It opens with a clear research-based rationale for teaching oral reading, word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. From there, Rasinski provides the strategies themselves - read aloud, repeated reading, performance reading, and many more. The strategies are fun, easy to implement, and -- most important -- effective in helping children read with ease, confidence, and understanding.Praise for The Fluent Reader:"What I find remarkable about The Fluent Reader is the way Timothy Rasinski leads us from the theoretical to the practical...I suspect that teachers who read this book will be quick to take the ideas and apply them in their classrooms." ---From the foreword by James Hoffman, University of Texas at Austin

    In this revised and expanded edition, Stephanie and Anne have added twenty completely new comprehension lessons, extending the scope of the book and exploring the central role that activating background knowledge plays in understanding. Another major addition is the inclusion of a section on content literacy which describes how to apply comprehension strategies flexibly across the curriculum. The new edition is organized around four sections:Part I highlights what comprehension is and how to teach it, including the principles that guide practice, a review of recent research, and a new section on assessment. A new chapter, Tools for Active Literacy: The Nuts and Bolts of Comprehension Instruction, describes ways to engage students in purposeful talk through interactive read alouds, guided discussion and written response.Part II contains lessons and practices for teaching comprehension. A new first chapter emphasizes the importance of teaching students to monitor their understanding before focusing on specific strategies. Five lessons on monitoring provide a sound basis for launching comprehension instruction. At the end of each strategy chapter, the authors outline learning goals and ways to assess students' thinking, sharing examples of student work, and offering suggestions for differentiating instruction.Part III, Comprehension Across the Curriculum is new. Comprehension strategies are essential for content-area reading, where information can be challenging, and presented in unfamiliar formats. This section includes chapters on social studies and science reading, topic study research, textbook reading and the genre of test reading.Part IV shows that kids need books they can sink their teeth into and the updated appendix section recommends a rich diet of fiction and nonfiction, short text, kid's magazines, websites and journals that will assist teachers as they plan and design comprehension instructionThrough its focus on instruction that is responsive to kids' interests and learning needs, the first edition of Strategies That Work helped transform comprehension instruction for teachers across the country. For them, this new edition will be a welcome extension of that work. Those coming to it for the first time will find a current and essential resource. When readers use these strategies, they enjoy a more complete, thoughtful reading experience. Engagement is the goal. When kids are engaged in their reading they enhance their understanding, acquire knowledge, and learn from and remember what they read. And best yet, they will want to read more!

    What does great writing instruction look like and sound like How do successful teachers of writing get great writers who enjoy writing Where do they find the time for instruction assessment and test prep In Writing Essentials Regie Routman demystifies the process of teaching writing well and gives you the knowledge research precise instructional language and confidence you need to succeed With Regie s help you ll transform your classroom into an organized joyful writing environment where students connect reading with writing every day across the curriculum learn essential skills like grammar and spelling and achieve higher scores on high stakes tests through sensible writing based test preparation and daily classroom based assessment Writing Essentials specifically and explicitly demonstrates practical easy to do strategies that turn your writing instruction practices into best practices Follow Routman s path for successfully leading all students including English language learners writers who struggle and students coping with learning disabilities from first draft to publication You ll find expert advice and specific demonstrations on a wide variety of techniques including demonstrating your own writing process for students organizing and managing the writing classroom conducting effective efficient writing conferences creating meaningful rubrics for better assessment teaching various forms of narrative and informational writing and poetry applying shared writing across the grades and across the curriculum teaching editing and revision mapping out your writing instruction with Regie s own flexible five day lesson planning model In addition Writing Essentials includes a DVD with eight three to four minute video clips from primary and intermediate classrooms that show Regie conferring with writers and celebrating their work as she teaches and assesses These invaluable clips and the detailed notes that accompany them take you insi

    In Falling in Love with Close Reading, Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts show us that it can be rigorous, meaningful, and joyous. You'll empower students to not only analyze texts but to admire the craft of a beloved book, study favorite songs and videogames, and challenge peers in evidence-based discussions.Chris and Kate start with a powerful three-step close-reading ritual that students can apply to any text. Then they lay out practical, engaging lessons that not only guide students to independence in reading texts closely but also help them transfer this critical, analytical skill to media and even the lives they lead.Responsive to students' needs and field-tested in classrooms, these lessons include: strategies for close reading narratives, informational texts, and arguments suggestions for differentiation sample charts and student work from real classrooms connections to the Common Core State Standards a focus on viewing media and life in this same careful way."We see the ritual of close reading not just as a method of doing the academic work of looking closely at text-evidence, word choice, and structure," write Chris and Kate, "but as an opportunity to bring those practices together to empower our students to see the subtle messages in texts and in their lives." Read Falling in Love with Close Reading and discover that the benefits and joy of close reading don't have to stop at the edge of the page.

    Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is my new favorite book about how to live as a teacher. Finishing it, I experienced what I can only describe as a state of grace-moved, renewed, and grateful that a mind like Tom Newkirk's has been intrigued by classroom matters for almost forty years now. Nancie Atwell Author of In the Middle, Second EditionClassic Newkirk: direct, incisive, and brimming with wisdom. Harvey Smokey Daniels Coauthor of Comprehension & CollaborationThis book is one of the best teacher books ever. I'll be giving copies of it to lots of teacher friends as we find our way back to trusting what we know about kids, about learning, and about teaching writing. -Gretchen Bernabei Author of Reviving the EssayHolding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is for every teacher who has struggled under top-down mandates, who ever had to slavishly follow the script of a reading lesson, who ever felt that tests were driving instruction. It is for those whose good, humane, and sensitive ways of teaching literacy are threatened by rigid, mechanical programs. It is for teachers who feel they are losing control of their daily work.Hear a podcast, where Tom Newkirk and Nancie Atwell discuss teaching principles worth fighthing for.In Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones, Tom Newkirk eloquently defends teaching against the cult of efficiency that turns classrooms into assembly lines of knowledge. Newkirk goes beyond diagnosing the problem to present six ideas worth fighting for. These transformative practices gently but firmly return instructional decisions to where they belong: with you, our teachers. Newkirk shows how to:increase your instructional emphasis on writing to reflect the reality that producing text is more important than ever help students access deep knowledge and expand their thinking through time to write freely build strong connections between school learning and the real world by teaching with popular culture propel the development of reading skills by helping students discover the pleasure of reading provide the time and space for meaningful, long-lasting teaching and learning by uncluttering the curriculum spark professional growth and avoid stagnation by discussing failure and uncertainty with colleagues. Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is affirming, not argumentative. It celebrates the humanity and unpredictability of teaching with Newkirk's blend of humor, passion, and warmth. Let it inspire a search for the things in your teaching that are most worth holding on to.

    In Real Revision, award-winning author and teacher Kate Messner demystifies the revision process for teachers and students alike and provides tried-and-true revision strategies, field tested by students' favorite authors. Kate takes us on a behind-the-scenes look at how more than thirty-five authors—including Julie Berry, Watt Key, Loree Griffin Burns , Jane Yolen, Lisa Schroeder, Suzanne Selfors, Eric Luper, Danette Haworth, and Kathi Appelt—revise their works, often many times over, before they appear on library and bookstore shelves. Using successful strategies from her own classroom, Kate teaches how authors use research, brainstorming, and planning as revision tools; how they revise to add detail and make characters stronger; and how students can use those same techniques for all kinds of writing in the classroom. Real Revision features dozens of reproducible “mentor author” pages, with quotes from the authors about their revision processes, and includes related classroom-ready activities.For any teacher who wants to produce strong real-world writers, Real Revision will infuse the classroom with new energy as students use mentor authors as models for their own revision and writing.

     Cris Tovani Twenty-five years after Donald Graves popularized workshop teaching, the concept is widely implemented but not always deeply understood. That Workshop Book changes all that. It shows a new generation of teachers how the systems, structures, routines, and rituals that support successful workshops combine with thinking, planning, and conferring to drive students growth, inform assessment and instruction, and increase teachers professional satisfaction. And it shows those already using the workshop how to increase its instructional power by seeing its big ideas and its component parts in fresh, dynamic ways. In That Workshop Book, Samantha Bennett, a veteran instructional coach, takes you on a tour of six classrooms from first grade through eighth grade to see the techniques and thought processes master teachers use to make their workshops work. In each class she offers tangible evidence of these teachers practices, demonstrating how they listen to students and use that information to build lessons that propel children into deeper thinking. She documents these teachers moves for you with: classroom observations in the form of coaching emails from Bennett to each with commentary that highlights the important practices seen in each workshop transcripts of minilessons, worktimes, and debriefs specific, explicit reflection by each teacher about their workshop examples of student work produced in the workshop and over time student reflections on their development as readers, writers, thinkers, and learners. Youll come to understand firsthand how the setup of the workshop allows students the breathing room to think deeply about ideas, topics, and resources. Youll also see how it creates a framework within which you can not only listen in as children express what they learn but also think deeply yourself about how best to use the information you gather for subsequent instruction. Bennett even demonstrates how the workshop can be flexible enough to fit any learning situation and how to solve common problems as they arise. Benefit from the wisdom of one of the countrys foremost staff developers. Step inside workshop classrooms where teachers and students work side by sidewhere students develop literacy skills through a combination of doing what readers and writers do and purposeful, sensitive interactions with their teacher. Visit workshops where teachers learn about their students, use careful one-to-one assessment to inform their teaching, and reflect on their own practice as well. Then enter the best workshop classroom of allthe one youll be ready and excited to launch when you read That Workshop Book.

