Corwin Literacy – serie

Classroom-tested lessons to help you strive for 100% engagement in your ELA classroom

For educators, it can be a constant challenge to keep students engaged and motivated in the classroom. With the rise of technology and shortened attention spans, we have to go beyond traditional teaching methods, especially in the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom where students may perceive reading and writing as tedious tasks.

100% Engagement: 33 Lessons to Promote Participation, Beat Boredom, and Deepen Learning in the ELA Classroom offers captivating and interactive lessons that will help students thrive in their ELA studies. Authors Brian Sztabnik and Susan Barber provide practical guidance and inspiration to make ELA learning more meaningful and enjoyable for students in Grades 6-12. The book’s 33 lessons are organized by genres including Poetry, Short Fiction, Novels & Dramas, and Writing and are adaptable to support different learning styles, ensuring that all students feel valued and engaged in the classroom. The lessons get students out of their seats, participating in discussion, collaborating, and working across mediums to build their literacy skills.

Providing tips and tricks to achieve 100% engagement, this book:

Fosters a classroom where student motivation is high, and interactions are based on mutual respect and appreciationChallenges learners to think critically and creatively by incorporating collaborative, cross-genre activitiesOffers adaptations to help teachers tailor the lessons based on their individual classroom needs, making it easier for all students to participate fullyOffers downloadable templates and handouts for easy implementation

100% Engagement is the ultimate toolkit for teachers looking to foster motivation, creativity, and active participation that deepens learning for every student in their ELA classroom.

Newly revised and updated throughout, this new Florida Edition has been specially developed to align with Florida’s new B.E.S.T. Standards.

What it really means to "read closely."

What could Fern Arable, Jay Gatsby, and Winston Churchill possibly have in common? They all need masterful teachers to help students revel in their complexity. And Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher are just the two mentors to help you make that happen. Call it close reading, call it deep reading, call it analytic reading—call it what you like. The point is, it's a level of understanding that students of any age can achieve with the right kind of instruction. In Rigorous Reading, Nancy and Doug articulate an instructional plan so clearly, and so squarely built on research, that teachers, schools, and districts need look no further.

The 5 Access Points Toward Proficiency, Purpose & Modeling:

Teachers think aloud to demonstrate critical thinking and how good readers always know why they are reading. Close & Scaffolded Reading Instruction: Teachers engage students in repeated readings and discussions, with text-dependent questions, prompts, and cues to help students delve into an author's ideas. Collaborative Conversations: Teachers orchestrate collaborative learning to get students in the habit of exercising their analytical thinking in the presence of their peers. An Independent Reading Staircase: Teachers artfully steer students to more challenging books, with strategic bursts of instruction and peer conferences to foster metacognitive awareness. Performance: Teachers offer feedback and assessments that help students demonstrate understanding of text in authentic ways and plan instruction based on student understanding.

There's more . . . Also included are illustrative classroom video clips available via QR codes—making Rigorous Reading the only resource a teacher, school, or district needs to seriously stretch students' capacity to read and comprehend text.

The science of reading meets the art of teaching readers   Do you have the knowledge and instructional ability to effectively teach foundational skills and to support students who show signs of reading difficulties? It is a tall order — and one that challenges many new and veteran teachers. How to Prevent Reading Difficulties, Grades PreK-3 builds on decades of evidence and years of experience to help teachers understand how the brain learns to read and how to apply that understanding to Tier 1 instruction. The book includes: 

step-by-step descriptions of techniques for effectively teaching phonological awareness, spelling, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension specific Tier 1 activities, routines, and frameworks that build and strengthen word recognition and language comprehension links to video demonstrations and online resources clear, practical explanations of the science of reading, including the Eternal Triangle and the Simple View of Reading, to help teachers understand the fundamentals of the reading process, recognize how difficulties arise – and understand how to address them

A book study guide is available on the Free Resources tab to provides group guidance on how to effectively teach foundational skills and to support students who show signs of reading difficulties. Author Mark Weakland brings new energy to teaching high-priority foundational skills. By blending the science of reading with the best instructional practices that lead to authentic reading—the ultimate goal of balanced literacy—teachers can prevent many reading difficulties in K-3 learners.

