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I found this brief explanation of Dyslexia helpful.

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There are 44 sounds, also known as phonemes, in the English language. Understand their important role in dyslexia.

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Website dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences.

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How can we help?

I am a parent or caregiver and want help with behaviors , learning , and everyday skills

We are Understood.
We are the lifelong guide for those who learn and think differently. In the past year, we've helped more than 20 million people discover their potentials, take control of their lives, and stay on positive paths.

We support the 1 in 5 Americans who learn and think differently.

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We just launched our "Be the Reason" stigma campaign. Learn more here.

Helpful guidance from Understood

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We're here to help if you're feeling overwhelmed. Take N.O.T.E. (Notice. Observe. Talk. Engage.) is a simple step-by-step tool that can help you figure out if the struggles you're seeing might be signs of a learning and thinking difference.

"I have a hard time focusing, mostly in school. When I do my homework, I kind of feel stressed out because it feels like so much even though it's not too much."

Emperor Kaioyus, Grade 4

Wunder The first community app for parents and caregivers of children who learn and think differently.

Available on Android and iOS
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Understood - For Learning and Thinking Differences

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Understood.org is the resource that helps the 70 million people with learning and thinking differences anticipate the challenges, barriers, or opportunities in life and confidently reach their potential.

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It's helpful to see what schools I may be at are performing at and how they compare to other schools across Oregon.

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At-A-Glance School and District Profiles and Accountability Details - Oregon Department of Education

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all kinds of ways to generate content for a school environment.

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My book with representation

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Book on divers books

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Technique for teaching Crit Lit in Early El

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Technique for teaching Crit Lit in Early El

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Using a form of literary criticism in tandem with drama activities helps young students think deeply about how stories are constructed.

From the back of her class, I watched as one of my favorite colleagues read to her second-grade students. While reading, she paused, allowed for turn and talks, and asked students to make predictions.

When she had finished reading, my colleague asked questions about the plot, setting, and character traits. In many respects, the lesson was a success-the students had participated eagerly. However, my colleague told me that she wanted more from her read-aloud time. Having seen my students engage in drama-related literacy activities, she was curious about how she could weave those ideas into her literacy lessons, so I shared the nine-day critical literacy and drama framework described below.

What Is Critical literacy?

Although there is no set definition of critical literacy, it essentially involves examining the relationship between language and power in a text. This work is responsive and thoughtful in nature. The chosen text, students' comfort and familiarity with the text, and the lesson goals all have an effect on what happens in the classroom.

Using the four dimensions of critical literacy -disrupting the commonplace, considering multiple viewpoints, focusing on the sociopolitical, and taking action-as a springboard, I focus on how purposeful questioning, discussion, and improvised drama might influence how students engage with literacy lessons.

Setting the Stage

The first step is selecting a strong mentor text, one with multiple narratives, in which alternate stories are told between the lines and within the illustrations. A worthwhile text should serve to launch counternarratives or conversations about identity and social issues, or about differences in power and privilege. Children should be able to see themselves and learn about the lives of others through the text. Examples include: A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams, Islandborn by Junot Díaz, Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, The Remember Balloons by Jessie Oliveros, and Another by Christian Robinson.

Here is my nine-day plan for discussing the text Boy by Phil Cummings.

Whose voice do you notice most in this story? Whose voice is missing?

What do you think Boy wished the villagers knew about him?

Can you tell the story of what the villagers thought as Boy approached the battle?

How did the dragon discover the village? Does the dragon have a family?

How is your life like or different from Boy's life? How can we use this story to see our world differently?

Day 1. Introduce and discuss: First I reveal the cover and ask students to make predictions and share reflections. Then I read the book to the students, pausing for partner discussions. After the reading and discussion, I ask questions such as:

Days 2 and 3. Review and set up the drama activities: The intention of drama activities is to draw deeper meaning from a story. The drama offers more than a performance-it's a way of learning. In each drama activity, students volunteer to become characters from the text.

If the class is focused on giving a voice to an oppressed character or uncovering motive, I may choose to hot seat, meaning that students interview a character. With Boy, my students chose to interview the dragon, Boy, and the townspeople.

Perhaps students want to encourage a character at a pivotal moment. If so, I might carry out a corridor of voices, where students line a hallway and express what was left unsaid in the text. Sometimes, student opinions are clearly divided-in these situations, a town hall meeting allows deliberation on important issues from the book. While exploring Boy, for instance, students participated in a town hall meeting to decide if the dragon should stay in the town.

Finally, when we speculate about a character's history, I sometimes have students create flashbacks to shed new light on the story, or imagine future scenes to push the focus beyond the end of the book.

Day 4. Shared writing: As a group, we author a piece of writing. I bring in linked texts, model my thinking, and ask for student input. The piece can be a letter to a community member, the author, or a character from the story. It might also take on the form of a journal entry as a character or a part of the story told from an alternate perspective.

Based on the reading, discussion, and drama activities, students discuss the possible writing forms (e.g., poem, letter, comic, diary entry), and participate in peer conferences so they can brainstorm and gain feedback.

Days 5, 6, and 7. Writing: Students need time to create meaningful works. Throughout, they write and then revise their work. I engage in writing conferences with students (one-to-one or small group) to support and nudge each of them.

Days 8 and 9. Sharing their work: Sharing writing and creating action plans are integral to this process. The action plans are student-led and ongoing.

Examples include arranging fundraisers, partnering with community organizations, or engaging in service projects. Over the years, I've seen this action take on many forms including, performing skits at senior citizen homes, volunteering to stock shelves at shelters, and supporting local Special Olympics groups. Making space and time to support action plans makes a difference in the type and quality of work students engage in.

Later in the semester, I found myself at the back of my colleague's classroom again. This time, I watched as she hosted a talk show to interview characters. The student input had come a long way, and when I asked how she felt about the lesson, she said, "Now that I've done it this way, I can never go back!"

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Critical Literacy in Early Elementary Grades

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Using a form of literary criticism in tandem with drama activities helps young students think deeply about how stories are constructed.

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Techniques and ideas for improving reading skills

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Kindergarten Archives · Home Reading Helper(SM)

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CMS will test your child's reading 3 times a year using DIBELS, TRC and MAP Growth tests by their school. Results should be given to families. The results will indicate the specific skills your child should learn to become a great reader. Wondering what this means? We help break it down for you.

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A technique for teaching reading.

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As an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was created in 2002 to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.

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You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Guidance for Educators Using a Balanced Literacy Program

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Improve instruction and help all students achieve at high levels by making these research-based adjustments to your balanced literacy program. This guidance outlines some of the most common challenges of a balanced literacy model, how they can impede students' learning, and how you can adapt your reading program to better serve students.

