Download or read book Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle and High School ELA written by Matthew Johnson and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Matthew Johnson, Dave Stuart Jr., and Matthew R. Kay have written a book to help navigate the burning questions early career teachers long to understand. From ways to build a community of learners to motivational instruction to feedback that works for students and teachers alike, these inspirational teachers share what it takes to craft a career for the long haul." - Andy Schoenborn, co-author of Creating Confident Writers: For High School, College, and Life Your guide to grow and learn as an ELA teacher! Let’s face it, major shifts over the past decade, including pandemic-related challenges, have rapidly changed our ELA classrooms. New and experienced teachers can benefit from guidance on the fundamentals of what excellent teaching and learning of writing can look like. Friendly and practical, this book is a reminder of the things that matter most. Part of the Five to Thrive series for early-career educators, Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle & High School ELA offers solutions for any teacher who wishes to refresh their practice. Questions and answers are organized into five areas that will help you thrive in your classroom: How do I build a brave, supportive reading and writing community? How do I cultivate motivation? How can I ensure that my feedback and assessment are efficient, effective, and equitable? What does strong ELA instruction look like? How can I keep doing this for my whole career? The authors, all practicing ELA educators, provide solutions to the most urgent challenges teachers face in providing student-centered and efficient instruction. With an emphasis on equity, culturally responsive practice, and intrinsic motivation, the book focuses on the wellbeing of both students and teachers. You’ll find accessible tips for immediate use woven throughout. Strive to be the best ELA educator you can; your students are counting on it!
Download or read book Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Writing written by Melanie Meehan and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2022-03-17 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Answers to your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Writing aims to help new teachers - or teachers who need a confidence boost - to understand the foundations of solid writing instruction. Melanie Meehan has led her school to adopt best practices in writing instruction, and has worked with many teachers in her district, in professional development settings, and in online workshops, and she knows the biggest challenges teachers face in writing instruction. This installment of the Five to Thrive series will provide answers to the most critical questions early-career teachers have about writing instruction, providing the MOST critical things a new teacher can do and know to have the most success in teaching writing, as well as next steps toward thriving as a writing teacher"--
Download or read book Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Reading written by Christina Nosek and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2022-02-28 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teach reading right with just-in-time expert advice! Whether you’re new to teaching reading or if you are a veteran whose goal is to focus on authentic reading instruction, this book is designed to be an on-the-desk companion, providing answers to your burning teaching questions at the moment you most need them. A lot has changed in reading instruction over the past decades, with old assumptions and tired curricula making way for both trusted and new best practices. Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Reading, written by a veteran teacher who’s an expert in literacy instruction, offers research-backed, classroom-tested guidance to set you on the right path. Through practical teaching strategies, classroom examples, actionable steps, further reading suggestions, and more, you’ll learn to Build and maintain an inclusive, equitable classroom reading community Structure, organize, and plan student-centered, responsive reading instruction Design and implement compassionate, effective assessment methods Engage and empower students to develop agency as readers You became a teacher to teach students—not curriculum. With this indispensable book by your side, you’ll develop practices that prioritize student well-being and success.
Download or read book The Big Book of Tasks for English Language Development Grades K 8 written by Nancy Akhavan and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ready-to-go English Language Development tasks that focus on students "doing the doing" of talking, reading, listening, and responding. In recent years, the percentage of English Language Learners (ELLs) has increased in almost every state, so most teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching literacy to students acquiring English alongside English-speaking students. However, in many integrated learning situations, English Language Development (ELD) instruction is strikingly different than the teaching we provide students whose first language is English. The Big Book of Tasks for English Language Development helps teachers meet that challenge head-on! Bestselling author and esteemed education consultant Nancy Akhavan shows that teaching multilingual learners requires changing our instruction to focus on practices that have high impact for students as they acquire language. Yet it’s not about doing more— it’s about doing smarter. It’s about having high expectations for all students and providing scaffolds to support students at all levels of English language proficiency as they learn and grow more confident. All the ready-to-go activities in the book Center on active tasks where students do the thinking, talking, reading, and writing, with appropriate support Activate the domains of language — listening, speaking, reading, and writing — and recognize that these do not develop at the same rate Honor the continuum of language development and build on what students can do Provide teaching tools such as learning targets, suggestions for when to use a task, basic instructions and "teacher talk" for launching a task, and "Watch Fors and Work-Arounds" Focus on the linguistic assets multilingual learners bring to the classroom and provide opportunities to help them collaborate with peers With Nancy Akhavan’s signature straightforward, teacher-friendly style, this book offers an uplifting reminder that with the right teaching strategies, educators can support multilingual learners to achieve their full potential and thrive in their learning journeys.