Streamline literacy learning with power-packed children’s booksTwo of the most common challenges educators face is lack of time and resources. In Mentor Texts That Multitask, Pam Koutrakos shows how to streamline literacy instruction by using a single mentor text to teach reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, speaking, and listening. When you integrate literacy instruction this way, concepts start to come together more clearly for children – and teachers save time and expense.This user-friendly resource is packed with ready-to-go lessons and tools to create, plan, and teach using multitasking texts. The lessons and accompanying ideas can jumpstart learning in the classroom by integrating and connecting literacy concepts in time-efficient ways. Resources include Full lessons centered on high-quality children’s literature to take the guesswork out of planningA DIY section to help teachers plan and teach lessons around other favorite textsDozens of student and classroom examples to show you what’s possiblePrintables available online to help with immediate implementation.Designed to help teachers build a more inclusive classroom library and instructional practice, this guide highlights texts that represent and celebrate a multitude of characters and topics.

Spark meaningful conversations about race, identity, and social justice in your classroom using read alouds as an entry point.

Students need to see themselves and their peers in the books they read, and to engage with varying viewpoints. How can educators create a safe and nurturing space that inspires young children to explore diversity and ask curious questions?

In Rebellious Read Alouds, author Vera Ahiyya—beloved by educators worldwide as The Tutu Teacher (@thetututeacher and @diversereads on Instagram)—empowers teachers to encourage classroom conversations about important and culturally relevant topics using daily read alouds as an entry point. Presenting a broad range of read aloud lessons around current, diverse picture books that can ignite deep conversations and learning about self, others, and the world, this wise and joyful guide prepares educators to tackle “hushed topics” with young children. It includes:

Booklists, tools, and recommendations for building an inclusive classroom library of titles written or illustrated by people in traditionally marginalized populations Tips and resources for facilitating diversity conversations in a way that’s developmentally appropriate — and meets ELA and social justice standards 45 complete lessons plans around children’s books, with prompts and recommended stopping points for conversation, and suggestions for inspiring discussion and scaffolding deep thinking Interviews with educators and parents who offer advice from their experience doing rebellious read alouds Suggestions for partnering with administration, parents, and colleagues on this important work

Spark the rebellious reader inside you and lead your students toward creating a more just and equitable world.

The comprehensive guide you can trust for evidence-based reading practices

It's settled science: developing skilled readers can enhance students’ lives. That’s why renowned educators Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Diane Lapp wrote this resource with the urgency of a code blue in an ER—because too many children, for many reasons, struggle with learning to become strong readers.

Designed to be a one-stop shop for best practices, Teaching Reading is concise, encyclopedic, and essential. Thirteen interactive modules provide easy to read ideas to support you teaching every child to read very well. You will learn how to:

Focus on two critical aspects of reading—word recognition and language comprehension. Select the best activities to support students in grades K-6 to learn letters and sound relationships. Provide developing readers with the most effective oral, written, and reading experiences. Recharge your confidence and craft with uplifting new research findings from neuroscience, cognitive science, and child development. Clear up confusions about phonics progressions, reading fluency, morphology, text selection, grammar, and more. Develop background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction. Be up to date on how to help students attain deeper levels of comprehension by applying Theory of Mind and other cutting-edge ideas.

Reading is a thrilling but complex process. It involves a heady mix of skills, schema, self-concept, and social dimensions. To give all students the chance to reap its rewards, we need a go-big kind of resource. This is it.

Critical thinking and online reading need to go hand in hand—but they often don’t. Students click, swipe, and believe because they don’t know how to do otherwise. At times, so do we. And that’s a problem. Fighting Fake News combats this challenge by helping you model how to read, myth-bust, truth-test, and respond in ways that lead to wisdom rather than reactivity.

No matter what content you teach, the lessons showcased here provide engaging, collaborative reading and discussion experiences so students can:

Notice how teacher and peers read digital content, to be mindful of how various reading pathways influence perceptionIdentify the author background, the website sponsor, and other evidence that help set a piece in contextStress-test the facts by evaluating news sources, reading laterally, and other critical reading strategiesUse “Reader’s Rules of Notice” to learn to identify common rhetorical devices used to influence the readerBe aware of how for-profit social media platforms feed on our responses to narrow rather than widen our reading landscape

We are still in the wild west era of the digital age, scrambling to impart a safer, ethical framework for evaluating information. Thankfully, it distills to one mission: teach students (and ourselves) how to think critically, and we will forever have the tools to fight fake news.