    I use Words Their Way both in my first grade classroom and with college students as a way to implement word study. ""Kristi McNeal, CSU Fresno" Words Their Way's developmentally-driven, hands-on instructional approach has been a phenomenon in word study, providing a practical way to study words with students. The keys to this research-based approach are to know your students' literacy progress, organize for instruction, and implement word study. This streamlined book and the DVD and CD-ROM that accompany it gives you all the tools you need to carry out word study instruction that will motivate and engage your students, and help them to succeed in literacy learning. Ordered in a developmental format, Words Their Way complements the use of any existing phonics, spelling, and vocabulary curricula." ""Knowing Your Students"Streamlined Chapter 2 provides step by step guidelines for assessing students. NEW Words Their Way Word Study Resources CD: Assessment Planning and Additional Interactive Word Sorts contains computerized assessments to gauge students' developmental levels. Word Study with English Learner sections in each chapter help you organize and adapt instruction to meet the needs of students whose first language is not English. "Organizing for Instruction"NEW Words Their Way DVD Tutorial: Planning for Word Study in K-8 Classrooms reinforces and illustrates classroom organization and management, as outlined in Chapter 3. Word Study Routines and Management sections in every chapter give you practical guidance on managing and implementing word study in your classroom. NEW Tech Notes throughout chapters pinpoint opportunities for you to use the DVD and CD-ROM to prepare for instruction. "Implementing Word Study "Classroom-proven, research-driven activities end each developmental chapter, giving you the instructional practices to get your word study instruction up and running immediately. NEW Words Their Way Word Study Resources CD: Assessment Planning and Additional Interactive Word Sorts provides more than just assessments. You'll also find hundreds of additional word and picture sorts, games and templates, and an interactive Create Your Own section. The Appendix at the back of the book contains a comprehensive bank of word lists, word sorts, picture sorts, games and templates." ""The theory behind and practice for word sorts allows even the novice teacher to understand how to use the assessments to organize instruction. The organization of the last five chapters creates a useful resource for teachers. Each begins with a research-based description and moves into sound instructional practices, giving the teacher a complete understanding of how to meet the needs of students. ""Cathy Blanchfield, CSU Fresno "" ""Meet the Authors"Donald Bear is Director of the E.L. Cord Foundation Center for Learning and Literacy at the University of Nevada, Reno, assessing and teaching students who experience difficulties learning to read and write. A former preschool and elementary teacher, Donald currently researches literacy development with a special interest in students who speak languages other than English, and he partners with schools and districts to consider assessment and literacy instruction. Marcia Invernizzi is Director of the McGuffey Reading Center at the University of Virginia exploring developmental universals in non-English orthographies. A former English and reading teacher, Marcia works with children experiencing difficulties learning to read and write in intervention programs such as Virginia's Early Intervention Reading Initiative and Book Buddies. Shane Templeton is Foundation Professor of Literacy Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. A former classroom teacher at the primary and secondary levels, he researches the development of orthographic and vocabulary knowledge Francine Johnston is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she teaches reading, language arts, and children's literature. A former first-grade teacher and reading specialist. Interested in extending your Words Their Way training? Learn more about the new Online Workshop at www.pearsoncourseconnect.com/wtw.

    In Why They Can't Write, John Warner, who taught writing at the college level for two decades, argues that the problem isn't caused by a lack of rigor, or smartphones, or some generational character defect. Instead, he asserts, we're teaching writing wrong.Warner blames this on decades of educational reform rooted in standardization, assessments, and accountability. We have done no more, Warner argues, than conditioned students to perform "writing-related simulations," which pass temporary muster but do little to help students develop their writing abilities. This style of teaching has made students passive and disengaged. Worse yet, it hasn't prepared them for writing in the college classroom. Rather than making choices and thinking critically, as writers must, undergraduates simply follow the rules--such as the five-paragraph essay--designed to help them pass these high-stakes assessments.In Why They Can't Write, Warner has crafted both a diagnosis for what ails us and a blueprint for fixing a broken system. Combining current knowledge of what works in teaching and learning with the most enduring philosophies of classical education, this book challenges readers to develop the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and habits of mind of strong writers.

