Search results for ""Pembroke Publishing Ltd""

Early Literacy Fundamentals offers powerful activities to develop the skills, concepts, and knowledge underpinning early literacy. It builds on the personal, social, emotional, creative, and physical development skills that are a traditional part of early childhood programs.Based on the latest research, the book recognizes that oral language is the bedrock upon which formal learning is based and that literacy: begins at birth and is part of an ongoing developmental process; develops concurrently with oral language development; is enhanced by adult models who expose children to print and how it works; is based on a systematic relationship between letters and sounds; is rooted in and connected to the child's culture and communication patterns. Each of the activities, organized around a seven-strand framework that reflects successful early childhood practices, is presented along with background research and practical advice on helping children initiate their own constructive play. The types of activities teachers will find include: learning activities appropriate to a young child's age and stage of development; quality pre-school activities that boost all children's language and literacy skills, and build a strong foundation for reading and literacy success in school; opportunities for children to use oral language in a variety of ways as they play and experiment with words; adult-initiated whole-group activities that can be extended into child-initiated play. Early Literacy Fundamentals provides a comprehensive overview of the language and literacy experiences children need, and helps teachers give them a strong base on which future reading and learning success can grow.

Read more less

This powerful book helps teachers redefine an inclusive curriculum by questioning what is taught, how it is taught, to whom, and under what conditions. It offers teachers a wealth of challenging, open-ended pursuits that give students voice and help them better understand their world. It explores opportunities for students to connect with social justice issues in the real world through imagined experiences found in short stories, novels, plays, picture books, graphic novels, and primary source documents, such as letters.

Read more less

The best-selling first edition of this popular book showed teachers how to use a single sheet of paper to add value, authenticity, and accountability to independent reading programs. It emphasized students reading books they love rather than filling reading time with busy work. In this second edition of Independent Reading Inside the Box, Lisa Donohue shares what she has learned from the many teachers who have used her simple approach to reading response. Lisa describes how teachers can do even more to strengthen student comprehension, language, and thinking skills. Full of new ways to monitor, assess, and support students as they are actively engaged in their reading, the book remains committed to the premise that independent reading time is purposeful and directly connected to classroom instruction. This highly awaited second edition explores critical literacy to promote higher-order thinking skills, individualized goal-setting, feedback and monitoring, and personalizing learning. This remarkable book introduces proven strategies for • providing effective feedback and assessment • relating independent reading response to the instructional core • fitting independent reading into the literacy block • using reading-response as prompts and for blended learning tasks • making thinking visible during independent reading • encouraging student choice among reading-response tasksIndependent Reading Inside the Box argues for classrooms that offer students choice among the very best material, as well as innovative ways to nurture the value of becoming lifelong readers.

Read more less

The skills required to write an essay are the same skills required to write a speech, to prepare a persuasive argument, to prove a point, or to explain an idea. If we can help our students acquire these skills as we teach “the essay,” we will have assisted them in accomplishing truly valuable life skills.Essay Writing contains easy-to-incorporate lessons along with tips for teaching specific concepts that range from pre-writing exercises to revising and editing to celebrating the final product. This down-to-earth look at the foundations of good essay writing is full of useful ideas and strategies that help students:build skills in writing on a wide range of topics; distinguish between formal and informal writing;use effective pre-writing techniques such as brainstorming, making an outline,gathering information, and evaluating the relevance of information;gain confidence as they begin to recognize what works and what doesn't.The book incorporates a wide range of innovative approaches to teaching essay writing — from how to “picture” and “act out” an essay to a winning format for a topic sentence and using scattergrams to turn brainstorming into constructive outlines. Throughout the book, assessment tools and marking keys support simple marking techniques that consider not just the final essay, but effort and time on task.

Read more less

This practical book offers unique and powerful ways to use play to investigate stories, big ideas, and events. It focuses on dramatic play as a natural response to learning.Dramatic Play in the Early Years argues that dramatic play is not theatre but a dynamic process that involves planning, playing, and practice. It shows teachers how to involve young students in play where they become the story and live the life of the characters or animals, bump up against issues, and better appreciate the complexities of the human journey. This comprehensive resource covers many aspects of learning through play and explores • The Creative Process — from setting up the “Aha” moment to describing the teacher’s role • Getting Started — from the willing suspension of disbelief to strategic use of pauses to listening for next steps • The Importance of Practice — from working towards focus and control and side-coaching to becoming believable characters • Building Belief — from narrating to cast a spell to using blank paper to set a story scene • Finding the Story — from choosing a story to strategies for prompting improvisation • Playing Inside the Curriculum — from establishing a framework to finding the story in subject areas Rooted in classroom experience, this valuable resource offers a variety of effective ways in which children can be encouraged to incorporate voice, characterization, movement, stillness, concentration, and listening for more expressive play.