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So many articles on teaching Phonics and Language Arts. Definitely a resource I want in my back pocket.

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So many fantastic articles on news for kids. There is even a daily broadcast.

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VIDEO News
Incredible video footage shows a new island bubbling up from the depths of the Pacific Ocean during a volcanic eruption off the coast of Japan

Health
Young people drive greater public awareness about the dangers of teen vaping as the government moves to ban imported disposables

EXPLAINER News
Sudden, shocking events in faraway places can be pretty confusing and scary - but it helps to know what is going on, how it started and what the UN and world leaders are doing to respond

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How to do semantic maps with students.

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You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Connecting Word Meanings Through Semantic Mapping

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Semantic maps (or graphic organizers) help students, especially struggling students and those with disabilities, to identify, understand, and recall the meaning of words they read in the text.

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I own a beautiful large print of one of these paintings and I'd like to bring it in and use it as a writing prompt. I will share the story behind the painting and then all the stories that guests who visit my home have made up about why the girl is crying. Then I will have students make up their own story of why she is crying.

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The Curse of the Crying Boy - Discover Vintage America

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A Crying Boy painting by Italian artist Giovanni Bragolini (1911-1981), one in a series of paintings meant to pay tribute to the orphans of World War II in the UK. (photo courtesy of the author)

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A crit lit picture book about homelessness and the joy of helping a stranger.

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A crit lit book about the slave trade. It's also a fable with beautiful pictures.

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A crit lit book about bullying and gender roles. Having a son who has gone through this I would love to address this issue in my classroom. This could also be a good mentor text for a writing project.

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children's / teenage fiction & true stories

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juvenile fiction / social themes / bullying

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juvenile fiction / social themes / self-esteem & self-reliance

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juvenile fiction/performing arts - dance

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social themes - self-esteem & self-reliance

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A little boy must come to terms with being teased and ostracized because he'd rather read books, paint pictures, and tap-dance than participate in sports. "There is a good balance between the simple text . . . and the expressive pictures . . . an attractive little book."--School...

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A great crit lit book on dyslexia and the difference one person can make. This is a book about the authors own personal struggles learning to read and now she is a well known and loved author. We should all be saying "thank you to Mr. Falker"!

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A fantastic list of Critical Lit Picture Books

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A fantastic list of Critical Lit Picture Books

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So many books I want to explore here for Critical Lit. Books covering a very diverse stretch or topics.

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A critical lit book on the beauty of diversity. I'd love to do an apple cider pressing with this book read, having all the kids bring their favorite apples from home to contribute to the cider pressing. I could use my Champion Juicer to do the pressing. This would also be a good mentor text for a writing project.

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Ted Lewin's gorgeous sun-drenched paintings and Eve Bunting's sensitive text immediately put the reader into another child's shoes in this timely story of a young Muslim immigrant.

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One Green Apple [Bunting, Eve, Lewin, Ted] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. One Green Apple

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A critical lit book about a boy with Down's syndrome. It has beautiful pictures and would make a great mentor text for a writing project.

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A sweet critical lit book that has a lot of ways to connect across content areas like science and culture.

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A critical lit book to teach about taking control and finding beauty in unlikely places. This would be a fantastic mentor text for a writing project where students get to write about their own ideas for finding beauty around them.

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A critical lit book that would make a good mentor text. I lived in Kenya and actually had Maasai offer cows for my hand in marriage, even if it was in jest! I love Kenya and have brothers and sisters from this wonderful country. I think this is a beautiful book with a great message worth talking about. It would be perfect for the beginning of the year around 9/11.

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Another critical literacy book I'd like to use in class shows the harm rumors can cause and how they can turn nothing into something. This would be a great mentor text as well for a writing piece.

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Word travels quickly through a peaceful village when a hungry beast is spotted in the hills. Some say he has ears that can hear a potential meal from a mile away! Others declare that his stink is enough to kill you with just one whiff! Still others report that his snout is stronger than a vacuum cleaner! The threat compels friends to warn one another and in humorous fashion turn hearsay into an increasingly inaccurate rumor. Uncertainty abounds, but by the time the villagers are safely gathered together out of harm s reach, one thing is for sure readers young and old will be charmed by The Rumor !

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The Rumor [Felix, Monique, Felix, Monique] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Rumor

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A book I'd like to use for a critical literacy read aloud and writing mentor prompt. This book does a fun perspective switch that I think will give students a good idea on how to do this. We can explore other topics or concepts that we could do a perspective switch on.

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I really liked this writing process and the use of mentor texts to create a writing prompt and discussion based on the text. You can use fiction or nonfiction and level the writing according to student needs.

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How to Teach Writing to 3rd Graders - The Friendly Teacher

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Do you know how to teach writing to 3rd graders? If not, this blog post will give you tips and freebies to teach writing to 3rd graders!

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Videos on creating Routines in your classroom

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Videos on creating Routines in your classroom

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This is helpful to show exactly how to establish routines estabilished in the classroom. I need this!

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Building Strong Foundations With Classroom Routines

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So many great videos on lessons about books like "Right Fit" Books, Parts of Books, How Books are Made.

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How to Pick Just Right Books - Five Finger Rule & I PICK Strategies

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A teacher demonstrating how to teach how to choose a "Just Right Book".

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A video made by kids on how to choose a "Just Right Fit" book.

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This is a teacher that has a lot of Amazon find suggestions for your classroom.

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Shop recommended products from Tarheelstate Teacher on www.amazon.com. Learn more about Tarheelstate Teacher’s favorite products.

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This is a resource to help with Word Studies. Since I am new to this this feels like a helpful resource to have.

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Tarheelstate Teacher’s Amazon Page - Word Study 3rd Edition Resources

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Shop recommended products from Tarheelstate Teacher on www.amazon.com. Learn more about Tarheelstate Teacher’s favorite products.

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This is something I may want to print out while working with small groups on phonics. This PDF talks about how to use corrective feedback during phonics instruction. It was helpful to me as I tried to figure out how to provide feedback to students in my small groups for my Virtual Gradebook. It has a helpful chart on common "Errors" and how to correct them.

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This is for HS but there were just so many great ideas and resources I had to put it here for future reference. A lot of her stuff I think can be adapted for elementary.

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These are spooky book suggestions from Moore-English.com that I would like to check out. Her whole site was very well laid out with a lot of suggestions and resources.

