages as she tried to teach them literary terms. Her solution? Tweet tweet! You can read here about her successful summer experiment of tweeting literary terms and staying in touch with students over summer reading assignments.
These lists created by S. Rebecca Leigh are a fun way to size up the messages we send students about reading, writing, and drawing, and how these may influence lifelong literacy habits.
Melissa Kolb shares the power of wordless photo books with preschoolers, explaining how they work in her classroom and demonstrating with a video.
Karen Terlecky shares how student letter writing about books has evolved over the years. The secret? Karen uses student letters from previous years as mentor texts for moving her 5th graders from summaries to more sophisticated responses.
Spring is a time in many schools for volunteer work and community service projects. This booklist will inspire your students.
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan discuss the concept of “challenge” in considering what texts are the best fit for advanced young readers who might be able to decode any text but don’t yet have the experiences needed to tackle sophisticated concepts.
Shari Frost is inspired to create a list of her favorite children’s book to film adaptations.
As the quality of nonfiction for students has grown, so have our expectations for using these books with students. Franki Sibberson's presents texts that can help students move beyond "skimming and scanning," and into more in-depth reading.
Ruth Shagoury and Andie Cunningham share a wealth of books appropriate for comprehension study with young children. The booklist is especially useful for work with English language learners.
Here are some quirky biographies that will inspire and delight your students.
What big messages do we give to students with summer reading assignments? Franki Sibberson considers this question and shares the template she sends home with children of all ages.
Students need to understand perspective (or point of view) if they want to comprehend what motivates a character. In this booklist, Franki Sibberson highlights some terrific children's literature for helping students grasp the concept of perspective.
A character study unit is a terrific choice early in the school year, since it taps into students' reading histories and favorites from years past. Franki Sibberson has suggestions of books and questions for use in read-alouds.
What texts work best for students with urban backgrounds? Shari Frost has suggestions for teachers.
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