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Building World Knowledge: Motivating Children to Read and Enjoy Informational Text
Exposing young children to informational text early on can help them to handle the literacy demands of fourth grade and beyond. Practical instructional techniques can be used to promote understanding and enjoyment of informational texts. The three techniques described here — Text Impression, Guiding Questions, and the Retelling Pyramid — can help children become familiar with the language and structure of non-fiction books.
Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: Reading Instruction
Creating a Welcoming Classroom Environment
On a daily basis, ELLs are adjusting to new ways of saying and doing things. As their teacher, you are an important bridge to this unknown culture and school system. There are a number of things you can do to help make ELLs' transitions as smooth as possible.
Simple Practices to Nurture the Motivation to Read
Honoring books for self-selection, sharing the excitement of read-alouds, building a balanced book collection, making your passions public, and providing rewards that that demonstrate the value of reading are just a few simple but transformative suggestions that can nurture the love of reading in your classroom.
The principles of a multidimensional vocabulary program hold promise for supporting the vocabulary development of all students, especially English language learners. Eight characteristics of a multidimensional approach are described. The first is the introduction of new words through engaging children's literature.
How do you create a classroom library that is both organized and enticing to young readers? Here a teacher illustrates how she set up a classroom library. She provides tips on acquiring books and materials, organizing the shelves, creating labels, and making it cozy.
Literacy Instruction with Digital and Media Technologies
This article describes how digital and media literacies are woven into a fourth-grade classroom. Background on how a teacher and school brought new literacies to students through the use of technology is revealed so that other teachers can engage in similar instructional support.
Why Phonological Awareness Is Important for Reading and Spelling
Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing system. And research shows that difficulty with phoneme awareness and other phonological skills is a predictor of poor reading and spelling development.
Learn the six types of syllables found in English orthography, why it's important to teach syllables, and the sequence in which students learn about both spoken and written syllables.
Teaching Metalinguistic Awareness and Reading Comprehension with Riddles
Riddles are the perfect medium for learning how to manipulate language for many reasons, including students' familiarity with them and motivation for reading them. Here's how riddles can be used in the classroom to stimulate student's metalinguistic awareness.
Linking the Language: A Cross-Disciplinary Vocabulary Approach
Rather than introducing a new word in isolation, teachers should introduce students to a rich variety of words that share the same root. This approach should help diverse learners including English language learners, make important connections among vocabulary words within the same family, and transfer core ideas across content areas.
This study of fourth grade students indicates that the use of a "research resource guide" increases student independence during the research process. The article describes approaches to support students in making determinations about the readability, trustworthiness, and usefulness of sources of information.
Organizing for Effective Reading Instruction
To address the wide range of individual student variances and needs, reading instruction within one classroom must be data-informed and call on small group instruction and flexible grouping practices. This article delineates routines and procedures to help teachers organize their classroom environment and reading instruction to positively affect student achievement and meet the needs of diverse learners.
What Does the Research Tell Us About Teacher Leadership?
This research brief from the Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement looks at what research exists, and what it says about drawing on the skills of experienced teachers to facilitate school improvement.
When Trouble with Math Equals a Learning Disability
Dyscalculia is a learning disability that affects the brain's ability to process and understand the meaning of numbers. Learn about the symptoms and what can be done to help.
A Critical Analysis of Eight Informal Reading Inventories
There are a number of current informal reading inventories. Each has its strengths and limitations and unique characteristics, which should be considered in order to best fit a teacher's needs.
A Student's Perspective on Writing
Eli, a young boy, tells us what it is like to have dysgraphia. Regina Richards, a well-known expert on dysgraphia (and Eli's mom), explains how to help children who struggle with the challenges Eli describes. Practical techniques discussed include POWER (Prepare, Organize, Write, Edit, Revise) and providing authentic positive comments that move the child forward.
The Basic Spelling Vocabulary List
This list was devised to help educators know which spelling words should be taught to children. The list contains 850 words that account for 80 percent of the words children use in their writing; the ones they need to be able to spell correctly.
Using Peer Tutoring to Facilitate Access
Peer tutoring links high achieving students with lower achieving students or those with comparable achievement for structured learning. It's an effective educational strategy for classrooms of diverse learners, including students with disabilities, because it promotes academic gains as well as social enhancement. This brief discusses three research-supported peer tutoring strategies: Cross-Age Tutoring; Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS); and Reciprocal Peer Tutoring (RPT).
Finding the Right Book Level: PALS Equivalencies
Different book leveling systems each have unique ways of describing the age- and grade-level appropriateness of books. This chart provides equivalency information across six leveling systems: Basal level/PALS, Guided Reading, DRA, Rigby PM, Reading Recovery, and Lexile.