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13 New Titles for Spooky Season in Your Classroom Library

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From time to time, I like to give my classroom library a little refresh. Spooky season is the perfect time to spotlight horror, mystery, suspense, and all things creepy and crawly. While I’ve previously shared short stories and poems for Halloween, today I wanted to focus on books that you can add to your classroom […]

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This post has links to systems and tools to help me assess a student's close reading to determine how they are doing with comprehension. This is for high school students but I think it has good bones that I can adapt for lower grades. I will need this for my Virtual Gradebook Part 3 to give feedback to my students. This person had some excellent teaching points and ideas that resonated with me like "reading is a conversation and writing is a social activity... Students have to bring their insights into the text and make room for the text’s impact."

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Yesterday, Danielle Valentin asked me a great question on : What's the best way to assess close reading?

According to Beth Burke, NBCT , close reading "is thoughtful, critical analysis of a text that focuses on significant details or patterns in order to develop a deep, precise understanding of the text..."

In other words, close reading engages in a meaningful dialogue with the text. Oftentimes, we facilitate that conversation through annotation. But and Penny Kittle remind us that "Annotation is not close reading; it is a habit of the mind."

Similarly, Dave Stuart Jr. reminds us that annotation is only valuable when it has purpose. This means, as teachers, we must intentionally plan for annotation will appear in our lessons.

Additionally, we must also make sure students understand the purpose for annotation in our lessons. If we incorporate annotation into our lessons in service of close reading, then we must ask ourselves how the assessment measures students' ability to close read. Therefore, we must return to Danielle's original question: how do we assess close reading?

With that question in mind, here are 5 Dos and 1 Don't for assessing close reading:

Success! Welcome to Moore English!

How to Start

DO model close reading and share your thinking with students. Before students can begin the process of close reading with rigor, it's important to walk students through the process. Let them see and hear your dialogue with a text.

My favorite ways to support close reading involve using easy-to-remember systems. For poetry, I use this system and these tools. And for informational and nonfiction texts, I use this system and these tools.

For my juniors, I model close reading with the first paragraphs of Jonathan Edwards' " Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Choose a text that presents frequent opportunities for students to wrestle with meaning. Build in an opportunity for you to self-assess your work in front of students. So you are modeling the reflection process for them, too.

invite dialogue. My absolute DO#teachertruth is that reading is a conversation, and writing is a social activity. With this philosophy in mind, I fully believe that close reading is a conversation with a text. Students have to bring their insights into the text and make room for the text's impact.

For Peter Elbow , this is the "violence" involved in learning: to make sure that both student and text are "maximally transformed-in a sense, deformed" (331). Close reading should invite a chorus, a cacophony, a conversation!

Incorporate meaningful academic discussion into your lesson. Ask students to establish some behavior norms for discussion. But then let them dig into the text together. The assessment comes from your observations, student responses to each other, and student responses to your questions.

Use Close Reading to Support Assessment

use close reading as DO formative assessment. While my students are discussing a text, I ask them to have their annotations out. As they chat, I walk around and read through annotations. If annotation is your tool for assessing close reading, then you have to be reading over students' annotations to make sure they balance critical thought with comprehension. This can be a hard balance to strike, which is why modeling is so important.

As I walk, I star great insights and write questions where students missed an opportunity to extend thought further. After a discussion, I encourage students to share their reflections on their annotations. If I consistently see a student struggling to create meaningful annotations, I will do a mini-lesson and reteach as needed.

use close reading as a platform for summative assessment. Close reading draws on DO inference, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation skills! Because close reading requires so many higher-level skills, it is a great platform for diving into a summative assessment.

In writing, close reading is an important part of peer revisions and feedback. But the summative assessment is the writing.

During Socratic Seminar, close reading is essential to generating meaningful questions. But the questions and dialogue are the summative assessment.

In reading, close reading is critical to providing a nuanced poetry study. But student responses to the poem (maybe in the form of multiple-choice questions or a short answer) are the summative assessment.

Get Creative

DO incorporate voice and choice into close reading. In my classroom, close reading almost always means annotation. However, instead of insisting that students use one standard annotation format, we experiment with a variety of formats: double-entry journals , Cornell notes , and post-it-notes .

Sometimes we annotate digitally, use Screencastify, or mark directly on a piece. After students try a certain number of annotation styles, they can choose the one that fits their needs and their mind. Invite creativity into this process!

But annotation isn't the only marker of close reading. Students can complete exit tickets, color-code a text, design graphic organizers, free write, or journal. Each one of these items can be an assessment of close reading.

Assess Close Reading Without Grading

DON'T grade close reading. Close reading improves student comprehension, engagement, and higher-level thinking. However, close reading is not the summative assessment. So there's no need to put a grade on close reading. Remember, "grading" and "assessment" are not synonymous.

As Carnegie Mellon University indicates, assessment seeks to "improve student learning" while grading is evaluative. Close reading is an assessment of how well a student interacted with a text and can be measured with annotation. However, the goal of close reading, like the goal of assessment, is to improve student learning. Grade the final copy. Grade the Socratic Seminar. And grade the item, task, or product that shows the culmination of student learning.

What close-reading strategies work in your classroom? What other questions do you have for Moore English? Send your questions, and remember to subscribe for new posts every week.

Photo by Debby Hudson and Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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How to Assess Close Reading and Annotation / Moore English

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Yesterday, Danielle Valentin asked me a great question on : What's the best way to assess close reading? According to Beth Burke, NBCT , close reading "is thoughtful, critical analysis of a text that focuses on significant details or patterns in order to develop a deep, precise understanding of the text..."

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What to do about how poverty affects classroom engagement.

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What to do about how poverty affects classroom engagement.

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There were some great ideas about easy ways to teach vocab and other things one can do to help children in poverty grow in the classroom. I liked the flashcard games/mixers for vocab, and word of the day chosen & presented by table groups or reading groups.

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How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement

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Students from low-income households are more likely to struggle with engagement—for seven reasons.

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Mekenzie Recommended Podcast Episode on ELs

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Mekenzie Recommended Podcast Episode on ELs

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A podcast Mekenzie recommended on practical strategies for ELs.

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Meet our guest(s):

Diane August, Ph.D., is a principal at D. August and Associates, where the team works to improve educational outcomes for multilingual learners through technical assistance to states and districts, experimental research, and policy work. August is currently a co-principal investigator at the Center for the Success of English Learners, one of two federally-funded centers focused on outcomes for secondary level multilingual learners. She is also a co-principal investigator for a National Professional Development Program grant funded by the Office of English Language Acquisition.

Her prior positions include managing researcher at the American Institutes for Research, senior research scientist at the Center for Applied LInguistics (CAL), and senior program officer at the National Academy of Sciences. She also worked as a classroom teacher, school administrator, congressional legislative assistant, grants officer for the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Director of Education for the Children's Defense Fund. She received her Ph.D. in education and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychology at Stanford University, and has been published widely in journals and books.

Meet our host, Susan Lambert

Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Lambert is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.

