Then, open these pages.Welcome to Debbie Miller's real classroom where real students are learning to love to read, to write, and are together creating a collaborative and caring environment. In this book, Debbie focuses on how best to teach children strategies for comprehending text. She leads the reader through the course of a year showing how her students learn to become thoughtful, independent, and strategic readers. Through explicit instruction, modeling, classroom discussion, and, most important, by gradually releasing responsibility to her students, Debbie provides a model for creating a climate and culture of thinking and learning.Here you will learn:techniques for modeling thinking;specific examples of modeled strategy lessons for inferring, asking questions, making connections, determining importance in text, creating mental images, and synthesizing information;how to help children make their thinking visible through oral, written, artistic, and dramatic responses to literature;how to successfully develop book clubs as a way for children to share their thinking.Reading with Meaning shows you how to bring your imagined classroom to life. You will emerge with new tools for teaching comprehension strategies and a firm appreciation that a rigorous classroom can also be nurturing and joyful.

    Managing classroom book clubs can be hard. Real hard. But honestly, is there any better way to get students vested in reading? When book clubs work, don't they create a culture of reading unlike anything else? One that brings out the very best in our students?With both infectious enthusiasm and a realistic perspective, Sonja and Dana take on teachers' doubts and concerns about book clubs, and build a compelling case for their value in every classroom. They provide all the nuts and bolts for creating and managing successful book clubs, including:Dozens of pitfalls and pathways minilessons that address common roadblocks Tips for using technology to enhance book club work for deeper student engagement Suggested book bins for book club work, organized by grade level and genre. Whether you're looking to breathe new life into book clubs or begin implementing them in your classroom, Sonja and Dana give you essential strategies to make book clubs work. Because book clubs, they write, are where students fall in love with reading.

    It will knock the socks off this profession.-Harvey Daniels Author of Subjects Matter and Content-Area Writing The renaissance in comprehension instruction launched by Mosaic of Thought has led to changes in hundreds of thousands of classrooms, where teachers now model reading strategies, and students probe meaning more deeply. But no book in the field has satisfactorily answered the question: What does it really mean to comprehend? In To Understand, Ellin Oliver Keene not only explores this important question, but reveals what teachers can do to encourage all students to engage in deep understanding far more consistently than before.In discovering what's really behind comprehension, To Understand goes well beyond comprehension strategy instruction. Keene identifies specific Dimensions and Outcomes of Understanding-characteristics identified in readers with a highly developed ability to make sense of text-to help you rethink what comprehension is. She demonstrates how to leverage the Dimensions and Outcomes into relevant, provocative, memorable instruction. To Understand proposes a model that incorporates all aspects of literacy instruction-word learning and comprehension-and describes how teachers can focus on what matters most in literacy content. Keene shows that when teachers target the most essential content, they have the time to help every student engage more deeply with texts and discover a passion for reading and learning. The model is founded on four simple, but powerful concepts:Focus on what's important by teaching vital concepts in depth rather than skimming over nonessential skillsUse research-based teaching and learning strategies, including proven-effective comprehension and language-based strategies, then taking them further by showing students how the strategies lead them to a fuller understand of a textTeach the essential concepts over a long period of time so that children have an opportunity to learn not only a comprehension strategy, but to explore where that strategy leads in their understandingGive students numerous opportunities to apply the concepts in a variety of texts and contexts. With To Understand in hand, you'll find new ways to draw out the innate intellectual interest in every student and spark dramatic improvements in literacy learning and comprehension, even among students who struggle. You'll see that by rethinking what it means to understand-by teaching children the Outcomes and Dimensions of understanding-you can help students exceed expectations while broadening your vision of their abilities, their capacity, and their energy for learning. There's still more-much more-to learn about comprehension. Read To Understand, join Ellin Oliver Keene, and discover that what's at the very core of comprehension can not only reinvigorate your teaching but take your students to new, uncharted levels of learning.

    While the transition to standards-based practices may be challenging, it is essential for effective instruction and assessment. In this practical guide, the author outlines specific steps your team can take to transform grading and reporting schoolwide. Each chapter includes examples of grading dilemmas, vignettes from teachers and administrators, and ideas for bringing parents on board with change.

