Walk into any truly excellent school and you can feel it almost immediately — a calm, orderly atmosphere that hums with an exciting, vibrant sense of purposefulness. This is a positive school culture, the kind that improves educational outcomes.
Effective school reading programs in schools share certain characteristics, from sound methods and materials to quality professional development and administrative practices. Learn about eight features of research-based school reading programs.
School psychologists play a critical role in the lives of children who are struggling to learn. More and more, for example, school psychologists are leaders in developing and carrying out the assessments and placements decisions that impact students from the beginning of their school careers. With your help, schools can reduce the number of students who lag behind grade level and increase the number of successful readers.
As we discover more about how students learn and how different minds learn differently, our schools have a golden opportunity to increase the percentage of their students who experience true academic success.
Learn how schools use screening and progress monitoring tools to identify dyslexia characteristics, and then implement reading interventions for students who need dyslexia-specific instruction. You’ll also find out about classroom accommodations and modifications that can help your child learn, as well as information about referrals for special education.
A school in which students are performing at a much higher (or much lower) level than might be predicted using such standard measures as family SES is often described as an “outlier.”
When schools screen large numbers of students, they may under- or over-identify students with disabilities. Find out how school-based screening can be used effectively.
Keeping a science notebook encourages students to record and reflect on inquiry-based observations, activities, investigations, and experiments. Science notebooks are also an excellent way for students to communicate their understanding of science concepts, and for teachers to provide students with feedback.
Science fiction is a type of fiction where the stories revolve around science and technology of the future. As exciting as these books can be, it’s good to remind your child that while science fiction may be based loosely on scientific truth, it is still fiction.
Screening, diagnosing, and progress monitoring are essential to making sure that all students become fluent readers — and the words-correct per-minute (WCPM) procedure can work for all three. Here’s how teachers can use it to make well-informed and timely decisions about the instructional needs of their students.
Anyone at any age can learn a second language after a first language is already established, but it takes a lot of practice. Second language acquisition often happens when a child who speaks a language other than English goes to school for the first time. This brief looks at the best way to teach a second language and how speech professionals can help.
Reading instruction changes the brain. New before- and after- images that show what happens to children’s brains after they get systematic, research-based reading instruction show that the right teaching methods can actually normalize brain function and thereby improve a child’s reading skills.
What should you do if you think your child is having trouble with reading? Sometimes children just need more time, but sometimes they need extra help. Trust your instincts! You know your child best. If you think there’s a problem, there probably is.
Children come to our classrooms from so many different ability levels and backgrounds. As a teacher, it’s important to recognize and know what to do to help a struggling reader.
Share these six social-emotional learning activities with your students’ families. Activities include a growth mindset action plan, a strengths chain, and an accomplishment box. Downloadables are available in English and Spanish.
There are over two dozen individually administered screening tools produced for the primary grades. Considering their subject matter and purpose, schools must decide which assessment best fits their needs. This article gives an overview of the screening tools and the kind of information they provide.
As we head towards September and a new school year, here’s advice from special education expert Rick Lavoie that may be helpful as you attempt to make special needs kids in your class feel warm, welcome, and wanted. Using the word SEPTEMBER, he shares nine concepts that can help you in this effort.
In this provocative article, the author argues that reading achievement hasn’t changed much in several decades, and that many common notions about a reading crisis are, in fact, myths.
Comprehension strategies are conscious plans — sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps students become purposeful, active readers who are in control of their own reading comprehension. These seven strategies have research-based evidence for improving text comprehension.
Almost every week there is a news story about a new finding or discovery in science. These news stories are one of the exciting steps in the science world: sharing what you find! Helping kids share their own scientific findings will make them feel like part of the scientific community.
Sharing wordless books is a terrific way to build important literacy skills, including listening skills, vocabulary, comprehension and an increased awareness of how stories are structured.
Honoring books for self-selection, sharing the excitement of read-alouds, building a balanced book collection, making your passions public, and providing rewards that demonstrate the value of reading are just a few simple but transformative suggestions that can nurture the love of reading in your classroom.
Child care providers can play a pivotal role in helping young children learn how to read. This collection of tips will help you incorporate reading into your programs.