As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Lambert explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Lambert is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.

Transcripts and additional resources

"We found there is no indication that bilingual instruction impeded academic achievement, either in the native language or in English. What we observed on average, [was] that kids that were in bilingual programs did a lot better in literacy." -Diane August, Ph.D.

"There's some sounds in English that aren't present in a first language. Or there are orthography letters that sound different in one language versus the other. So you just have to realize you have to take into consideration the kid's language background when you're teaching foundational skills." -Diane August, Ph.D.

"We develop kids' oral language when they're older in conjunction with teaching them to read and teaching them content area knowledge. You can't not do that from the beginning, you have to support kids in foundational reading skills." -Diane August, Ph.D.

"Second language learners also come with a lot of knowledge in their first language, which is really important to consider. It's not like they don't have background knowledge." -Diane August, Ph.D.

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Episode 4: Practical strategies for multilingual learning, with Diane August, Ph.D.

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Listen to Diane August, Ph.D. discuss empowering strategies for multilingual learners and leveraging this asset in your teaching practices.

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A handy word analyzer tool for teaching vocab in class.

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The Word Analyzer Tool identifies word forms that are most frequent in English texts. Word forms are particular forms of a word typically distinguished by their grammatical inflections. For example, possible words related to the word form "compromise" include "compromises," "compromised," and "compromising." These word forms comprise approximately 80% of words typically found in English texts based upon the Seward First 4000 Word List.

To use the tool, copy and paste text into the analyzer. The analyzer then returns words grouped into the first, second, third, and fourth quartiles of the 4000 Word List and the top 100 most frequent words in English. Words in the first quartile are most frequent among the 4000. For the identified words, the tool also provides definitions, as well as the word's English-Spanish cognate status and level of imagability.
Click here for tips on using the Word Analyzer Tool
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About the Center

One of the activities of the Center for English Language Learners at AIR is to provide technical assistance to help states and districts improve policies and practices for English learners.
Visit the Center for English Language Learners website

The Word Analyzer is a tool used with the ACCELL model

Attaining Core Content for English Language Learners (ACCELL) helps teachers support English learners in meeting academic standards.

CLICK TO LEARN MORE

COLLTS is an early childhood program for multicultural classrooms

Cultivating Oral Language Literacy Talent in Students (COLLTS) is an early childhood program that promotes the development of pre-reading skills, oral language proficiency, and content and conceptual knowledge using shared, interactive reading of high-quality, bilingual children's literature.

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State, district, and school support for ELLs

The Center for English Language Learners at AIR works with states, districts, and schools to collect information about current policies and practices for ELs, evaluates those policies and practices, and formulates plans of action to make improvements in EL education.

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The Word Analyzer Tool identifies word forms that are most frequent in English texts. Word forms are particular forms of a word typically distinguished by their grammatical inflections. For example, possible words related to the word form "compromise" include "compromises," "compromised," and "compromising."

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A recommended podcast on Els from the Science of Reading by Amplify.

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Science of Reading: The Podcast, hosted by Susan Lambert, delivers the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Listen today!

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This is a fairly simple explanation of what all the standards are and where they converge on each other.

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Relationship and Convergences for Standards

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Critical Literacy Books with Youtube Read Alouds

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A very brief overview of how to teach ELs the SIOP way

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The full scope of ELP Standards for my reference as I'm sure I will need them.

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A quick glance at the ELP standards.

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The ELP Levels simply laid out for easy access.

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A helpful chart explaining how students acquire language and how we discuss it as teachers.

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Phonics Strategies to Support Multilingual Learners in the Classroom

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Let’s explore some strategies for differentiating phonics instruction for multilingual learners (MLLs) and how programs like Phonics, Reading, and Me can support this journey.

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Phonics Instruction for English Learners - Keys to Literacy

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This post focuses on instruction of phonics for English learners. English learners benefit from the same explicit instruction of literacy skills, including phonics, as native English speakers, keeping in mind the special considerations of English learners regarding oral language proficiency, vocabulary and background knowledge, and attention to addressing new sounds (phonemes) of English. A structured literacy approach to teach phonics should be used: explicit, systematic, cumulative, and diagnostic.

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Leveled Worksheet Stories for Comp Practice

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Leveled Worksheet Stories for Comp Practice

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A good source of leveled reading comp worksheets for all grade levels.

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Reading Worksheets - Leveled Stories

These grade 3 reading comprehension worksheets are from our leveled reading workbook collection which ranges in difficulty from A to Z and is correlated to grade levels. The full workbooks are available for download from our bookstore for only $2.99 / book.

These children's stories are leveled based on a number of factors related to text complexity such as vocabulary, word size, sentence length, amount of repetitiveness and subject matter complexity.

Early reading levels use short, simple words and sentences in big fonts in a repetitive manner. Each successive level introduces greater reading challenge. The level N - P books are approximately at a grade 2 level.

Each workbook contains 20 fiction and non-fiction texts, followed by exercises aimed at reinforcing reading comprehension skills. Answer sheets are provided for all exercises.

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Leveled stories and reading comprehension worksheets at approximately a grade 3 level. Each fiction or non-fiction text is followed by reading comprehension exercises; exercises at this level principally focus on recalling information from the text (no inferences). These free worksheets are taken from our series of leveled reading workbooks for elementary school age kids.

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8/23/2022
This post is Part Three of a three-blog series about the science of reading and balanced literacy. This series will explore what the science of reading is, how it differs from balanced literacy, and why these differences matter. Missed Parts One or Two? Don't forget to go back and read them!
Reading is an equity issue. Only about 35% of American children are reading proficiently, and these opportunity gaps are even more significant for underprivileged students. The good news is, we know how to close those gaps and help every child learn to read proficiently. The solution lies in evidence-based instruction because while learning to speak is an innate process, neuroscience research has shown that learning to read is not.

Through decades of studies in neuroscience, education, psychology, and more, experts have determined the best practices for teaching literacy, and we are seeing this evidence-based instruction make a difference in childrens' lives.

In fact, as of August 2022, 30 states have passed laws or implemented policies around evidence-based reading instruction to ensure every child is given their best chance to become successful, confident readers.

So, what is this evidence-based instruction? Simply put, it is instruction based on the science of reading.
What is the Science of Reading?
Thanks to the reading wars, it is often assumed that the science of reading is just a fancy new term for phonics instruction. But the science of reading includes much more than phonics.

The science of reading is a body of research that definitively answers the question: "How does the human brain learn to read?" It spans more than 100 papers and the research has been growing for more than five decades. With studies from education, linguistics, psychology, and neurology, the science of reading includes research about how our brains process written words.

The skills required to read can be broken down in many different ways.

