The point is, it's a level of understanding that students of any age can achieve with the right kind of instruction. In Rigorous Reading, Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher articulate an instructional plan so clearly, and so squarely built on research, that teachers, schools, and districts need look no further:Purpose & Modeling Close & Scaffolded Reading Instruction Collaborative Conversations An Independent Reading Staircase Performance

    This is a book about LEARNING!Technology is not a magic solution for education. It is an opportunity! An opportunity to shake things up, to connect and grow, and to create dynamic learning experiences for our students! In this three-part book, you will explore WHY it's time to Shake Up Learning, WHAT changes we can make in our classrooms to support dynamic learning experiences, and HOW to plan meaningful lessons for your classroom.Rapidly evolving technology and the demands of the digital age are transforming not only the way we live but also the way we learn. The tools students are using are newer, sleeker, and faster than ever before. In some cases, the medium is even changing the message. One thing is certain: Educators cannot continue the status quo if they expect to equip young people for the world to come. Here's the good news: With digital tools that are available 24/7, learning doesn't have to stop when the bell rings. Learning can take on a life of its own! Even better, technology can help you connect with students and empower them to grow and develop a lifelong love for learning--and it doesn't have to be scary or complicated. Shake Up Learning is a powerful guide and planning tool to help educators at all grade levels make the most of technology. Educator and blogger Kasey Bell guides you through the process of using technology and proven techniques to make learning dynamic. You'll discover . . . Practical strategies to help move from static teaching to dynamic learningStraightforward and easy-to-use templates for crafting engaging learning opportunitiesTips and tricks for fearless implementation of powerful lesson plansAdvice for moving from one-and-done activities to learning that evolves and inspires throughout the school year--and beyond!This is MORE than just a book! This is a full LEARNING EXPERIENCE!This book is jammed packed with ideas, lessons, and resources, but you can bring it all to life with the companion website, ShakeUpLearningBook.com, and the companion online course, The Dynamic Learning Workshop!Be dynamic! Shake up learning in your classroom this year.

    In No More Teaching a Letter a Week, early literacy researcher Dr. William Teale helps us understand that alphabet knowledge is more than letter recognition, and identifies research-based principles of effective alphabet instruction, which constitutes the foundation for phonics teaching and learning. Literacy coach Rebecca McKay shows us how to bring those principles to life through purposeful practices that invite children to create an identity through print.Children can and should do more than glue beans into the shape of a B; they need to learn how letters create words that carry meaning, so that they can, and do, use print to expand their understanding of the world and themselves.

    Probst explore why independent reading is vital to the intellectual and developmental growth of students as citizens of our world and as architects of the future. Forged by Reading explores historic and timely topics through the context of literacy—literacy being the gateway to power and privilege—while serving as nothing short of a call to action. One that reminds educators of their critical hand in empowering readers to think, to seek curiosity and skepticism, to shape themselves and their ideas through evidence and reason, vision and imagination, and in doing so to forge themselves and our world through reading. “This book will open the door to an understanding of literacy like no other. But, it’s not a how-to-use-literature-to-empower-our-kids-book. It’s a why-haven’t-we book. It’s a we-must book. Forged by Reading is filled with hard truths, and the inspiration needed to walk towards a new world—one where relevant reading rules. So, put your walking shoes on, get ready for the hard, necessary work, and let Kylene and Bob show us the way.” —Kwame Alexander, poet, educator, and New York Times bestselling author of Light for the World to See: A Thousand Words on Race and Hope   “If you haven’t read a single Beers & Probst educational bible to date, read Forged by Reading. It’s all right here…at the time of American education’s greatest need. There may well be no creative power greater than that of language…reading language, writing language, understanding language, embracing language. With Forged by Reading, Kylene and Bob hand us a roadmap to unleashing that power. Read it. Revel in it. Use it.” —Chris Crutcher, bestselling author and recipient of the American Library Association Margaret Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement and the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award.   “Forged by Reading is scholarship that shows us not only how our literacies link us to each other, but also, how reading links to our uniquely human souls.”–Jennifer Ochoa, middle school teacher, NYC Public Schools, and award-winning educator    “Beers and Probst, who explore the moral imperative of liberatory pedagogy, remind us that those who read and discuss books hone literate minds—the key to transforming their own their lives, as well as our greatest hope for transforming our democracy—bending its arc toward equity and justice for all.” —Ernest Morrell, Coyle Professor of Literacy Education, University of Notre Dame    “This timely book is a call to action for educators to embrace the languages, cultures, and identities of our students, disrupt the oppressive reading and writing practices in classrooms across this nation—and replace them with humane, equitable instruction for all.” —Yalitza Vasquez, VP of Multilingual Education, Trinity Education Group, and Former Senior Executive Director Division of English Language Learners, NYC Department of Education   “Literacy is an essential element of freedom and the ways in which it is withheld contributes to oppression. This book will shift how you regard your teaching: abolish harmful pedagogies, confirm just practices, and travel with your colleagues on an epic journey of literacy justice.” —Kate Roberts, author, consultant, and guest teacher    “Kylene and Bob show us why student compliance is not our goal and why testing and standards too often interfere with our bigger goals for literacy. They also ask us to be brave and to anchor our work in these understandings so we can achieve the ultimate aim: students who live the power of reading.” —Franki Sibberson, teacher, librarian, author, past president of NCTE  “Consider the intimate connection between education and our democratic ideals. Forged by Reading is a powerful and timely reminder that when we are equipped with insight and the truth of who we are, we can be what’s right.” —Cornelius Minor, educator and author of We Got This: Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be