Download or read book Writing Workouts Grades 6 12 written by Rebecca G. Harper and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2023-03-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Student Writers Go the Distance with a Strength-Training Approach Good writers don’t wing it—they have a plethora of skills. They list, picture, circle, strategize and revise to make language come alive. They know what to use and when. Like ace athletes, they are highly trained, well-versed in the techniques found in this lively book. Writing Workouts provides a method for instruction that gives students the fun they want and the targeted skill practice they need. Slinky paragraphs, pop-up poems, paint chip plotting, and many other activities get the serious business of teaching critical and creative writing done. Author Rebecca Harper shows you how to go about it systematically, so writing is tied to relevant lessons and writing standards. Help students learn to: Hone skills in persuasive writing, argument, fiction, poetry, memoir and more Toggle between brief and multi-step writing tasks, to build stamina (and not hyperventilate when faced with complex compositions) Tap into auditory, visual, and kinesthetic, and digital components of crafting Think about word, sentence, and paragraph-level techniques Jump the high-jumps of research writing by getting good at each smaller leap Students in middle school and high school often feel they are forever-sprinting toward a high-stakes writing task. With Writing Workouts, you help students crowd out stress with a strength-training approach to success.
Download or read book Good Grammar Grades 6 12 written by Matthew Johnson and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2024-07-23 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modernize grammar instruction with language lessons that inspire and engage students! Grammar and language instruction has long been, in the words of Brock Haussamen in Grammar Alive!, "the skunk at the garden party of the language arts" that turns many eager learners into disengaged participants. This type of disengagement, and resulting student struggles, have long been the norm, not the exception, when it comes to grammar and language lessons. But why? Why does grammar—something so relevant and essential that we use it in the creation of every syllable we say, write, or think—often end up as one of the dullest and most disconnected parts of the ELA classroom? Good Grammar: Joyful and Affirming Language Lessons That Work for More Students seeks to answer that question and to offer practical, on-the-ground solutions for making grammar and language instruction more accessible, practical, and connected to students’ reading, writing, and most importantly, the deep well of language knowledge they bring with them already. At the core of the book are six key practices for creating language instruction that comes across clearer, sticks better, transfers easier, and ultimately instills a love of language, all while teaching major grammatical concepts. Written by a practicing classroom teacher, this book offers Ready-to-go lessons and a recommended sequence Explanation of essential grammar and language concepts for teachers who need to refresh their own understanding of grammar and language topics and concepts Over a hundred modern, engaging, wide-ranging, and diverse mentor text examples Suggestions on how to introduce important linguistic concepts into secondary classes, including lessons about how language develops; how to define, examine, and celebrate dialects/familects/idiolects; and protocols for discussing concepts like code-meshing and "correctness" Examination of broader trends concerning what works and what doesn’t work in regards to grammar and language instruction, with a goal of giving teachers the tools they need to create their own grammar and language curriculum that engages, inspires, and transfers more easily into student writing and life beyond the classroom walls. The title—Good Grammar—seeks to remind us that grammar doesn’t have to be boring or feel punitive. Instead, it can be a force for good for more students, affirming who they are, honoring the language expertise they bring with them, and helping them to bring their unique voices to the page.
Download or read book Teaching Writing From Content Classroom to Career Grades 6 12 written by Maria C. Grant and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2023-09-04 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teaching writing that is relevant to your students and their futures What kind of writing do we do beyond school? It certainly isn’t the well-known five-paragraph essay or tight iambic pentameter. In today’s workforce, the purpose of writing is to communicate complex ideas specific to career fields. Students need more than simply mastering academic writing, so Teaching Writing From Content Classroom to Career shows how to combine writing instruction teachers already share – language selection, tone, voice, audience, organization, and style – with meaningful writing tasks so students can connect classroom writing to the world of their work and their futures. Authors Maria C. Grant, Diane Lapp, and Marisol Thayre explain ways to show students how writing works in the world of work with Ready-to-go lesson plans focused on relevant, world-of-work writing tasks and formats An overarching rubric of key skills as well as student-self-assessment rubrics to make instruction and implementation crystal clear Downloadable and reproducible tools for both students and teachers for ease of implementation Exemplar mentor texts from the workplace in multiple disciplines that showcase writing’s essential connections to workforce readiness Suggestions for using AI to generate exemplar texts Examples of how to be a successful communicator who knows how and when to move in and out of different modes of language Full of tools, resources, and strategies that are easy to implement and seamlessly overlay school writing curriculum, this book sets students on the path to academic and career success through writing.