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 moreToggle 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 craftingThink about word, sentence, and paragraph-level techniquesJump 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.

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 learnersGuidelines 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 adjustedSeveral 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.

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 supportActivate the domains of language — listening, speaking, reading, and writing —  and recognize that these do not develop at the same rateHonor the continuum of language development and build on what students can doProvide 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 Akhavan’s signature straight-forward, 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.

Watch multilingual students excel with high-engagement reading lessons

Students acquiring English tend to bust every stereotype. The truth is, these learners come to school with linguistic assets, not deficits. They will excel with lively, just-right challenge lessons, and they thrive with opportunities to collaborate with peers. In this authoritative resource, bestselling author Nancy Akhavan shows teachers how to support students at the small-group table in acquiring English as well as developing as readers—simultaneously. Ready-to-go tools include:

Essential background on the five stages of language acquisition How-tos for differentiating instruction based on students’ levels of language proficiency as well as their reading proficiency Lesson sequences integrating oral language, phonics, spelling, vocabulary, word work, comprehension, and writing about reading Routines that augment talk about texts so multilingual learners can verbalize their knowledge and articulate thinking A companion website and multimodal scaffolds to support students across reading, writing, speaking, and listening

When we gather at the reading table, we have just twenty minutes—we need to make it count. Now we can.

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 sequenceExplanation of essential grammar and language concepts for teachers who need to refresh their own understanding of grammar and language topics and conceptsOver a hundred modern, engaging, wide-ranging, and diverse mentor text examplesSuggestions 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.

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 actionsShows how to support student interests and varied reading levelsOffers 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 growthDemonstrates how to leverage student feedback to fine-tune the Read and WRAP routinesDiscusses various options for incorporating independent and whole-class novels into the curriculumOffers 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.

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 writingClassroom structures and routines that support critical listening and open, authentic conversation and writing responsesInvitations 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…

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 targetsKey vocabulary words with kid-friendly definitionsEffective questioning techniquesInnovative reading response ideasTargeted 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!

Reclaim student attention with interval-based instruction

Struggling with student disengagement and dwindling attention spans in your classroom? You're not alone. To meet the needs of today’s learners, teachers must find ways to transform instruction into a more dynamic and engaging experience.

In The Attention Gap, author Michael McDowell tackles these urgent challenges head-on, proposing a new, actionable framework—the Interval Instruction Approach (IIA)—to reshape the rhythm of your classroom. Inspired by interval training and grounded in cognitive science, this approach alternates short bursts of direct instruction with immediate, active student practice to build focus, boost motivation, and make learning stick.

This book will help you:

Alternate your instructional routine between building the learner (metacognition, focus) and building the learning (academic content)Implement the five-step IIA approach of cognitive snacking, launch intervals, content intervals, pattern breaks, and cool-downsAccess real-world classroom examples, model lessons, and reproducible activities that can be implemented tomorrowApply research from the science of learning, attention science, and cognitive psychology to your daily practice

Discover how to create a classroom where all students can improve, not just in effort or engagement, but in actual growth. This innovative guide will help you invigorate your instruction, get you and your students working in tandem, and transform your classroom dynamics for lasting student success.

Use Nonfiction Picture Books for Lively, High-Impact Lessons That Inspire Student Reading, Writing, and Response

Want to make an unbelievable story utterly irresistible to young readers?

Make sure the story’s true. Nonfiction, like poetry, can have a bad reputation for being boring, but in the hands of able picture book authors, it’s anything but. In Text Structures From Nonfiction Picture Books, elementary and middle grade teachers can channel the curiosity piqued from amazing true tales to help students further their reading comprehension and writing skills.

With the bite-sized format of nonfiction picture books as a starting point, this practical book shares over 40 low-prep, quick-access lessons to get students reading, writing, and responding to nonfiction texts with ease. The book provides a wealth of instruction, including:

Step-by-step lessons with multiple ways to use each picture book to prompt students’ writing and analysis of the textAn extensive list of nonfiction picture book titles organized by “books about people,” “books about places,” “books about things,” and "books about animals”Topics, text structures, and writer’s craft moves provided for each bookLessons that introduce kernel essays, truisms, and reading responseEmbedded terms, examples, and assignments to teach the vocabulary of writer’s craft including refrain, polysyndeton, antithesis, and more!