Read more less

This practical book invites teachers to investigate different strategies to teach both whole-class and individual intervention lessons in reading. The book strives to take students beyond the simple view of reading and make them active users of language who make connections among the elements that science tells us are part of the reading process. Teachers will find strategies focused on self-regulation, word recognition, and language comprehension, along with various ways to connect and strengthen each aspect of reading. The lessons address new research about the complexities of reading and focus on scaffolding and differentiating learning for students in elementary classrooms.

Read more less

The Writing Circle explores classroom writing groups as a powerful structure for giving students the support and guidance they need. Based on a common structure found in the writing world outside of school, these groups provide an ideal way for students to learn from each other. Under the teacher's guidance, young writers can work together on all aspects of the writing process—sharing drafts of writing, responding to each other's works-in-progress, and building confidence in themselves as writers. The writing process is dynamic; writers move from one stage to the other and back again doing two—or three or more—things at once. Students become more energized when they tap into this dynamic process and interact with peers. Writing circles have the added bonus of giving teachers lots of opportunities to observe, advise, learn, teach, and take part in writing circle discussions.This comprehensive resource includes everything needed to support writing circles in the classroom. Sample lessons outline specific learning goals and offer suggestions for student and teacher roles. Many of these lessons require that the teacher guide the writing circles, step-by-step, through activities, but the groups gradually gain their own momentum as students become more independent, skilled, and confident writers.

Read more less

This timely book offers a clear and structured method for integrating explicit phonics instruction into K–3 classrooms. An essential guide for teaching reading, the book is grounded in the cutting-edge, evidence-based science of reading. It provides a flexible and effective step-by-step progression that covers the essential phonics skills that teachers have been asking for, and addresses the needs of busy, diverse classrooms. This blueprint to effective instruction explores screening, assessment, and intervention, as well as working with English language learners. Tools for implementation include high-impact activities, lesson templates, word lists, phoneme-grapheme grids, word ladders, and more.

Read more less

Deepening In-Class and Online Learning shows teachers how to make learning joyful as they translate successful classroom strategies to virtual learning. The book includes more than 60 step-by-step strategies that encourage interaction, foster inclusion, and spark imagination. Each activity is presented in a consistent format, ready-to-use in-class and for online learning.Whether teaching virtually or adding digital activities to in-class instruction, this book explores effective ways for students to present, communicate, and collaborate. Innovative activities range from discussing hot topics and sharing personal stories to visual boards and digital storytelling. Also included is an up-to-date glossary of digital tools to help make sense of the shifting landscape in today’s classrooms.

Read more less

How can teachers balance the needs of busy overwhelming classrooms with the needs of their own health and well-being? This timely book is about avoiding teacher burnout. It suggests that teachers can reduce the amount of time they work outside the classroom and still be a motivated and engaged teacher. Promoting a healthy work–life balance for teachers, the book advocates that teachers put their own mental and emotional health needs first; it argues that this will naturally lead to more effective teaching. The conversational tone of the book, along with a wealth of anecdotal examples, will make this highly readable resource an invaluable guide for every educator.

Read more less

In freewriting, we write continuously: we begin with a prompt and keep our pen or pencil moving throughout the entire duration. We do not stop to question or censor ourselves; we do not concern ourselves with spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or grammar; we do not let critical thoughts creep into our freewriting time. The book shows teachers how to use freewriting to help kids write well and more, regardless of grade level, subject, time of day, or time of year.

Read more less

Take Me to Your Readers is rooted in the belief that teachers can lead their students to develop their reading tastes and grow in their love of reading at the same time as supporting and stretching students in their meaning-making experiences. This practical resource highlights more than 50 instructional strategies that invite students to work inside and outside a book through reading, writing, talk, and arts experiences.

Read more less

Moving Math focuses on "moving" the teaching and learning of mathematics by shifting instruction and assessment practices. The authors describe how using various thinking skills like inferring, analyzing, and evaluating, helps students make sense of mathematical concepts to support numeracy. This book offers possible student solutions that demonstrate how the thinking skills support the intended mathematical learning.