    A series of dialogues between a novice and a master teacher and between a new and a seasoned principal demonstrate how framing--and then reframing--challenges brings clarity.

    Keeping themorganized can be a challenge, but an organized classroom is essential and allows students and the teacher to fully focus on learning by eliminating distractions. Organized Teacher, Happy Classroom provides practical, proven methods for maintaining an organized classroom throughout the entire school year.Inside you’ll find:• Strategies for managing students’ papers, curriculum material, and essential paperwork• Time management tips to maximize your instruction time and lesson planning• Organizing systems you can teach your students to improve self reliance andaccountability• Checklists for starting and ending the year well organized• Helpful forms and templates you can use in your classroom• Plans for arranging a classroom that promotes positive student participation• Support to simplify your classroom• Efficient storage solutions for all teacher and student materialsWhether you teach primary, intermediate, middle school or high school, this bookwill help you organize your time, paperwork, and classroom spaces.

    Pez dispensers. Nerf balls. When we give students junk to reward reading, we are focusing their intention away from the act of reading and from their own independence as readers. Instead, we can create classrooms where reading is seen as its own reward. In this book, esteemed researcher Linda Gambrell provides a research-based context for cultivating children's intrinsic motivation to read and identifies three essential principles, the ARC of motivation:access: giving kids a wealth of reading materials and opportunities to discuss texts relevance: offering high interest, moderately challenging and authentic reading experiences choice: allowing students to self-select texts and reading activities What exactly do those principles look like in action? Reading specialist and researcher Barbara Marinak shares the strategies and techniques that make a difference for student readers' motivation, turning disengaged readers into passionate ones. Pizza and Pez dispensers are short lived, Linda and Barbara write, but confident and empowered readers are likely to remain motivated for life.

    Buckner describes her model as flexible enough for students to respond in a variety of ways yet structured enough to provide explicit instruction. Inside Notebook Connections , you’ll find:Ways to launch, develop, and fine-tune a reader’s notebook programTeacher-guided lessons for each chapterAssessment tips to review student growth and comprehension levelsHow to select the strategies that work for them and incorporate into the workshop  Notebook Connections provides a comprehensive model for making reader’s notebooks the centerpiece of your reading workshop. Reader’s notebooks become a bridge that helps students make connections between ideas, texts, strategies, and their work as readers and writers.

    Lots of actual templates, graphic organizers, black-line masters, detailed lesson plans, and student work samples are included, as well as vignettes of mini-lessons, center time, small guided math groups, and share time.This practical, hands-on guide will help you...Understand the framework of Guided Math lessons Gain an in-depth look at the role of assessment throughout the Guided Math process Develop an action plan to get started immediately This is a must-have resource for all educators looking for a structure to teach small groups in math that meet the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

    The Sixth Edition of Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students continues to be one of the most comprehensive, practical texts on the market, and includes a new focus on higher-level literacy practices. Written by distinguished author Tom Gunning, Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students provides readers with step-by-step guidance for teaching reading and writing, including sample lessons for virtually every major literacy skill/strategy. Reflecting the author's ongoing extensive hands-on work with schools coping with the demands of No Child Left Behind, the Sixth edition includes teaching tips and materials that are more practical, more realistic, more effective, and more extensive than ever. With its careful balance between the theory and the practice, the book always gives readers the theories behind the methods, encouraging them to choose, adapt, and construct their own approaches as they create a balanced program of literacy instruction. learners, struggling readers and writers, and special needs students, Creating Literacy for All Students, Sixth Edition, looks at developing higher-level literacy requirements for reading and writing, including those stemming from No Child Left Behind regulations and high-stakes tests. The new edition stresses effective steps for closing the gap between the reading, writing, discussion, and thinking skills as mandated by No Child Left Behind and Reading First

    Marshall proposes a broader framework for supervision and evaluation that enlists teachers in improving the performance of all students. Emphasizing trust-building and teamwork, Marshall's innovative, four-part framework shifts the focus from periodically evaluating teaching to continuously analyzing learning. This book offers school principals a guide for implementing Marshall's framework and shows how to make frequent, informal classroom visits followed by candid feedback to each teacher; work with teacher teams to plan thoughtful curriculum units rather than focusing on individual lessons; get teachers as teams involved in low-stakes analysis of interim assessment results to fine-tune their teaching and help struggling students; and use compact rubrics for summative teacher evaluation.This vital resource also includes extensive tools and advice for managing time as well as ideas for using supervision and evaluation practices to foster teacher professional development.