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, student samples, and links to demo videos.

Combine research-backed literacy instruction with classroom routines that help students find reading success

As schools embrace the science of reading, implementing evidence-based literacy practices is a must! Yet it can be challenging for busy teachers to know exactly how to put research-based approaches and strategies to work in the classroom.

In The Lit Six: What Every Teacher Needs to Build an Evidence-Based Literacy Block, author Nancy Akhavan provides a framework that equips educators with the tools and strategies to build an effective, research-backed literacy block that engages students and fosters skilled readers and writers.The book shows teachers how to integrate six essential daily elements for their literacy block: (1) read alouds; (2) shared reading; (3) small group instruction; (4) writing; (5) language (including vocabulary and morphology); and (6) phonemic awareness, phonics, and word work.

Designed to address the practical challenges teachers face in aligning teaching practices with the latest science of reading research, this book provides actionable solutions to common questions like "What should I teach first?"and "How do I effectively organize my literacy block?" The Lit Six blends evidence-based daily reading instruction with student-centered approaches to help every learner thrive.

Written in Nancy Akhavan's signature straightforward and teacher-friendly style, this book offers

A Comprehensive Model: Discover how to integrate six essential components of a successful literacy block into your lessons.Practical Tools for Teachers: Access scaffolds, decision trees, graphic organizers, and detailed guides to jump-start implementation.Flexibility in Application: Learn how to apply research-driven practices that create the foundation for great literacy teaching and can be used alongside mandated curriculums to help you meet the needs of all learners in your classroom.Data-Driven Tips: Discover how to use classroom data to refine instruction and maximize student progress.

Rooted in decades of classroom experience and informed by the latest literacy research, this book is your guide to seamlessly blending the art and science of teaching. With The Lit Six, educators can design dynamic literacy blocks that not not align with the research but also respond to the unique needs of their students and foster literacy for all.

What it really means to “read closely.”

What could Fern Arable, Jay Gatsby, and Winston Churchill possibly have in common? They all need masterful teachers to help students revel in their complexity. And Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher are just the two mentors to help you make that happen.

Call it close reading, call it deep reading, call it analytic reading—call it what you like. The point is, it’s a level of understanding that students of any age can achieve with the right kind of instruction. In Rigorous Reading, Nancy and Doug articulate an instructional plan so clearly, and so squarely built on research, that teachers, schools, and districts need look no further.

The 5 Access Points Toward Proficiency

Purpose & Modeling: Teachers think aloud to demonstrate critical thinking and how good readers always know why they are reading. Close & Scaffolded Reading Instruction: Teachers engage students in repeated readings and discussions, with text-dependent questions, prompts, and cues to help students delve into an author’s ideas. Collaborative Conversations: Teachers orchestrate collaborative learning to get students in the habit of exercising their analytical thinking in the presence of their peers. An Independent Reading Staircase: Teachers artfully steer students to more challenging books, with strategic bursts of instruction and peer conferences to foster metacognitive awareness. Performance: Teachers offer feedback and assessments that help students demonstrate understanding of text in authentic ways and plan instruction based on student understanding.

There’s more . . .  Also included are illustrative classroom video clips available via QR codes along with an online Facilitator’s Guide with PowerPoints--making Rigorous Reading the only resource  a  teacher, school, or district needs to seriously stretch students’ capacity to read and comprehend text.