    of Tennessee, Knoxville). In this text for potential researchers, he focuses on what the US needs to learn if it is to have half a chance at meeting the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. He describes the characteristic

    Leslie Montgomery and Margot Holmes Smith weave vocabulary into each school day using multisensory instruction that includes music, art, literature, movement, games, drama, writing, test-taking skills, and technology. Along the way, they turn every student into a lover of language.With support from literacy specialist Brenda Overturf, Leslie and Margot have developed a five-part plan—introducing new words in context, adding related synonyms and antonyms, engaging students in several days of active learning, celebrating new words, and assessing vocabulary development—that teaches all students to learn and love vocabulary.This easy-to-read reference explains how to plan, teach, and assess based on the latest research in vocabulary instruction and learning. Forget copying definitions from the dictionary and completing boring worksheets! Word mastery comes from intimate knowledge of language. From prediction to practice to performance, students from all backgrounds can discover how to make words their own. After incorporating Leslie's and Margot's vocabulary plan into your daily instruction, you and your students can become word nerds, too!

     Years later and we're still waiting to see how it can really be done.The wait is over."In clean, clear prose that unravels the labyrinth of new terms and applications, Troy guides us towards a writing workshop for this age. His steady, smart advice eases the transition between the elements of writing workshop we know matter to the tools that can take each to a new place, one comfortably familiar, but with a decidedly updated feel. And this man has his priorities straight. He focuses first on the writer, then on the writing, and lastly on the technology." -Penny Kittle Author of Write Beside ThemTroy Hicks holds sight on good writing workshop instruction. Where others have talked about new technologies and how they change writing, Hicks shows you how to use new technologies to enhance the teaching of writing you already do. Chapters are organized around the familiar principles of the writing workshop: student choice, active revision, studying author's craft, publication beyond the classroom, and assessment of both product and process. In each chapter you'll learn how to expand and improve your teaching by smartly incorporating new technologies like wikis, blogs, and other forms of multimedia. Throughout, you'll find reference to resources readily available to you and your class online. He also includes a practical set of lessons for how to use wikis to explore a key concept in digital writing: copyright.New literacies are developing around us at what sometimes seems like the speed of light. It's hard to keep it all in focus. Let Troy Hicks guide you through the complexities of what it all means for your classroom so your students' writing can grow right in step with our changing times and technologies. Troy Hicks hosts a companion website where teachers are connecting, sharing ideas, and learning more about teaching digital writing in K-12 classrooms. Join the discussion at http: //digitalwritingworkshop.wikispaces.com/

    Inside, he shows teachers how to overcome their perceived obstacles and shows them how they can make conferring tangible. Conferring lays the groundwork for effective reading instruction. Conferences with students are purposeful conversations that scaffold reading comprehension strategies to guide the reader’s progress. Ultimately, through the gradual release of responsibility, you will create engaged and independent readers. Starting with what conferring isn’t, Allen unpacks the essential components of the process:Intimacy: the social context of conferringRigor: the cognitive context of conferringInquiry: the analytical context of conferring With his guidance, you will be able to set goals for student conferring and elevate student reader conferences from start to finish.

    It's not easy to explain these abstract reading strategies to elementary readers, yet knowing how they work and how to use them is an important first step to connecting with texts. Fortunately Tanny McGregor has developed visual, tangible, everyday lessons that make abstract thinking concrete and that can help every child in your classroom make more effective use of reading comprehension strategies.Comprehension Connections is a guide to developing children's ability to fully understand texts by making the comprehension process achievable, accessible, and incremental. McGregor's approach sequences stages of learning for each strategy that take students from a fun object lesson to a nuanced and lasting understanding. Her lessons build bridges between the concrete and the abstract by incorporating writing, discussion, song, art, and movement into a web of creative connections that reinforce each strategy on a variety of levels. All the while Comprehension Connections offers an inside look at the dynamic of McGregor's teaching, showing you how her ideas look in action, and including the language she uses and that she encourages her students to use as they build their facility with: schema inferring questioning determining importance visualizing synthesizing. Many students struggle to understand what it is they are supposed to do as they learn to read strategically. Help them make connections to the ideas behind reading and watch as your readers go deeper into texts than ever before.

    No More "I'm Done!" demonstrates how to create a more productive, engaging, and rewarding writer's workshop. Jennifer guides teachers from creating a supportive classroom environment through establishing effective routines; shows teachers how to set up a writer's workshop; and provides an entire year of developmentally appropriate mini-lessons that build confidence and, ultimately, independence.