Videos

Through her career, Melissa has been able to travel all over the world. It allows her to see the animals firsthand and to really understand how they thrive in their environment, how they move, what they eat. These up-close encounters infuse her writing with more vibrancy.

Melissa has been keeping nature journals since she was 20 years old. She often goes back to those journals for inspiration, but also for the observations she’s made of certain animal behaviors.

Melissa grew up exploring the nearby woods with her family. That sparked a deep interest in nature, which led to her career as a writer.

Children’s nonfiction writer Melissa Stewart has published more than 200 books on a wide range of science and nature topics. Melissa says she writes for children because books for young people can change the way that they see themselves and the way that they see the world.

In Salt Lake City, teacher Margaret Barnes uses a framework called CORI (Concept Oriented Reading Instruction) to teach reading comprehension skills to second and third graders.

Kids and volunteers engage in a summer reading program developed by The Reading Connection.

Using think-pair-share in the classroom creates a collaborative learning environment where students work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an assigned reading. 

Jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy that enables each student of a “home” group to specialize in one aspect of a topic and become the “expert.” 

A concept sort is a vocabulary and comprehension strategy used to familiarize students with the vocabulary of a new topic or book.

List-group-label is a vocabulary and comprehension strategy that helps develop categorization skills, build background knowledge, activate critical thinking, and grow vocabulary. Watch list-group-label in action.