Sometimes a student’s best teacher is another student Just as the pressure for students to perform well on state assessments escalates ever higher, and the call to raise students’ achievement in narrative, opinion/argument , and informative/explanatory writing grows louder, Gretchen Bernabei and Judi Reimer publish Fun-Size Academic Writing for Serious Learning. If ever there were a book to answer every need, this is it. You see, Gretchen and Judi have been concerned about adolescents’ writing for years, and they have had amazing success using mentor texts by students to teach the ins and outs of writing in any genre. So with this book, they "hand over their file drawers" and provide you with 101 essays  written by students with one-page companion lessons that address text structure, imagery, dialogue, rhetorical devices, grammatical structures, textual blends--all the different tools that writers use. Organized into three major sections that align with the Common Core, STAAR, and other major state assessments, Fun-Size Academic Writing delivers succinct, powerhouse instruction on topics such as:  • How to choose a structure for argument, informational, or narrative writing• How to read a piece and extract thesis statement and main points• How to layer a wide range of details to support points• How to use rhetorical devices and grammatical constructions for effect • How to write from the point of view of a fictional character The essays—also available in reproducible form on the companion website--demonstrate something striking, something imitable, something concrete. They give students a bank of choices to call upon as they write. The lessons are short, practical, and full of variety. Collectively, these essays and lessons have the potential to move the needle on American students’ writing achievement once and for all. They show what has been done by students—and they reveal to you how your own students can do it, too.

This book has to power to change the way teachers approach teaching content from textbooks. It shows them how to use textbooks in an engaging and meaningful way so that students no longer feel daunted by the sheer volume of information. Graphics and examples are inluded to help busy teachers implement suggestions quickly and engage their students.  The book will help educators focus sharply on their students' comprehension and ensure students rise to the level expected.

The ideal?  Newly minted high school graduates all across the nation, each one a complex text genius, a writer and analytic thinker beyond compare. All on to glorious colleges and careers, thanks to the Common Core.The reality? The 1.3 million students who fail to graduate from high school each year and the hundreds of thousands more who either gave up or lost interest long ago . . .The reality is why Common Core CPR is needed. Urgently. Because if we continue to insist that all students meet expectations that are well beyond their abilities and mindsets, these kids will only decline faster. We must be brave enough—and trained enough—to cast aside what we know harms students and apply with renewed vigor the teaching methods we know work.Releah Lent and Barry Gilmore rise to the challenge, and there are no two authors better equipped to do so. They embrace what is best about the standards—their emphasis on active, authentic learning—and then explicitly show teachers how to connect these ideal outcomes to practical classroom strategies, detailing the day-to-day teaching that can coax reluctant learners into engagement and achievement. You’ll learn how to:  Consider choice and relevance in every assignment Plan and spot opportunities for success Scaffold students’ comprehension of complex fiction and nonfiction texts Model close reading through thoughtful questioning Teach students to use evidence in reading, writing, speaking, and reflection . . . And so much moreIt’s not the big sweeping formulas for achievement that will win the day; it’s the incremental growth that teachers need to make happen: that one book, that one writing assignment, to help a student turn a corner. "If we can get that one transformational moment to occur, and follow it up by designing more opportunities for success, that’s the ideal," say Lent and Gilmore.

“How many times have you heard ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ . . . In this text, Lapp, Wolsey, Wood, and Johnson make a vital connection between reading words and the role of graphics. They demonstrate how teachers and students can blend the two such that great learning occurs in every classroom, every day.”

—DOUGLAS FISHER Coauthor of Rigorous Reading

Imagine you are a fourth grader, reading about our solar system for the first time. Or you’re a high school student, asked to compare survival in Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games and Elie Wiesel’s Night. Reading complex texts of any kind is arduous, and now more than ever, students are being asked to do highly advanced thinking, talking, and writing around their reading. If only there were ingenious new power tools that could give students the space to tease apart complex ideas in order to comprehend and to weld their understandings into a new whole.

Good news: such tools exist. In the two volumes, Mining Complex Texts, Grades 2-5 and 6-12, a formidable author team shares fresh ways to use the best digital and print graphic organizers in whole-class, small-group, and independent learning.  Big believers of the gradual release method, the authors roll out dozens of examples of dynamic lessons and collaborative work across the content areas so that we see the process of using these visual tools to:

Help students read, reread, and take notes on a text Promote students’ oral sharing of information and their ideas  Elevate organized note-making from complex text(s) Scaffold students’ narrative and informational writing Move students to independent thinking as they learn to create their own organizing and note-taking systems

Gone are the days of fill-‘em-in and forget-‘em graphic organizers. With these two volumes, teachers and professional development leaders have a unified vision of how to use these tools to meet the demands of an information-saturated world, one in which students need to be able to sift, sort, synthesize, and apply knowledge with alacrity and skill.