Download or read book Just Read It written by Jarred Amato and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2024-02-01 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Read widely and read often - create a classroom environment where independent reading thrives Independent reading is more than just "drop everything and read" – it is a gateway to writing, critical thinking, discussion, and deeper learning. Author Jarred Amato, an accomplished middle and high school English teacher and founder of Project LIT Community, believes in the power of independent reading not only to turn around the reading attitudes of students but also to help them achieve huge gains in all areas of literacy, learning, and civic engagement. Many teachers have pushed aside independent reading in the time crunch to teach all the content and skills in the curriculum — or because of pressure to stay true to a traditional literary canon. Instead of looking at it as either/or, Just Read It shows teachers how to make independent reading "yes, and." Dr. Amato’s Read and WRAP (write, reflect, analyze, participate) framework helps teachers cultivate meaningful learning experiences with daily dedication of independent reading time, followed by writing, reflection, conversation, and community-building lessons and activities. With thoughtful, student-centered structures and strategies to sustain independent reading success, this book Provides detailed insights on transforming the principles of access, choice, time, and community into actions Shows how to support student interests and varied reading levels Offers ready-to-go activities to initiate Read and WRAP routines at the start of the school year, keep momentum going, and finish the year strong to ensure continued literacy growth Demonstrates how to leverage student feedback to fine-tune the Read and WRAP routines Discusses various options for incorporating independent and whole-class novels into the curriculum Offers a game plan to "level up" IR, including how to launch and lead a Project LIT chapter We live in a time when choosing what we read is critically important, and this book offers all the tools teachers need to guide students along the path to true literacy. Just Read It is perfect for anyone who believes in the power of books to change students’ lives and nurture a life-long love for reading.
Download or read book Get Free written by Tricia Ebarvia and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2023-10-10 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would it mean to truly "get free" as an educator? How can we identify and challenge bias in our reading and writing curriculum and instruction? How can we support students in becoming empathetic, engaged individuals who can communicate with the world through reading and writing skills developed with compassion and critical thinking? Answering these questions requires deep personal reflection and intentional daily practice — and it’s crucial today more than ever, when students are overwhelmed with misinformation and disinformation. Drawn from decades of classroom experience and founded on the scholarship of social justice educators,Tricia Ebarvia provides a framework that can help teachers implement transformative, anti-bias literacy instruction in middle- and high school classrooms Get Free offers educators Strategies for scaffolding literacy instruction in ways that center students’ identities and experiences, and help them develop a more inclusive understanding of literature and writing Classroom structures and routines that support critical listening and open, authentic conversation and writing responses Invitations for teachers to re-examine curriculum and instructional practices, based on a deeper sense of who we are and what we bring to every reading and writing experience To develop stronger reading, writing, and critical thinking skills, antibias literacy instruction is essential. This is the book for teachers, new and experienced, who know that classrooms can be transformative, liberatory spaces where students better understand themselves, others, and the world. Imagine the possibilities if we could just get free...
Download or read book Teaching Literacy in Troubled Times written by Allison Skerrett and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2022-07-18 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Upending deficit narrative of learning loss, combating broken approaches to racial equity, and wading deep into the contested waters of democratic principles of learning within today’s schools, Dr. Skerrett and Dr. Smagorinsky offer an accessible guidebook for making our classrooms sites of justice and joy. Perhaps most importantly, theirs is a book that reveals classroom practices as they really are--the voices of teachers are situated as co-authors in this important journey. I cannot think of a more timely or relevant book for English educators than Teaching Literacy in Troubled Times." — Antero Garcia, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University Relevant instruction to move education forward instead of "back to normal" Educators often bemoan the so-called learning gap that followed the upheaval to schooling in 2020, but the real learning gap will occur if the watershed events and social shifts of the early 2020s are not integrated into school instruction and learning. For today’s learning to be relevant to today’s students, it must reflect their lives and the true social worlds they inhabit. But how? Teaching Literacy in Troubled Times empowers educators to engage students in critical thinking, literacy activities, and inquiry to investigate the personal and social issues of pressing importance to today’s middle and high school students. Six units of study, each co-authored by a teacher who road-tested the activities in their own classroom, guide teachers through the process of teaching literacy around the topics of identity, social inequity, global justice, empathy, racism and racial literacy, and conflicting ideas of patriotism. This urgent, timely guide to creating a relevant classroom includes: Instructional methods, content knowledge, and learning activities for each unit that engage students in critical inquiry and social action. Insights and guidance from teachers who put the full unit plans in action with students. Reflection questions to help teachers envision the work in their own classrooms. Templates, rubrics, examples of student work, and other tools that help teachers to plan and implement activities that grow students’ capacity to understand and act in society. Prime your students with the critical thinking, investigative, and communicative skills they need to connect themselves to broader social movements and create a new generation of educated changemakers.