Read more less

Cultivating Readers introduces a six-step approach for cultivating and growing complete readers who have the will to read. It shows teachers how to create classrooms where students understand the value of reading, intimately know who they are as readers, and receive joy and pleasure from text. From sharing your reading life to getting to know your students to modelling the habits of a reader, you will find strategies to use to set the foundation for a classroom of enthusiastic readers.

Read more less

For the vast majority of students, the skills and work habits that are crucial for successful learning are not in place when they arrive at the school door. These skills must be explicitly taught by teachers who recognize the unique learning styles, preferences, and interests of their students. Ready, Set, Learn focuses on the importance of encouraging students to set their own personal learning goals and persevere to achieve them. Along with organizers, prompts, and specific activities, this timely book includes lessons that explicitly teach organization, collaboration, communication, independence, memory, and initiative.

Read more less

3 Minute Motivators helps teachers recognize and respond to the daily needs of their students and distract, refocus, and provide a “hit of fun” in the school day to help students become more focused, motivated, and self-aware. New material in this practical book explores novel ways to inspire students as well as to build and practice important life skills and includes more than 200 activities (150 brand new!), new “Tech Too Motivators,” new “Stress Attack Motivators,” and more. Teachers and students alike can use the strategies in the revised and expanded edition of 3 Minute Motivators to defuse negative situations and tune students back into learning.

Read more less

It is a troubling statistic that a quarter of the students in any grade are reading below grade level. The good news is that it's not too late, even in middle school, to provide the extra instruction that will get the majority of these students back on track.The practical, classroom-tested reading instruction strategies in Struggling Readers are carefully chosen to be effective with students in Grades 3–9. More than band-aid solutions that focus on discrete skills that don't transfer to real reading, this insightful book shows teachers how to give struggling readers what they really need: the opportunity to read texts they can and want to read; explicit instruction in long-term strategies they can use on their own; confidence in themselves as readers, writers, and thinkers.This comprehensive resource is organized around the instructional needs of struggling readers: teaching and texts targeted to their needs the opportunity to read more explicit instruction and guided practice in comprehension strategies • building vocabulary and fluency the ability to read informational and functional texts using writing to make sense of reading The lesson routines are specifically designed for small-group work, but are adaptable to whole-class or individualized learning.Struggling Readers is a valuable resource that will help teachers use guided reading strategies from the early grades to reach those students still struggling with reading basics.

Read more less

In our society, where emerging technologies unite us in new ways, bullying is reaching epidemic proportions. The Bully-Go-Round provides strategies for a better understanding of all aspects of bullying from the perspective of the bully, the bullied, and the bystander. This handbook offers more than thirty-five activities, including responding in writing, in art, and in role play; lists of resources; discussion prompts; and tips for teachers on providing a safe forum in our classrooms to explore the complexity of the bullying issue.

Read more less

The Write Voice shows how to use rich, engaging writing prompts to help students develop their writing voice and addresses the importance of listening to a mentor's voice, defining voice, setting success criteria, and seeking peer and teacher feedback. Organized around seven strategies—Sensory Statements, Emotional Cues, Wordsmithing, Developing Character, Perspectives, Personality, and Style—The Write Voice illustrates countless ways students can experiment with their own writing voice, engage in dialogue about their writing and the writing of their peers, and set personal goals for themselves as writers. Teachers will learn how to create a classroom of writers who enthusiastically stir up an emotional response as they read, talk, and share their words.

Read more less

Caught in the Middle offers teachers a richly textured picture of the world of middle school students. David Booth describes who middle students are, explains why fostering their voice is important, and discusses how to create a community of literacy partners. He shows teachers how to model writing, incorporate picture books, promote reader engagement and comprehension, interact with student journals, prompt discussion and self-assessment, and more. In addition to his own classroom experiences, David showcases the contributions of remarkable middle school teachers who address a range of topics, including the impact of social media, the effect of the Internet on research, the need for critical literacy, the importance of citizen involvement, and the potential of the school library. Caught in the Middle presents a rich synthesis of insight, experience, and reflection.

Read more less

No matter what you are writing or why, Write It Right! is a handy companion that will guide you through the various stages of the writing process. Straightforward and easy-to-read, this unique flipchart focuses on the revising and editing stages and shows young writers how to polish their writing and make it ready to share with others. Write It Right! is a great review for teachers and a valuable tool for students and includes all the nitty-gritty information students need, with tips, aids, and checklists for easy reference.

Read more less

Rooted in real-life math experiences, this highly readable book explores innovative ways you can teach math principles using the best children's books. This simple book shows teachers how to select, organize, and use children's literature to connect children with real-world math. Committed to creating long-lasting positive math memories, it goes beyond reading about math and encourages linking text with relevant manipulatives in a hands-on, minds-on, problem-solving environment.