Gough and Tumner (1986) described reading comprehension as the product of decoding and language comprehension. This was known as The Simple View of Reading.

This equation can be further broken down into the underpinning components of each group:

In 2000, the National Reading Panel summed up effective reading instruction as requiring the following five concepts: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Dr. Hollis Scarborough (2001) devised the Reading Rope as a more in-depth visual on the skills required for fluent reading.

Based on how each skill or concept is defined, the terms used by a model or instructional method may be different. For example, phonological awareness (Reading Rope) and phonemic awareness (National Reading Panel) are both part of phonology, the study of sounds in a language, which in turn is a component of decoding (Simple View of Reading). When we incorporate the alphabet, we can introduce phonics as a way to teach sound-letter or sound-spelling correspondences; thus, phonics is tied to orthography as it begins to incorporate written symbols. Similarly, semantics and vocabulary go hand-in-hand as components of linguistic or language comprehension, and are just as necessary as the components of decoding or word recognition.

Through the science of reading, we can better understand how we learn to read, what skills are involved in reading, and how those skills work together. But more than that, this research helps us to understand how educators can best teach those skills.

See, the science of reading is not a literacy method in and of itself. However, it can inform literacy instruction to ensure all students are given the opportunity to become successful readers. Today, there are several approaches based in the science of reading, including Orton-Gillingham and the Wilson Reading System. These approaches, and others that teach foundational reading skills through explicit instruction are encompassed by the umbrella term: Structured Literacy.
What is Structured Literacy?
Structured Literacy is the application of knowledge from the science of reading which teaches children to read in an evidence-based and systematic way.

Any Structured Literacy approach weaves together an array of skills from the science of reading including at a minimum:

But more importantly, Structured Literacy approaches are explicit, systematic, cumulative, diagnostic, and responsive. Explicit means the concepts are directly taught and practiced. Systematic means the skills are taught in a "stairstep" fashion: Each skill builds on the last, and they are taught in a logical order that starts with the simple information and becomes progressively more complex. Cumulative means all the information builds upon earlier knowledge. Diagnostic and responsive means students' unique strengths and weaknesses are identified using differentiated instruction.

With sufficient direct instruction on the foundational skills of reading, 95% of students can learn to read. This is why a Structured Literacy approach is crucial. Without it, only 30% of students will learn to read. Fifty percent require explicit and direct instruction in foundational skills to learn to read, and a further 15% require additional attention and support.

Any instructional method that does not teach the components of the science of reading in an explicit, cumulative, and responsive way will leave children behind, often without understanding why the student is struggling. That is the unfortunate impact of many literacy approaches schools use today, like balanced literacy, when educators don't have the evidence-based knowledge they need to help every student.
What is Balanced Literacy?
Balanced literacy is a popular method of teaching reading and writing. In 2019, A national survey found that about 72% of American educators report using balanced literacy to teach reading. One of the reasons for its popularity is its openness to interpretation.

Fountas and Pinnell (1996), early proponents of balanced literacy, define the method as a "philosophical orientation that assumes that reading and writing achievement are developed through instruction and support in multiple environments using various approaches that differ by level of teacher support and child control." Their method involves a combination of whole-group instruction, small-group instruction, and independent learning with a focus on authentic texts.

Lucy Calkins, another proponent of balanced literacy, uses a workshop model for her method. Skills are demonstrated, then students practice, with minimal direct instruction.

For Michael Pressely, balanced literacy is about the balance -there should be a plethora of reading materials, an emphasis on writing, and explicit decoding instruction.

In other words, balanced literacy is difficult to define, and can vary from classroom to classroom. For most balanced literacy educators, it means teaching reading in a way that meets student's needs while also promoting a love of reading.

This is a goal all educators should aspire to-but without a standard implementation, balanced literacy's success in achieving that goal is inconsistent at best. Despite balanced literacy being the most popular literacy method for the last few decades, national reading scores have remained low.

Balanced literacy can be understood as a "little bit of everything" approach that incorporates some good ideas and practices as it strives for a laudable goal. It will even help many students discover a love of reading. But because it may or may not include phonics and other evidence-based concepts, and because it lacks the structured, explicit instruction and content needed for students with learning disabilities like dyslexia, it will never work for all students. As seen in the pie chart above, most students need explicit and direct instruction in foundational reading skills (and not just phonics). Without additional intervention, balanced literacy will only help 30% of students become successful readers.
Is the Science of Reading Better than Balanced Literacy?
Balanced literacy is not "bad." But when it comes to reading proficiency, it doesn't work for all students, or even most. The science of reading, through approaches like Structured Literacy, will help 95% of students become confident, capable readers. For balanced literacy to be effective, it must include explicit instruction in ALL the skills necessary for reading. For students to develop a love of reading, they first must learn to read.

Literacy is one of the cornerstones of educational equity, and is crucial for lifelong success. Transitioning to a Structured Literacy approach or incorporating more science of reading-based instruction in a balanced literacy approach will help us achieve a more equitable world in which every student can confidently enjoy reading.
Want to learn more about the reading wars or the science of reading? Check out Parts One and Two of this series.

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The Science of Reading vs. Balanced Literacy | Lexia Learning

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Why are only 35% of students reading proficiently when we know 95% of students can learn to read? Discover the differences between the two most popular approaches to reading today (it's not just phonics!), and learn how to help every student succeed.

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7/18/2022
This post is Part Two of a three-blog series about the science of reading and balanced literacy. This series explores what the science of reading is, how it differs from balanced literacy, and why these differences matter. In today's blog, we will dive into the science of reading and how the human brain learns to read.
Every educator wants to see their students succeed, and literacy skills are a cornerstone of that success. But when only 35% of American children are reading proficiently (according to the NAEP National Reading Report Card), we must ask ourselves-how do we better help EVERY student read with confidence?

The solutions can be found in a body of research known as the science of reading.

The " science of reading" is far more than just phonics. The term refers to more than five decades of gold-standard research about how we learn to read and how reading is effectively taught. The research spans hundreds of papers, multiple languages, and expert contributions from the fields of education, linguistics, psychology, neurology, and more.

This research has conclusively provided us with a deeper understanding of what skills are involved in learning to read, and how different parts of the brain work together to process written language. This in turn has helped us develop best practices for teaching these skills so every student can learn to read proficiently.

One of the foundational elements of the science of reading is known as the Simple View of Reading. This theory was proposed by Gough and Tunmer in 1986, and built upon by Hoover and Gough in 1990. The Simple View of Reading posits that both the ability to decode words and comprehend language are required to master reading comprehension.

This theory is typically shown as the following equation: decoding x language comprehension = reading comprehension.