    They will free you to love your job, build effortless and influential relationships with your students, and enable you to become a happier, calmer, and more confident teacher. You will learn: -Simple strategies that make classroom management a lot easier. -Exactly (step-by-step) how to handle difficult students. -How to create a classroom your students will love coming to every day. -How to build behavior-changing rapport and influence with even the most difficult students. -How to get your students to treat each other with respect and kindness. -How to praise in a way that inspires, uplifts, and motivates. -How to build maturity and independence. -How you can know your students will behave instead of just hoping they will. -How to become a teacher that fellow teachers, parents, and students respect and admire. -How to love your class, and have them love you right back. -And much more . . .

    This practical book features chapters on the five powerful reading/thinking strategies — connecting, questioning, visualizing, inferring, and transforming. It offers techniques for helping children recognize what happens in their heads while they read, with simple applications that can be incorporated into any classroom routine. A valuable handbook that promotes reading independence with sequential lessons, teacher-modeling tips, and suggestions for guided practice.

    You don't even have to be able to draw. Just put the child before the chart.Marjorie Martinelli and Kristine Mraz Listen to an interview with Marjorie and Kristi, the Chartchums, on Education Talk Radio.Commercially available charts leave you hanging? Want the secret to jump-off-the-wall charts that stick with kids? Trust Smarter Charts.Did you ever want to know:What do great charts look like? How many is too many? Where are the best places for them in my classroom? How long do I keep them? How do I know if they are working? Then you'll want to meet Marjorie Martinelli and Kristine Mraz, the Chartchums. They struggled with the same questions, and Smarter Charts shares not only the answers, but the best practices they've discovered as well. Amp up the power of your charts with tips on design and language, instructional use, and self-assessment. Even better, discover surprising strategies that deepen engagement, strengthen retention, and heighten independence-all by involving students in chart making.Packed with full-color sample charts from real classrooms, Smarter Charts shares simple, brain-based strategies proven to make your classroom an even more active, effective space for literacy instruction and classroom management.

    All of the authors in this book know what classrooms are like. This means that authenticity and integrity pervade every chapter in the book. Teachers will immediately sense this authenticity on their way to realizing that the book offers an endless supply of useful suggestions."-From the Coda by P. David PearsonFor those of us who teach comprehension strategies, Comprehension Going Forward is as near to the ultimate PD experience as we can get. Imagine a professional learning community where you could sit in as...Ellin Keene and Debbie Miller swap best practicesStephanie Harvey and Harvey "Smokey" Daniels compare instruction across the gradesAnne Goudvis and Tanny McGregor share ways to infuse comprehension into every subject areaCris Tovani and Nancy Commins apply the strategies to help struggling readers, English learners, and special-needs students. In Comprehension Going Forward, you'll meet up with 17 leading practitioners and researchers for an energetic, personal, and frequently irreverent conversation on what great comprehension instruction looks like, what an amazing range of applications it has for all students, and what we can do better. Not only do figures such as Susan Zimmerman and P. David Pearson include their own chapters, but, like any exciting conversation, they point out their favorite parts of one another's chapters-highlighting discussion topics for teacher study groups along the way. Read Comprehension Going Forward and RSVP to a get-together that no one who teaches reading will want to miss. Enter this powerful, lively conversation about how we can improve all readers' comprehension today and join some of your favorite authors as they reach for a tomorrow where every child reads with deep understanding."Each author takes the comprehension strategies as a starting point, and then reaches out toward a different set of applications, extensions, and practices. But everyone is connected by the research base on comprehension instruction and by our common goal: to provide every child in America with an "All-Access Pass" to literacy."-From the editor's introduction by Harvey "Smokey" Daniels