Read more less

An ideal review for teachers, this innovative flip book shows students how to identify their learning style as they build important information literacy skills. Students learn how to apply what they read, hear, and see to what they already know, and grow in their understanding of themselves and the world around them. From reading books and analyzing a movie to working on a research project, students will investigate effective strategies for finding and using all kinds of information and making it their own.

Read more less

This comprehensive guide offers teachers everything they need to inspire students to write and experience poetry as they build language skills. The book combines the rich background of poetry with sample poems and activities that are ready to use in any classroom. This new edition is updated with discussions of such contemporary poets as Naomi Shihab Nye, Karen Hess, Cynthia Rylant, and Mattie Stepanek.Based on the classroom experiences of two master teachers with an obvious love of poetry, readers will find answers to the common questions surrounding the study of poetry in the classroom.What is poetry?--from poems old and new to celebrating children's poetry;How do poems work?--from painting pictures with words to tricks of the trade;Why should we share poems with children?--from increasing word power through poetry to poetry as a way of thinking.The book also covers:ways to present poems--from using narration and mime to a model for presentation;when children write poems--from patterns for poems to using riddles, personification, and stream of consciousness;classroom concerns--from assessment techniques to tips for choosing and displaying poems in the classroom.An updated bibliography of the very best children's poetry anthologies and books for children complement this remarkable book.

Read more less

In these challenging times, teaching children to think critically and reflectively AND be compassionate, responsible and caring citizens at the same time is a tall order. Powerful Understanding explores effective ways to build social emotional skills and help students make connections, question what they read, and reflect on their learning as they develop into stronger readers and learners. Strategic and critical thinking strategies revolve around core anchor books that help integrate thinking into everything you teach—from social responsibility, to immigration, to life cycles. This highly readable book includes a wealth of classroom examples and extensive hands-on activities designed to help students to think more deeply, learn more widely, and develop a more powerful understanding of what it means to be a responsible and compassionate person.

Read more less

This practical book is full of quick and easy-to-use lessons that promote meaningful writing practices in the classroom. Teachers will find strategies organized alphabetically and in a consistent format that will inspire students to plan, develop, and share their writing. The lessons allow teachers to choose what they need to meet the diverse and various needs of students in grades one through eight. Each independent lesson guides students through the writing process with information about a writing form, along with suggested literature sources. Tips throughout the book will help students successfully write to narrate, to inform, to entertain, to persuade, to respond, and to enjoy.

Read more less

The Autism Lens helps teachers connect to students with autism and support them along their own unique trajectory. Bringing to life communication difficulties that impact socialization and learning, this book removes the guesswork by offering practical solutions to: foster inclusion, build and motivate new skills, problem-solve challenges, develop strengths, boost resilience, and nurture independence. Numerous easy-to-use, classroom-tested strategies are explored in this comprehensive resource. Woven throughout are stories about students to encourage teachers to see instruction from a student’s point of view. From this perspective, teachers can gain trust and nudge students into the space where learning happens.

Read more less

Stop the Hate for Goodness Sake shows teachers how to confront racism and disrupt discrimination in order to deepen students’ understanding of social justice, diversity, and equity. Background information, statistics, and reports on incidents of hate will help students consider ethical and moral behavior. Forty step-by-step lessons involve discussion, oral and written narratives, case studies, assumption charts, and more. This thoughtful examination of today’s world will help teachers encourage reflection, foster inclusion, and inspire students to take action. This in-depth guide will show teachers of 8- to 14-year-olds how to start and manage important conversations that will lead to change.

Read more less

Effective listening skills are essential for successful social interaction at home, at school, and in the community. Guided Listening illustrates how teachers can champion purposeful listening and help students better understand their language strengths and needs. It offers a practical framework that shows the value of recording and sharing the ideas of others; provides opportunities to identify the norms and conventions associated with oral language; and frees students to listen more attentively, organize their responses, and watch for the subtle cues that are an important part of listening.The strategies in this practical book involve students in:analyzing and synthesizing information;making inferences and predictions while listening;transferring these skills to their independent reading and learning.Tools that complement the strategies include reproducible graphic organizers, rubrics, forms for recording student progress, and numerous worksheets. Suggestions for choosing guided listening texts and a comprehensive approach to assessment complete this valuable resource.