It is important to note that the formula uses a multiplication sign, because inefficiency in one component may lead to overall reading failure (e.g. anything multiplied by zero is zero). Decoding includes the skills around word recognition, automaticity, and fluency, while linguistic comprehension is the understanding of language and sentence structure.

Another crucial piece of the science of reading is Scarborough's Reading Rope (2001), which provides insight into how different reading skills work together to create fluency. Literacy expert Dr. Hollis Scarborough proposed a visual metaphor that represented all of the components that make up skilled reading as different "strands" of a rope which are woven together.

In Scarborough's Reading Rope, the strands of language comprehension are: background knowledge like facts and concept, vocabulary, language structures like syntax, verbal reasoning like metaphor, and literacy knowledge like genres. The word recognition strands are: phonological awareness like syllables and phonemes, decoding like letter-sound correspondences, and sight recognition of unfamiliar words. The skills within each strand work together and reinforce each other simultaneously as the student's reading skills become stronger. Over time, the word recognition strand and the language comprehension strands weave themselves together and reinforce one another, allowing the reader to become fluent.

Temporo-parietal cortex-This connects the areas that understand speech sounds and meaning. This area of the brain lights up as we "sound out" or decode unfamiliar words.

Inferior frontal cortex-Speech production. This is used in the last step of reading, when we think about pronouncing written words.

Occipito-temporal cortex-Sight recognition. In learning to read, this area recognizes letters and eventually words by sight.

While learning to speak is innate-an infant regularly exposed to language will learn to speak it-reading is not. No matter how many books you surround a child with, they will not master reading without instruction. Reading repurposes multiple parts of the brain, including visual processing and language comprehension. Researchers have studied this using MRI scans, and have shown that the same areas of the brain activate no matter what language people read in.

Phonemic awareness is an understanding of phonemes, or the smallest units of spoken language which combine to create syllables and words. Phonemic awareness is the ability to isolate, identify, focus on, and manipulate sounds in spoken words.

Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds in written language. A student who is strong in phonics is able to sound out and spell different words.

Fluency is the ability to read quickly and accurately, and comes about when the reader has mastered enough decoding skills to focus on the meaning of the text.

Vocabulary is the amount of words with which the reader is familiar. The larger a student's vocabulary is, the easier it is for them to derive meaning from the text.

Comprehension is the ultimate goal of literacy. It is the reader's ability to understand and make sense of written text.

These areas are connected by " white matter pathways." The stronger a reader is, the stronger the signals across the pathways. According to Dr. Nadine Gaab, timely intervention and instruction can improve these pathways, improving student's reading comprehension.

In 1997, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development partnered with the U.S. Department of Education to establish a National Reading Panel to analyze existing literacy research and determine the best way to teach students to read. In its final report (2000), the National Reading Panel concluded there are five essential components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

These five components are sometimes considered the "five pillars " of reading instruction.

Thirty percent of students are capable of learning to read, regardless of instructional quality.

Fifty percent of students are able to learn to read with explicit and direct instruction in foundational skills.

Fifteen percent of students will learn to read with additional time and support.

Five percent of students struggle with severe cognitive disabilities that affect their ability to learn to read. x

The science of reading is not a literacy method in and of itself. Rather, it is the existing body of knowledge about how we learn to read. This body of evidence proves again and again that nearly every child can learn to read with confidence, given explicit instruction in the components of reading.

Ninety-five percent of students have the cognitive ability to learn to read, when instruction is based on the science of reading. That explicit and direct instruction is crucial for most students. According to a research brief from EAB:

Over the decades, there have been different approaches to teaching reading. While some, like whole language, missed the mark for many students, others, like Orton Gillingham, have been proven to help students learn to read, even when they struggle with dyslexia.

Orton Gillingham, the Wilson Reading System, and other successful approaches to reading are successful because they teach foundational skills from the science of reading, in an explicit and systematic way. While this is essential for students with learning disabilities like dyslexia, evidence-based approaches like these can help all students master reading.

In 2014, the International Dyslexia Association® proposed a new term: Structured Literacy. Structured Literacy is an umbrella term that encompasses the approaches that teach foundational reading skills through explicit instruction-in other words, that align with the science of reading. The science of reading proves that intentional, explicit instruction of the foundational components of reading will help all students learn to read.

According to the IDA, Structured Literacy covers the evidence-based elements:

But more importantly, these elements are taught in an explicit, systematic, cumulative, diagnostic, and responsive way. When an instructional approach incorporates ALL of this, it will be effective for all students, and lead to a more equitable learning experience.
Join us for Part Three of this series, where we discuss the differences between the science of reading and balanced literacy.
Literacy is at the heart of educational equity, and every student deserves the chance to become a confident reader. As American Enterprise Institute senior fellow and education expert Robert Pondiscio, points out " any discussion about 'equity' in education that is not first and foremost a discussion about literacy is unserious."

The next step is ensuring teachers have the knowledge and tools they need to provide that equitable, Structured Literacy instruction to all of their students. We know the ways to effectively teach literacy. The challenge now is to implement them.

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What is the Science of Reading? How the Human Brain Learns to Read | Lexia

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What is the science of reading? More than just phonics, this body of research covers the different skills that make up reading, how the human brain learns to read, and the most effective way to teach reading. Read on to learn more.

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The next three articles are to help give a more indepth look at the debate between The Science of Reading vs. Balanced Lit.

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6/30/2022
This post is Part One of a three-blog series about the science of reading and balanced literacy. This series will explore what the science of reading is, how it differs from balanced literacy, and why these differences matter. In this blog post, we will dive into the history of different literacy approaches and how we got to where we are today.

It's hard to imagine a skill more foundational to life success than reading. Unfortunately, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only about 35% of American children read proficiently or better. Even more worryingly, these low figures are nothing new; literacy rates in American schools have been low for decades, and they are largely remaining stagnant rather than improving.

For decades, educators and policymakers have debated about the best way to fix this pressing problem and teach children to read. Nicknamed "the reading wars," this longstanding battle began with two camps: "whole language" and phonics.
Whole Language
The "whole language" approach got its start in the 1800s through Horace Mann, a politician who is today widely known as " the father of American education." A fierce advocate for literacy and education, Mann warned against teaching children to sound out words letter by letter because he worried that it would distract them from the words' meaning. As the American public education system grew and developed, many schools followed Mann's lead and taught children to memorize the appearance of words instead of teaching them to decode the letters.

With a literature focus, whole language immersed students in reading and writing, operating under the assumption that learning to read comes naturally, and students would gain the phonics skills they needed within the context of their reading.