    This is why both teachers with struggling students and those with AP students have embraced the book through 15 printings. Each chapter is divided into two sections: concepts that show how professional writers develop their art and lesson strategies to implement these concepts in the classroom. New and expanded concepts in the second edition include:an introduction to grammatical chunksexpanded discussion of the five basic brush strokes and examination of advanced brush strokes presentation on the nonfiction modelexplanation of the character wheel-a visual aid that helps students to write both a nonfiction and fiction character sketch. Plus, the updated and expanded CD includes customizable files of the 60+ strategies; reproducible handouts; images and quotes for projection in the classroom; and dozens of weblinks.

    Hailed for its practical, systematic approach, the book showed hundreds of thousands of teachers how to address the needs of the whole classroom as well as individual readers. Now, with the publication of Word Matters, Pinnell and Fountas offer K-3 teachers the same unparalleled support, this time focusing on phonics and spelling instruction.Word Matters presents essential information on designing and implementing a high-quality, systematic literacy program to help children learn about letters, sounds, and words. The central goal is to teach children to become "word solvers": readers who can take words apart while reading for meaning, and writers who can construct words while writing to communicate. Where similar books are narrow in focus, Word Matters presents the theoretical underpinnings and practical wherewithal of word study in three contexts:word study that includes systematically planned and applied experiences focusing on the elements of letters and wordswriting, including how children use phoneme-grapheme relationships, word patterns, and principles to develop spelling abilityreading, including teaching children how to solve words with the use of phonics and visual-analysis skills as they read for meaning.Each topic is supported with a variety of practical tools: reproducible sheets for a word study system and for writing workshop; lists of spelling minilessons; and extensive word lists, including frequently used words, antonyms, synonyms, and more. Armed with these tools-and the tried-and-true wisdom of Gay Su Pinnell and Irene Fountas-teachers can help students develop not just the "essential skills," but also a joyful appreciation of their own literacy.

    In it, Jennifer Serravallo narrows the distance between assessment and instruction. She maps the four fiction and four nonfiction comprehension goals she presented in The Reading Strategies Book to fourteen text levels and shares sample responses that show what to expect from readers at each.Jen simplifies text complexity and clarifies comprehension instruction. She begins by untangling the many threads of comprehension: Levels, engagement, stamina, the relevance of texts, and much more. Then level by level she:calls out with precision how plot and setting, character, vocabulary and figurative language, and themes and ideas change as fiction across levels specifies how the complexity of main idea, key details, vocabulary, and text features increases in nonfiction texts points out what to expect from a reader as text characteristics change provides samples of student responses to texts at each level shares progressions across levels to support instructional planning. Even if you haven't read the book your reader is responding to, you'll have the background necessary to make great teaching decisions for all your readers. Understanding subtle shifts and increases in demands from level to level, writes Jennifer Serravallo, can guide what a teacher asks a student, what the teacher expects of the student, and what the teacher, therefore, teaches the student.Want to become a master of matching kids to books? Looking to take the difficult out of differentiation? Or do you want to dramatically increase the power and responsiveness of Jen's Reading Strategies Book? Understanding Texts & Readers shows you how to move forward when students need to make progress.

    Many students are bored and disengaged Teachers are handcuffed by outdated textbooks, standardized curriculum, and disinterested students. What if you could solve these problems immediately and excite even your most reluctant learners daily? Read it Today and Engage tomorrow! 33-year veteran teacher, author, presenter, and engagement guru James Alan Sturtevant makes it easy, with incredible teacher tips and tools for both the veteran and student teacher--50 engagement tools that you can begin using right now, with no special training or boring professional development. Easily rebrand your class and connect with all students Are you the teacher students "hate"? Do kids groan when they walk into your classroom? Engaging learners is all about connecting and making education fun. With Sturtevant's education tips and creative teaching tools, students will rebrand you and your class as their favorites. Best of all, they'll engage with every lesson you teach, every single day! 50 Tips and Tools Unlike other education books that weigh you down with archaic research and impossible-to-implement strategies, Hacking Engagement, the 7th book in the popular Hack Learning Series, provides 50 unique, exciting, and actionable tips and tools that you can apply right now. And there's something here for every teacher--no matter what grade or subject you teach. Try one of these amazing engagement strategies tomorrow: Engage the Enraged Create Celebrity Couple Nicknames Hash out a Hashtag Empower Students to Help You Uncover Your Biases Avoid the Great War on Yoga Pants Let Your Freak Flag Fly Become a Proponent of the Exponent Trade Blah, Blah, Blah for Zen Transform Your Class into a Focus Group Commit to Engagement Try at least one tip or tool now and witness an amazing transformation in your classroom and school. Are you ready to engage? Scroll up and grab your copy of Hacking Engagement now.