Read more less

Based on extensive experience with students and her book Students at Risk, author-educator Cheryll Duquette offers an extensively revised text in Finding a Place for Every Student:Inclusive Practices, Social Belonging, and Differentiated Instruction in Elementary Classrooms. With a new focus on social belonging, this comprehensive resource includes tried-and-tested ways to work with students with exceptionalities, including autism, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, mental health issues, learning disabilities, behavior challenges, trauma, intellectual disabilities, visual and hearing impairments, giftedness, and low-incidence disabilities. Case studies illustrate how differentiated instruction can successfully work in real classrooms. Easy-to-implement instructional strategies with accompanying reproducibles make it simpler than ever to find a place for every student.

Read more less

Managing Student Behavior provides an in-depth understanding of student behavior, including identifying factors that trigger and maintain negative, disruptive actions and attitudes. It provides an overview of appropriate reinforcement, which is fundamental in making positive behavior changes, and highlights many effective, evidence-based strategies that support permanent change. Real-life examples and anecdotes throughout the book illustrate a variety of classroom challenges, as well as strategies used to support positive change in each scenario. The author uses a conversational approach to connect with readers and provide a non-threatening environment in which to learn the basics of behavior and behavioral change.

Read more less

Teaching Tough Topics shows teachers how to lead students to become caring citizens as they read and respond to quality children’s literature. It focuses on topics that can be challenging or sensitive, yet are significant in order to build understanding of social justice, diversity, and equity. Racism, Homophobia, Bullying, Religious Intolerance, Poverty, and Physical and Mental Challenges are just some of the themes explored. The book is rooted in the belief that by using picture books, novels, poetry, and nonfiction, teachers can enrich learning with compassion and empathy as students make connections to texts, to others, and to the world.

Read more less

The book is an essential guide for teachers on how to incorporate simple mindfulness activities and strategies to help foster self-regulation in the classroom and beyond. There are instructions, scripts, worksheets, and ready to use templates. The book defines self-regulation as students’ ability to manage their own attention, emotions, and behavior. Teachers learn how to help students strengthen their attention-regulation, emotion-regulation, and behavior-regulation skills. Supporting students’ overall well-being, not just their intellectual progress, is the focus of this timely and important book.

Read more less

Growth mindset, grit, and self-regulation are terms that teachers and parents have been hearing a lot lately. These terms recognize that children can develop traits that will make them better able to face challenges and recover from setbacks. How do we bring these principles directly into the classroom to assist students, day in and day out? Keep Growing shows how teachers can provide opportunities for children to change their mindsets and foster their ownership of their behavior, their desire to tackle difficult tasks, their ability to push through challenging work, and their application of what they have learned.

Read more less

This practical book is designed to assist teachers in structuring their learning practice. The framework of four basic and proven steps -- Preparation, Learning Sequence, Authentic Application, and New Thinking -- can be used at any level, for any subject, and for learning applications from lessons to unit plans. Combining the best research on how we learn with practical lesson exemplars, the PLAN process encourages and supports goal setting, student engagement, and transformational learning.

Read more less

Classroom routines are the well-oiled machines that can make a classroom function. But routines can also provide the groundwork for a learning environment that nourishes student-driven learning. From routines to start the school day to those that build classroom community, routines can help maximize learning by providing stability, consistency, and time management skills—for teachers and students. Well-structured routines can increase active student engagement, promote individual accountability, and establish a positive classroom climate.

Read more less

Nonfiction writing is important in a student's school life and it is important a skill that they will use throughout their lives. The majority of our daily reading and writing experience is made up of nonfiction, and students are writing nonfiction long before they are taught how to do it in the classroom. They need to recognize that writing nonfiction is far more than the traditional descriptive reports about animals. The principles of nonfiction writing apply to all student writing, even the tweets, texts, and blogs they compose.The writer's intent is the underlying foundation of Nonfiction Writing Power. Building on Adrienne Gear's Reading Power books, this valuable addition to her highly successful books addresses the close link between reader and writer. This remarkable book shows teachers how to help students recognize that they write because they have something to say. It argues that writing nonfiction well means considering the writer's intent and purpose, and choosing the most appropriate form among the various nonfiction genres.Nonfiction Writing Power is designed to help teachers develop a writing program that focuses on the different forms of nonfiction. This practical book helps teachers work with students to explore the Power to Describe the Power to Instruct the Power to Compare the Power to Persuade the Power to Explain the Power to Report Ideal support for teaching writing in the content areas, the book includes ways that a particular form can link to science, social studies, and other subject areas.