By the 1950s, the whole language approach was considered the " conventional wisdom" of teaching students to read, asserting that children should read for meaning from the very beginning by memorizing sight words and using context and picture cues. This can be seen in the " look-say " reading method that led to the Dick and Jane books that filled public schools from the 1940s to the 1960s.
Phonics
On the other side of this debate were those who believed explicitly teaching the relationship between letters and sounds, or phonics, was the most effective literacy method. English phonics instruction is even older than the whole language approach and can be traced back to the New England Primer, published in 1690. In fact, phonics was the popular way to learn reading in the 1800s until Mann advocated for a whole-word method.

Phonics follows a bottom-up approach (letters and sounds before words), compared to whole language's top-down approach (words first). Proponents of phonics placed an emphasis on skill-based instruction. Students would do drills to learn the sounds and letter blends that make up words, before moving into comprehension.

While whole language dominated American education for decades, phonics instruction continued to hold on, with advocates such as Rudolf Flesch bringing about a phonics revival.
Why Johnny Can't Read-and What We Did About It
By the 1950s, most American children were receiving whole language instruction. The issue came to a head when bestselling author Flesch began investigating why American schools were failing to teach their pupils to read proficiently. In 1955, Flesch published a book called Why Johnny Can't Read-and What You Can Do About It, the thesis of which was that the lack of explicit phonics instruction in American schools prevented children from learning to read properly. He argued that the average American third-grade student was "unable to decipher 90% of his own speaking and listening vocabulary" when he saw it written on paper, and that the solution was to teach students to decode letters.

Why Johnny Can't Read sparked a national debate, leading to the "reading wars" as we know them today.
The Rise of Science of Reading
By the 1960s, other researchers began investigating how children learn to read, and the evidence that the whole language approach wasn't cutting it continued to mount. In 1967, after conducting a four-year study of the existing research, interviewing proponents of the various methods of instruction, and analyzing different reading series, Jeanne Chall, head of the Harvard Reading Laboratory, published Learning to Read: The Great Debate.

Like Flesch, Chall determined that phonics instruction, specifically explicit, systematic phonics, was superior to the conventional whole language approach. In future publications, her research findings showed that a child must first learn to read before he can read to learn, and that explicit reading instruction would lead to better results, without compromising comprehension.

Chall's work, and that of researchers across education, neuroscience, and psychology, would eventually become a part of the body of research known as the science of reading.
But Whole Language Remains on Top
While Chall, Flesch, and other advocates of evidence-based instruction shifted the needle to include more phonics instruction in schools in the 1960s, by the 70s and 80s, whole language remained the predominant literacy method in public schools. Consequently, literacy rates remained largely stagnant.

This is largely due to vocal proponents of whole language such as Kenneth Goodman and Frank Smith. Goodman described reading as a "psycholinguistic guessing game" while Smith hypothesized that reading was as natural as speaking and that phonics rules were too complex.

Research from the 1970s indicated that poor readers, not strong readers, relied on whole language's context approach to word recognition. Good readers did not skip unknown letters or words (as recommended by the whole language approach) but processed all the visual information in the text. Further evidence showed that to become a strong reader, children needed strong phonemic awareness skills. However, as these findings were only published in peer-reviewed journals and academic conferences, the evidence did not yet have a significant impact on educational practices.
The Emergence of Balanced Literacy
In the 1990s, a new approach arose: Balanced literacy. The term originated in California in response to low reading scores, with the intent of incorporating elements of both whole language and phonics.

According to Fountas and Pinnell (1996), balanced literacy is a "philosophical orientation that assumes that reading and writing achievement are developed through instruction and support in multiple environments using various approaches that differ by level of teacher support and child control." In other words, balanced literacy looks to balance several aspects of instruction, not just skill-focused and meaning-focused instruction, but also reading and writing, teacher-led and student-led activities, and whole-group, small-group, and independent configurations.

However, the definition and practice of balanced literacy has since proliferated, to the point where it is often unique to each teacher. But for most balanced literacy educators, it means teaching reading in a way that meets student's needs while also promoting a love of reading. Since its conception, balanced literacy has become the most commonly taught approach in American schools: 72% of teachers report that balanced literacy is the instructional method they use most often in their classrooms.

With its flexible definition and approach, balanced literacy was appealing. Even better, it worked for some students. But without a universally standard implementation, its success remains inconsistent. And because all iterations of balanced literacy lack the structured explicit instruction and content needed for students with learning disabilities like dyslexia, it will never work for all students.
Experts Continue to Study Reading Skills
For more than five decades, educators and researchers have continued to add to the growing body of research known as the science of reading. Studies from education, literacy, developmental psychology, educational psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience fields continue to provide evidence about how the brain learns to read, and what is needed to effectively teach reading.

What has evolved is more than just phonics instruction. In 2000, a National Reading Panel determined that effective reading instruction requires five key concepts: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

More recently, the International Dyslexia Association® coined the term "Structured Literacy" as a comprehensive approach that teaches the structure of language (phonology, orthography, syntax, morphology, semantics, discourse) in an explicit, systematic, cumulative, and diagnostic way. Structured Literacy covers the five key concepts identified by the National Reading Panel, and adds word recognition, and written expression, as well as expanding comprehension to include both listening and reading comprehension. Structured Literacy is proven to be effective for all students, but more importantly, essential for students with dyslexia.

While much of this research accumulated quietly, in recent years the science of reading has made headlines in a concerted effort to turn the tide against low reading scores.
Looking Ahead
In the year 2022, when most teachers in America report using balanced literacy, the majority of children still struggle to read proficiently. This problem is fixable, but improving literacy proficiency will require challenging the status quo of literacy instruction and transitioning toward an evidence-backed approach that is proven to help every student learn to read.

Before students can truly develop a love of reading, and before they can read to learn, they first must learn to read. Explicit literacy instruction rooted in the science of reading, the decades of cognitive and neurological research into how reading is processed in the brain, is proven to close equity gaps and achieve the goal of literacy for all. Transitioning to science of reading-based instruction, whether a Structured Literacy approach or otherwise, will improve students' reading levels, help students reading below grade level catch up to their peers, and help us achieve a more just and equitable world in which every student can enjoy reading.
Join us for Part Two of this series, where we dive into the science of reading and how the human brain learns to read.

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The Science of Reading vs. Balanced Literacy: The History of the Reading Wars | Lexia

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For decades, educators and policymakers have debated the best way to teach students how to read, from phonics to whole language, from balanced literacy to the science of reading. Check out this blog to learn how literacy education evolved to what it is today.

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Helpful to think about as I decide what method I will be using in my classroom.

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You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Guidance for Educators Using a Balanced Literacy Program

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Improve instruction and help all students achieve at high levels by making these research-based adjustments to your balanced literacy program. This guidance outlines some of the most common challenges of a balanced literacy model, how they can impede students' learning, and how you can adapt your reading program to better serve students.