Fisher & Frey’s answer to close and critical reading No doubt since the cave paintings of prehistoric times, humans have asked questions to make sense of the message. So what could possibly be new about posing questions about text? Plenty . . . and with TDQ, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey reveal it all. After one quick read, you will have learned all the very best ways to use text-dependent questions as scaffolds during close reading . . . and the big understandings they can yield, especially when executed the Fisher and Frey way. But that’s just for starters. Fisher and Frey also include illustrative video, recommended texts and questions, examples from across content areas, and an online professional learning guide, making the two volumes of TDQ a potent professional development tool across all of K-12. The genius of TDQ is the way Fisher and Frey break down the process into four cognitive pathways that help teachers “organize the journey through a text” and frame an extended discussion around it. Step by step, this approach ensures that in every close reading lesson, students are guided to consider explicit and implied meanings, and deeply analyze and appreciate various aspects of a text, especially those that may be challenging or confusing.  Here’s how the four inter-related processes play out, with every why and every how answered:

What does the text say? (general understandings and key details) How does the text work? (vocabulary, structure, and author’s craft) What does the text mean? (logical inferences and intertextual connections) What does the text inspire you to do? (write, investigate, present, debate)

The cool thing? These questions ignite students’ engagement and discussion because they strategically lead students to a place of understanding where explicit and implied meanings and interpretations can be debated. Far from being overly literal or teacher-led, the questioning framework Fisher and Frey advance enhances the quality of student talk and idea-generation. All in all, there’s no better resource to cultivate students’ capacity for independent reading and incisive thinking.

Longtime collaborators and recipients of numerous teaching and leadership awards, DOUGLAS FISHER and NANCY FREY are Professors of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University as well as teacher leaders at Health Sciences High & Middle College. 

Fisher & Frey’s answer to close and critical reading No doubt since the cave paintings of prehistoric times, humans have asked questions to make sense of the message. So what could possibly be new about posing questions about text? Plenty . . . and with TDQ, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey reveal it all. After one quick read, you will have learned all the very best ways to use text-dependent questions as scaffolds during close reading . . . and the big understandings they can yield, especially when executed the Fisher and Frey way. But that’s just for starters. Fisher and Frey also include illustrative video, actual texts and questions, examples from across content areas, and an online professional learning guide, making the two volumes of TDQ a potent professional development tool across all of K-12. The genius of TDQ is the way Fisher and Frey break down the process into four cognitive pathways that help teachers “organize the journey through a text” and frame an extended discussion around it. Step by step, this approach ensures that in every close reading lesson, students are guided to consider explicit and implied meanings, and deeply analyze and appreciate various aspects of a text, especially those that may be challenging or confusing.  Here’s how the four inter-related processes play out, with every why and every how answered:

What does the text say? (general understandings and key details) How does the text work? (vocabulary, structure, and author’s craft) What does the text mean? (logical inferences and intertextual connections) What does the text inspire you to do? (write, investigate, present, debate)

The cool thing? These questions ignite students’ engagement and discussion because they strategically lead students to a place of understanding where explicit and implied meanings and interpretations can be debated. Far from being overly literal or teacher-led, the questioning framework Fisher and Frey advance enhances the quality of student talk and idea-generation. All in all, there’s no better resource to cultivate students’ capacity for independent reading and incisive thinking. Longtime collaborators and recipients of numerous teaching and leadership awards, DOUGLAS FISHER and NANCY FREY are Professors of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University as well as teacher leaders at Health Sciences High & Middle College. 

Let’s face it, weak rivets notwithstanding, the Titanic wouldn’t have sunk if the iceberg had been spotted in time. And let’s face it, the CCSS won’t be classroom-worthy unless practitioners chart our course. Depend on Michael Smith, Deborah Appleman, and Jeff Wilhelm to help you navigate through some potentially treacherous waters. Uncommon Core puts us on high-alert about some outright dangerous misunderstandings looming around so-called  “standards-aligned” instruction, then shows us how to steer past them—all in service of meeting the real intent of the Common Core. Smith, Appleman, and Wilhelm counter with teaching suggestions that are true to the research and true to our students, including how:

Reader-based approaches can complement text-based ones Prereading activities can help students meet the strategic and conceptual demands texts place on them Strategy instruction can result in a careful and critical analysis of individual texts while providing transferable understandings Inquiry units around essential questions can generate meaningful conversation and higher-order thinking about those texts Selection criteria that consider interpretive complexity can take us so much farther than those that consider textual complexity alone

Given the number of strategies, lesson ideas, and activities in the book, Uncommon Core is really less about the standards and more about timeless, excellent teaching and how to use it like never before to meet the Core ideals. Let’s put instruction where it belongs: back in the hands of the experts.