Download or read book Just Teaching written by Jonathan Eckert and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2023-01-17 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elevating the essential work of today’s teachers Teaching is life-giving work, essential for the development of thriving humans. It is devastating to hear teachers refer to themselves as "just teachers" as if they are powerless and without status. What if we turned the phrase’s meaning upside-down and claimed its redemptive power? "Just teachers" care for each student. Teachers who are just, cultivate freedom, justice, and flourishing. This book will have readers "just teaching" in the best sense of the phrase! Just Teaching has been written for teachers who want to develop the best ways to serve students based on research on how students learn. This book shows how to use appropriate tools, based on the wisdom of generations of educators, in a focused, sustainable way. Readers will find: evidence-based practices to support student feedback, engagement, and wellbeing (for students and teachers, too) case studies from familiar classroom perspectives useful technology suggestions solutions tools for building an overarching approach to meeting the needs of individual students By addressing feedback, engagement, and well-being in ways that are founded on justice and love for students, Just Teaching supports comprehensive, manageable learning while elevating the essential work of educators.
Download or read book Teaching Fantasy Writing written by Carl Anderson and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2024-07-16 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teaching fantasy writing increases student engagement, enables them to flex their creative muscles – and helps them learn important narrative writing skills. Opportunities for kids to lean into their innate creativity and imagination have been squeezed out of most school days, due to the pressures of standardized testing. And writing instruction has become more and more formulaic. In Teaching Fantasy Writing, Carl Anderson shows you how to include a study of fantasy writing in your writing curriculum that will engage student interest and creativity -- and make writing exciting for them again. Teaching Fantasy Writing is a game-changer. The fantasy genre gives children tools for expression that other genres don’t, providing them with a powerful way to work through challenging issues and emotions. And it also offers students the opportunity to address subjects such as gaining confidence in oneself, bullying, fighting injustice – and more. Plus, fantasy writing helps kids learn the skills necessary to meet narrative writing standards. And they’ll have fun doing it! If you’re an elementary school teacher who wants to help your students develop their writing skills by studying a high-interest, high-impact genre, you’ve come to the right place. In Teaching Fantasy Writing, Carl Anderson will: Discuss why fantasy writing develops students’ creativity, increases their engagement in writing, and accelerates their growth as writers Walk you through fantasy units for students in grades K-1, 2-3, and 4-6, which include detailed lessons you can teach to help students write beautiful and powerful fantasy stories Suggest mentor texts that will show students how to craft their fantasy stories. Show you examples of students’ fantasy writing, including the "worldbuilding" work they do before writing drafts Explain how you can modify the units and lessons to fit the needs of the students in your classroom By teaching fantasy writing, you can reignite the spark of creativity in your students and increase their joy in writing. Imagine the possibilities!
Download or read book Poetry Pauses written by Brett Vogelsinger and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2023-02-23 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unleash the power of poetry to boost all academic writing Student writing outcomes will transform if we invest more time in the genre we too often ignore: poetry! With Poetry Pauses, Brett Vogelsinger asserts that all good writing takes us to deeper places, whether it’s narrative, argument, informational, or verse. So why not use the palm-size examples of poems to develop students’ skills? This book helps you to Teach techniques such as using sound, pattern, imagery, grammatical structures, and dialogue Select poems from the online companion website for read alouds and writing warm-ups Reshape students’ attitudes about verse with contemporary spoken word and poems by today’s favorite poets Know how to tuck specific poems into any part of the writing process to build your students’ understanding of brainstorming, elaboration, paragraphing, argumentation, and more No matter what students go on to do in life, being able to reach a broad audience with language that engages the whole mind is a gift. The resources here and online will stoke students’ logic and creativity immeasurably.
