No two students in grades 4-8 are identical, and many struggle with literacy for different reasons. Using a teacher-friendly, hands-on approach, this eminently practical book walks educators through the nuts and bolts of literacy intervention in the middle grades. Highlights include "North Star" principles to orient instruction, an…

Students in grades 3-6 need to use increasingly sophisticated comprehension skills and strategies as they read and build knowledge across disciplinary content areas. Grounded in research, this book presents effective practices for integrating literacy instruction with literature, science, and social studies. Chapters address text selection,…

Now revised and updated, with many new lesson plans and a new chapter on writing instruction, this trusted book guides upper elementary teachers to design and implement a research-based literacy program. The expert authors show how to teach and assess students in differentiated small groups, and explain how instruction works in a tiered…

More than 5 million English learners attend U.S. public schools--and yet fewer than 3% of teachers are certified to work with them. Fill that gap in teacher education with this practical and comprehensive textbook, an evidence-based guide to providing English learners in Pre-K-Grade 6 with explicit, systematic instruction on language and literacy…

Tired of hearing about "complex text"? Bothered by the pushy messages about "challenge"? This book is for you! Unlike the many other materials on text complexity, this one focuses on specific comprehension skills that students need in order to really engage with text. This book will help elementary school teachers equip their…

This highly practical resource for K-6 teachers is packed with 25 classroom-tested, step-by-step strategies for developing word knowledge. The emphasis throughout is not only on teaching new words, but also on strengthening students' comprehension and long-term vocabulary acquisition. Especially valuable are guidelines for how to differentiate…

In "Notebook Know-How", Aimee Buckner demonstrated the power of notebooks to spark and capture students' ideas in the writing workshop. In "Notebook Connections", she turns her focus to the reading workshop, showing how to transform those "couch-potato" readers into deep thinkers. Buckner's fourth-grade students use reader's notebooks as a place…

Multiple-choice testing is an educational reality. Rather than complain about the negative impact these tests may have on teaching and learning, why not use them to better understand your students' true mathematical knowledge and comprehension? Maryann Wickett and Eunice Hendrix-Martin show teachers how to move beyond the student's answer--right…

With a unique focus on grades 4 and 5, this book explains how to design and implement a research-based reading program that helps all students build major literacy skills (word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension). The expert authors present ready-to-use activities, strategies, and lesson plans, along with detailed guidance for…

Since its publication in 2000, Strategies That Work has become an indispensable resource for teachers who want to explicitly teach thinking strategies so that students become engaged, thoughtful, independent readers. In this revised and expanded edition, the authors have added twenty completely new comprehension lessons, extending the scope of the…

Upper-elementary students encounter a sometimes dizzying array of traditional and nontraditional texts both in and outside of the classroom. This practical handbook helps teachers in grades 4-6 harness the instructional potential of fiction, poetry, and plays; informational texts; graphic novels; digital storytelling; Web-based and multimodal…

At last, a truly helpful, practical guide for K-4 teachers who want to ensure that their approach to teaching young English language learners is based on research and grounded in proven classroom practices. The authors of ASCD's best-selling book "Research-Based Methods of Reading Instruction, Grades K-3" explain how you can help the English…

"The Comprehension Toolkit" focuses on reading, writing, talking, listening, and investigating, to deepen understanding of nonfiction texts. With a focus on strategic thinking, this toolkit's lessons provide a foundation for developing independent readers and learners. It also provides an alternative to the traditional assign and correct…