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A good podcast on why we moved away from Balanced Lit. I'd like to listen to this someday soon.

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It's an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn't true and are now reckoning with the consequences - children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.

Sixty years ago, Marie Clay developed a way to teach reading she said would help kids who were falling behind. They'd catch up and never need help again. Today, her program remains popular and her theory about how people read is at the root of a lot of reading instruction in schools. But Marie Clay was wrong.
Sold a Story is an independent investigative journalism project from American Public Media. We rely on your donations to support this kind of rigorous reporting.
The controversial educational publishing company has sold instructional materials and professional resources in almost every state, earning at least $1.6 billion over a decade. Explore a map of school districts.

More states are now requiring districts to adopt curriculum that adheres to the science of reading. Look up the policy in your state.

At least 15 states have passed laws about how schools teach reading since the Sold a Story podcast was released in 2022, but there is pushback.

Here's a reading list put together by Emily Hanford.

This discussion guide, created by a teacher, invites educators, parents, community members and kids to have a conversation about the podcast.

Emails and voice messages poured in from people who listened to Sold a Story.

We'll let you know when we release new episodes of the podcast. Enter your address below.

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

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There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read.

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Compare Science of Reading vs Comprehensive Lit

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Compare Science of Reading vs Comprehensive Lit

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For those of us who do not know the difference between these two theories yet so we can join the discussion with a modicum of knowledge.

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Comparison between Science of Reading and Comp Lit

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A quick and helpful look at what Balance Lit is.

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Ideas for reading comp

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561 Graphic Organizer Mod 3: Fluency-Kristen Sandoz

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Vocab for kids

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Fleshing out vocab instruction.

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Would like to check this out.

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This could be fun and helpful.

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Maybe I should brush up on these rules?

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This looks helpful.

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An example of a full day schedule for a 3rd grade class for my reference as I'm building mine for class.

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Definition of Critical Literacy Pedagogy

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Definition of Critical Literacy Pedagogy

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Good to know.

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Definition of Critital Literacy Pedigogy

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This is a starting place for planning my classroom block.

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What Does Your Literacy Block Look Like? It Depends.

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An effective literacy block allows teachers to adjust the amount and content of instruction according to students’ needs.

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10 PCS Chair Bands for Kids, Flexible Seating Classroom Furniture Rubber Bands for Kids with Fidgety Feet, Foot Bands for School Classroom Chairs and Desk, Autism, Hyperactivity (black)

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Amazon.com : 10 PCS Chair Bands for Kids, Flexible Seating Classroom Furniture Rubber Bands for Kids with Fidgety Feet, Foot Bands for School Classroom Chairs and Desk, Autism, Hyperactivity (black) : Office Products

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Amazon.com: Libima 4 Pcs Flexible Seating for Classroom Inflatable Yoga Ball Chairs with Pump Donut Exercise Ball Chair Cushion Seat for Balance and Stability Training Home Office Gym Workout (Matcha Color) : Sports & Outdoors

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Brenda J. Child (Author), Jonathan Thunder (Illustrator), Gordon Jourdain (Translator) & 0 more

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Bowwow Powwow (ALA Notable Children’s Books. Younger Readers (Awards))

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Bowwow Powwow (ALA Notable Children’s Books. Younger Readers (Awards)) [Child, Brenda J., Thunder, Jonathan, Jourdain, Gordon] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Bowwow Powwow (ALA Notable Children’s Books. Younger Readers (Awards))

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I like the idea of taking a favorite childhood book and applying critical literacy to it. I'd love to do this with a group of teachers.

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Thoughts on student expression of ideas.

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A Guide to Research-Based Practice

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Sorry, we just need to make sure you’re not a robot. For best results, please make sure your browser is accepting cookies.

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Symbol Imagery for Phonemic Awareness, Sight Words, and Spelling

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Robust Vocab Instruction

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How to Teach Expository Text Structure to Facilitate Reading Comp

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How to Teach Expository Text Structure to Facilitate Reading Comp

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Ways to help your students analyze expository text structures and pull apart the text to uncover the main idea and supporting details.

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How to Teach Expository Text Structure to Facilitate Reading Comprehension

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Expository text can be challenging to young readers because of the unfamiliar concepts and vocabulary it presents. Discover ways to help your students analyze expository text structures and pull apart the text to uncover the main idea and supporting details.

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Guiding Students Through Expository Text with Feature Walks

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Guiding Students Through Expository Text with Feature Walks

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How to do a feature walk through a book with students

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Clay, M.M. (1991). Introducing a new storybook to young readers. The Reading Teacher, 45(4), 264-273. doi:10.1598/RT.45.4.2

Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S. (1996). Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Honig, B., Diamond, L., & Gutlohn, L. (2000). Teaching reading: Sourcebook for kindergarten through eighth grade. Novato, CA: Arena.

Kelley, M.J., & Clausen-Grace, N. (2007). Comprehension shouldn't be silent: From strategy instruction to student independence. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Kelley, M.J., & Clausen-Grace, N. (2008). From picture walk to text feature walk: Guiding students to strategically preview informational text. Journal of Content Area Reading, 7(1), 9-31.

Kibby, M.W. (1995). The organization and teaching of things and the words that signify them. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 39(3), 208-233.

Lubliner, S. (2001). A practical guide to reciprocal teaching. Bothell, WA: Wright Group.

Nagy, W.E., & Scott, J.A. (2004). Vocabulary processes. In R.B. Ruddell & N.J. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed., pp. 574-593). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Recht, D.R., & Leslie, L. (1988). Effect of prior knowledge on good and poor readers' memory of text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(1), 16-20. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.80.1.16

Ruddell, R.B. (2009). How to teach reading to elementary and middle school students: Practical ideas from highly effective teachers. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Rupley, W.H., Logan, J.W., & Nichols, W.D. (1998). Vocabulary instruction in a balanced reading program. The Reading Teacher, 52(4), 336-346.

Spencer, B.H. (2003). Text maps: Helping students navigate informational texts. The Reading Teacher, 56(8), 752-756.

Stahl, K.A.D. (2004). Proof, practice, and promise: Comprehension strategy instruction in the primary grades. The Reading Teacher, 57(7), 598-609.

Taylor, B. (2002, July). The CIERA school change project: Supporting schools as they translate research into practice to improve students' reading achievement. Paper presented at the third annual Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement Summer Institute, Ann Arbor, MI.

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Guiding Students Through Expository Text with Text Feature Walks

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The text feature walk guides students in the reading of text features in order to access prior knowledge, make connections, and set a purpose for reading expository text. Results from a pilot study illustrate the benefits of using the strategy, and practical suggestions for implementation are offered.

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A template for students to analyze a problem in a story.