Download or read book Open Windows Open Minds written by Afrika Afeni Mills and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2022-06-15 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Equip your students—and yourself—to grapple with racial identity and crucial questions about race. Open Windows, Open Minds, explores why racial identity work is critical , especially for White-identifying students and teachers, and shows educators how to use literacy instruction to provide more windows to racial awareness, antiracist thinking, and pro-human action in the classroom. It includes: Exercises that push educators to examine their own racial identity before facilitating antiracism work with students Developmentally appropriate teaching strategies for guiding students toward understanding racial identity and engaging in action-oriented learning Tools and resources for navigating challenges, finding allies, and creating partnerships
Download or read book Differentiating Phonics Instruction for Maximum Impact written by Wiley Blevins and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2024-01-17 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teacher be nimble, teacher be quick—the routines in this book make phonics learning stick. Author Wiley Blevins is renowned for changing the way educators think about teaching children to read, helping thousands of teachers implement effective phonics instruction. Now, Blevins gets us to think in powerful new ways about differentiating whole-class phonics lessons, so students at every skill level can engage. With Blevins’ trademark clarity, Differentiating Phonics Instruction for Maximum Impact provides: High-impact routines that focus on the skills known to develop students’ literacy best. Differentiated application of these routines—with fun multi-modal games and variations—for students working on- below-, and above grade-level expectations, and for multilingual learners Guidelines for creating skills-based small groups for more intensive work "Look-fors" for teachers and supervisors, to know when instruction is working or needs to be adjusted Several reproducible phonics and spelling assessments for placement, progress monitoring, and formative assessments to keep every learner growing as readers and writers. Differentiation needs to be in the DNA of every instructional plan—so all students′ skills progress every day. That’s a tall order, but with this resource, teachers discover that over time, doing the routines gives them a nimble, global sense of their learners and makes teaching more impactful and learning to read more joyful.
Download or read book Text Structures From Picture Books Grades 2 8 written by Stephen Briseño and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2023-09-18 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teach students the architecture beneath a successful story—and boost their reading comprehension and writing skills for a lifetime Writing instruction can sometimes seem scattershot, as teachers try to cover a galaxy of craft techniques, ideas, intentions, and genres. The possibilities are endless—and that’s the problem. In Text Structures from Picture Books, elementary and middle grade teachers tap into a well-ordered universe of inspiring and illustrative stories to help students frame their thinking and focus choices. Using the bite-size format of picture books as a starting point, the authors share 50 low-prep, quick-access lessons to help you teach students seven concrete ways to respond to text in any genre. Through these lessons, students will be able to: Generate their own writing, using a text structure harvested from the work of professional authors Retell a story, using the text structure from the story Generate reading responses, using structures that support clarity Analyze a story to construct thematic statements, capturing the author’s message and bigger themes Write about a theme or big idea demonstrating empathic and evidence-based interpretation Answer open-ended questions by selecting a technique that reflects the text and their engagement Experiment with author’s craft in their own writing Based on master writing teacher Gretchen Bernabei’s instructional model, the lessons offer a lively, high-impact mix of reading aloud, discussion, modeling, student writing, and peer share. Plus, readers have access to a complete companion website full of text structure reproducibles, reading response prompts, additional lessons and extensions, students samples, and links to demo videos. State tests are now assessing reading and writing together. And that’s a good thing—but we’ve got some catching up to do. Written for students beginning in second grade, Text Structures from Picture Books will help your students swiftly and surely become text-savvy readers and writers.
Download or read book More Ramped Up Read Alouds written by Maria Walther and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2024-07-31 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlock the transformative potential of read-aloud to joyfully strengthen essential literacy skills. In this eagerly anticipated follow-up to Maria Walther’s The Ramped-Up Read Aloud, discover 50 MORE read-aloud experiences designed to bolster students’ literacy development, ignite imagination, and enhance motivation. Backed by the latest research, this indispensable guide equips educators with the knowledge and tools to make read alouds a cornerstone of their teaching practice. More Ramped-Up Read Alouds includes lessons focused on foundational reading concepts like phonological awareness and decoding along with a new chapter on integrating literacy with STEAM. This must-have resource for K-5 teachers, librarians, schools, and districts goes beyond the basics. It empowers educators to elevate their read alouds, offering strategies to broaden students’ content knowledge, expand vocabulary, and boost listening comprehension. Each read-aloud experience features: Standards-based learning targets Key vocabulary words with kid-friendly definitions Effective questioning techniques Innovative reading response ideas Targeted extension activities to enhance the experience for upper elementary learners Looking to create joyful, enriching reading experiences that will lead to endless possibilities? Search no further! It’s time to make interactive read-aloud a non-negotiable part of the day—and watch learners soar!