    Beers and Probst offer insights into how to create text dependent questioning in assisting students to develop greater reading comprehension skills.

    Each "Unit of Study" lays out four to six weeks of instruction. Together the units provide the teaching points, minilessons, strategies, and tools you'll need to jump in and teach writing to your students. Presented sequentially, these units help you teach narrative and expository writing with increasing sophistication.1. Launching the Writing WorkshopThis unit jumpstarts your year by reviewing and teaching the essentials of writingcollecting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. In addition to introducing practical strategies for finding topics and generating writing, this unit also helps you foster a community of writers in your classroom and teach students how to work with partners constructively .2. Raising the Quality of Narrative WritingIn this unit students learn how to use emblematic details, images, dialogue, and carefully-chosen words to make a small moment into a compelling story. While developing a personal narrative students learn to create suspense, align story elements into a cohesive whole, and use timelines to link internal thoughts with external plots.3. Breathing Life Into EssaysThis unit guides you in teaching students howto craft thesis-driven essays drawn from their own personal experiences and expertise. Throughout this unit students learn how to develop a thought, organize their thinking with boxes and bullets, and use writing conventions to strengthen their work.4. Story Arcs: Writing Short FictionThis unit helps you expand students' previous learning by helping them use story arcs to create rising action, a conflict, and a resolution. Students learn to use character development, symbolism, and their knowledge of the elements of a story to develop powerful, realistic fiction.5. Writing About LiteratureIn this unit students draw on what they have learned about writing stories to read stories well. They use what they've learned about essays to help them craft essays that analyze and respond to literature.6. Memoir: Putting It All TogetherThis introspective unit on memoir writing is designed to help students draw on all they have learned about the structure and craft of writing. From their experience writing essays, students learn to make points about their lives. From their understandings about personal narratives, students learn to write about memories that illustrate their points in compelling ways.These 6 Units of Study are reinforced by two resources that offer everyday support. A Guide to the Writing Workshop, Grades 35This overview volume equips you to teach a productive, well-managed writing workshop, introduces you to the methods that underlie writing instruction, and helps you plan a yearlong writing curriculum.Resources for Teaching Writing, Grades 35This CD-ROM supports your writing program with samples of student writing, video clips of the authors teaching, and a range of printable reproducibles organized unit-by-unit.In total "Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5" contains 7 books and 1 CD-ROM.

    This book offers simple, ready-to-use, and evidence-proven mindfulness techniques to help educators manage the stresses of the classroom, cultivate an exceptional learning environment, and revitalize both their teaching and their students’ knowledge acquisition. Drawing on basic and applied research in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and education, as well as the author’s extensive experience as a mindfulness practitioner, teacher, and scientist, it includes exercises in mindfulness, emotional awareness, movement, listening, and more, all with real-time classroom applications.

    Temple Grandin called "really helpful for teaching reading to children who are mathematical pattern thinkers..."For the past 70 years students have needed to break the complex code of English without help. This has resulted in low literacy rates and highly educated professionals who cannot spell. The principles taught in Uncovering the Logic of English describe 98% of English words and eliminate the need to guess.Simple answers are given for questions such as:* Why is there a silent final E in have?* Why don't we drop the E in noticeable?* Why is discussion spelled with -sion rather than -tion?As the rules unfold it becomes apparent how this knowledge is vital to reversing the educational crisis that is plaguing America. This slim volume is easy to read and accessible to parents and classroom teachers.

    The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction, shares with teachers and school leaders the five practices that every teacher can, and should, use to dramatically improve instuctional rigor and relevance, and student performance.

    In this thought-provoking book, the author presents a compelling case for why contemporary American educators are the greatest generation in history. He carefully explains why current national reform policies have failed and presents specific steps policymakers, administrators, and teachers must take to transform American schools to meet student needs in the 21st century.

    It's not enough to just "do projects." Today's projects need to be rigorous, engaging, and in-depth, and they need to have student voice and choice built in. Such projects require careful planning and pedagogical skill. The authors -- leaders at the respected Buck Institute for Education -- take readers through the step-by-step process of how to create, implement, and assess PBL using a classroom-tested framework.