“Finally! A book with more light than heat on the issue of standards and their implications for learning.” --GRANT WIGGINS Coauthor of Understanding by Design

Organized by the Anchor Standards in each category covering reading, literature, informational text, Foundational Reading Skills, writing, speaking and listening and language, this book will aid teachers working across grade levels. It features a range of support material including: 

Resources Common Core Recommended Reading ListsText Complexity ToolPlanning Calendar TemplatesTeacher Notes 

Our students are online constantly, and yet research shows that only half of teachers say digital tools make writing instruction easier. Research Writing Rewired seeks to turn that statistic upside down.  Or, rather, upside right: If we want to ready students for a globalized world, 100% of teachers ought to consider technology an asset to any kind of writing, assert authors Dawn Reed and Troy Hicks. But the “main wiring” still has to be the ELA standards and the essential questions at the heart of each content area. To that end, the authors show you how to use digital tools within a multi-week inquiry unit to increase students’ engagement as they write-to-learn and share knowledge. Their book a clear model for tech-rich research writing that will inform your own inquiry-driven units. Guiding components include:

An inquiry-based, technology-rich unit on identity and culture that provides learners with opportunities to engage with the very same issues that are written about and discussed by citizens of a global society 28 model lessons and a framework including extensions, tech tips, and activities that blend print, image, apps, and video so students build multi-literacy skills day by day Recurring use of best practices like formative assessment, close reading, think alouds and teaching key skills, including analyzing and synthesizing, annotating, checking credibility of sources, discussion, and writing about reading  Dozens of lessons and activities built around students’ favorite technology tools and online destinations, including: Citelighter, Smore, ThingLink, Padlet, and Cazles, Animoto, Mural.ly, and getLoupe, Genius and Lit Genius, Now Comment, You Voices QR codes that take you to video clips on a companion website, so you can see the teaching techniques and digital tools in action

It’s up to us to make the digital learning in school a lot more like the digital learning we all do in life. Research Writing Rewired shows us how to channel students’ passion for digital communication into meeting ELA goals. 

Students and teachers need accessible ways to talk about and use grammar. In Gretchen′s trademark style, she gets these ever-important conversations started and keeps them going. This book is a keeper."-Jeff Anderson, Author of Revision Decisions and Everyday EditingAlmost everyone could benefit from a grammar check every once in a while—even we teachers.  But our students desperately need something much more systematic, and they need it right way. No matter what state you teach in, you can be certain that grammar is being tested . . . frequently and across the grades! Meanwhile our students entering middle and high school are still making the same errors they made back in third grade. Luckily, Gretchen Bernabei, author of Fun-Size Academic Writing for Serious Learning, comes to the rescue with Grammar Keepers: a kid-friendly cache of 101 lessons and practice pages to help your students internalize the conventions of correctness once and for all. Gretchen’s secret? Embed the lessons in ten minutes of daily journal writing, then use students’ own writing as models for discussion and practice. Students are much more interested in learning from one another than from stodgy sentences in a dusty primer, and these ultra-relevant examples more easily transfer into students’ talking, thinking, reading, and writing. Here are the three ingredients of Gretchen’s approach: Daily journal writing, which increases writing practice and allows students to implement and master the lessons on punctuation, usage, and sentence structure in an authentic contextMinilessons and Interactive Dialogues that model for students how to make grammatical choicesA "Keepers 101" tracking sheet for teachers to monitor teaching and a "Parts of Speech Sheet" for students to use as a reference toolWe have known for years that traditional grammar instruction falls short for a great many students, but until now we didn’t know how to replace it. With Grammar Keepers, we have the right tool for today’s students. Think of it as the Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition for the spell- and grammar-check generation.