I have been working with schools lately regarding Guided Reading, and one principal asked me to put together a list of tips (basically reminders) for teachers who are implementing Guided Reading. Teachers were so grateful; I thought I might share it with others. Below is my list! Guided Reading is the heart of Reading Instruction. It is the time where students apply all the reading strategies taught throughout the literacy block. Students should be reading independently most of the time during Guided Reading, while teachers monitor and make notations of reading behaviors. An instructional leveled text is a text that students can read...
Read More Post a comment (0)We just came across a fascinating editorial piece in Education Week that addresses the need for professional development as part of the new shift toward the common core standards. The commentary, entitled Common-Core Work Must Include Teacher Development and written by Stephanie Hirsh, cleverly asserts that "the dramatic shift in teaching prompted by the common core will require practical, intensive, and ongoing professional learning—not one-off "spray and pray" training that exposes everyone to the same material and hopes that some of it sticks." In addition, she reminds us that new technology resources make professional learning all the more accessible via shared learning platforms and...
Read More Post a comment (0)What in the world is a word study notebook? What is its purpose? What goes in it? Even though many teachers have word study notebooks down to an art form, there are many others still asking themselves these questions. “What in the world is a word study notebook?” Well, a word study notebook is a tool that students can use to record word study activities such as word sorts and word hunts. It can be a spiral-bound notebook or loose-leaf paper stapled together. Basically, it is whatever you choose for it to be. “What is its purpose?” It serves several purposes....
Read More Post a comment (0)VOCABULARY, vocabulary, when will I teach it? Maybe while I’m reading to the students? Research says that some vocabulary words are learned indirectly, and others can be taught directly. We’re going to discuss the latter. Read-aloud is a wonderful time for you and your students because it provides the perfect opportunity to teach words directly. Many of you are doing this already. However, new teachers or teachers changing grade levels might find this refresher helpful. Let’s prepare for read-aloud! First of all, you need GREAT books--not just any book will do. When you select GREAT books for instruction, you need to think...
Read More Post a comment (0)This summer, how about starting a book club among your staff? Thomas Hoerr, a Head of School in Missouri, started a summer book club almost 15 years ago among his faculty to build a sense of community and inspire professional development over the summer. The books clubs are optional, run predominantly by the teachers, and based around a school wide interest or goal. The books they have selected run the gamut from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to Emotional Intelligence. You may even be able to begin this year. As Mr. Hoerr says, it doesn’t even have to be a...
Read More Post a comment (0)As background, I started my education career in Arkansas as an elementary school teacher, a reading specialist, and a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader. My strength was working with struggling students who weren’t on-level readers, and eventually I moved on to a more macro-level role as an Early Childhood Curriculum Specialist for the State of Arkansas. At that point in my career, I had gathered enough literacy knowledge that I wanted to share it on a national scale, which is when I (together with some friends/colleagues) began working on the launch of Benchmark Education. In Benchmark’s nascent phase, I personally handwrote some...
Read More Post a comment (0)We developed this blog to examine the latest in educational innovation, to hear from experts in the field about what works (and what doesn’t), and to discuss the personal stories and the public policies that have shaped our world. However, today we’d like to deviate slightly from our usual topics. Ever since we released the results of a groundbreaking study conducted in 2009, we have had so much wonderful feedback from educators that we felt compelled to share the results once again. During that year, Main Street Academix, a university-based independent research firm, conducted a study among 3rd graders in East Hartford...
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