Read more less

Moment to Moment offers teachers the tools they need to help children succeed socially, emotionally, and behaviorally and shows how to build important social skills—from controlling speech and movement to building attention and concentration, to adapting to the social environment. This important book empowers teachers to help children develop stronger character, sense of self, and emotional well-being, giving them the skills they need to deal with the emotional challenges they meet in school.

Read more less

It is widely accepted that when home and school work together, children's learning improves. Although this fact is readily acknowledged, communication between school and home is still often one-sided and remains a struggle for many teachers. This book explores a wide range of tools -- take-home information and materials, parent conferences, learning nights, and digital and social media -- for teachers to use in establishing and maintaining the parent-teacher relationship, one that holds the child at the center of all education decisions.

Read more less

Balanced Literacy Essentials shows teachers how to create a literacy program that balances the components of language arts with the power of meaningful interaction with students. Based on the latest learning theories, this timely resource is full of simple ways teachers can nurture meaningful reading, writing, and talk in today's classroom. The book provides an overview of reading instruction, techniques for supporting writers; and poetry, storytelling, and drama activities. Balanced Literacy Essentials offers the background and strategies teachers need to encourage students to question, discover, and learn.

Read more less

From focusing on meaning and technique to sharing and transforming texts, Reading in the Real World is full of simple yet effective ways to read all text forms with confidence. Strategies to use before, during, and after reading help students discover how meaning and technique work together in real-world texts.Based on the many forms of texts that modern readers encounter, the book uses familiar genres to guide readers to a better understanding of new text formats. It includes reproducible organizers and examples—ranging from stories and poetry to comics and print advertisements—to help readers make the most of the texts that surround them in their real lives.In a short and accessible form, this book outlines innovative approaches and activities that will motivate students to read effectively and with enthusiasm.

Read more less

Literacy Smarts introduces simple activities and tasks that use interactive whiteboard technology to bring a new vitality to classroom lessons. Based on extensive classroom experience, the authors argue that interactive whiteboards can create numerous possibilities for teaching and learning and describe how interactive whiteboards can lead us into the future of learning—interpreting, managing, exploring, and expanding our students' thinking. Literacy Smarts advocates for student-centered learning and demands that students think, interact, and engage with a wide variety of texts across all the content areas.

Read more less

Teachers recognize that frequent independent reading increases student knowledge on a wide range of topics, enhances vocabulary, and improves comprehension. Ban the Book Report inspires teachers to go beyond narrow and analytical book reports by exploring the potential of book talks, alternate book covers, identifying features of informational books, newspaper headlines and articles, talk-show interviews, diary entries for characters and letters to authors. This remarkable resource offers more than twenty specific assignments with its own rubric written in student-friendly language along with student response exemplars from real classrooms. Tips to help teachers launch and manage an independent reading program complement this timely book.

Read more less

This simple book explores the elements and mechanics of good writing, including punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. It shows how young writers can use the best books as models, and it highlights the role of special tools—such as bullets—to add material without burdening the reader.How Bullets Saved My Life looks at writing as a craft. It calls for a deeper understanding of the writing process and the use of good tools to help students build their own stories. Organized around the 6 + 1 writing traits, the book breaks writing into manageable parts to help both students and teachers deal with the complex process. It also offers original insights into the following areas: Finding and organizing ideas Exploring voice Considering word choice Building fluency Understanding conventions Reflecting on visual presentation The book is based on the power of the reading–writing connection. It argues for incorporating the best books possible to demonstrate specific skills and using favorite authors to make students more engaged in their writing. A wealth of powerful models for promoting literacy using children's literature is at the book's core. It explores how teachers can guide students to read their favorite books and learn interesting new words, clever ways to start stories, catchy titles, and even how to end stories well. These writing strategies and activities are as effective with struggling students as they are with strong students.

Read more less

A useful reference, 12 Sides to Your Story uses student writing exemplars to illustrate desirable features as it challenges students to note use of these strategies in published stories. This book features twelve classroom-tested strategies that add value to story writing and helps students relate strategies to items in assessment rubrics as well as to write effective stories under test conditions. Students and teachers will appreciate the specific practical strategies to transform ordinary narrative writing into extraordinary narrative writing.

Read more less

This playful 32-page flip book explores all aspects of poetry — from guidelines and an overview of poetic forms to the Top Ten lists of various poetry favorites. Handy reproducible masters are also provided which include a poetry timetable, ten questions to ask about any poem, an observation checklist for teachers, and a personal poetry inventory for students.

Read more less