Incorporate “Answer of the Day” in your morning-work routine

One teacher finds that the best way to get students to write great questions is to simply give them the answers!    read more...

More than happy, glad, sad, mad

If you ask students to identify how a character is feeling in a story, you might hear one of the following four words pop up: happy, sad, glad, mad. Character emotions and traits are not something children automatically understand. To help students with this, we need to be intentional.    read more...

Teacher-parent connection for reading support

Did you know that nationally about 40 percent of 4th grade students read below grade level? Research shows that if children are able to read at grade level by 3rd grade, their chances for academic success are greatly increased.    read more...

Increase reading fluency by teaching print styles

With all the computer fonts and graphic design programs out there, the same letter can look vastly different depending on the font choice. Children need to be familiar with many different visual forms of the same letter.    read more...

A couple of my new favorites

Another one of my new favorites is entitled "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick." The book consists of fourteen black-and-white drawings, each accompanied by a title and a caption, allowing readers to make up their own stories to complement the pictures.    read more...

Using audio books to reinforce visualization

When kids get in the habit of visualizing during their reading, we know they are comprehending what they are reading. Here's a strategy to teach visualization that can work for all primary-grade students.    read more...

Here’s a great boy book for word choice

Many teachers utilize Jane O'Connor's Fancy Nancy to teach word choice and target precise language. It's a fabulous picture book for the trait of word choice. But many have asked for a "boy book" that targets the same word choice skills but is a little less girly. Found it!    read more...

Frequently Asked Reading Question

What do you do with students who read ahead of the assignment and tell the rest of the class what's going to happen in the book?    read more...

Use songs to target main idea

Eastwood Elementary (New Castle, IN) first grade teacher Susie Allen uses music lyrics to target main idea. After discussing that the main idea is a general, umbrella explanation of what something is about, she plays songs that students aren't familiar with (e.g. "Under the Boardwalk," by the Drifters).    read more...

Tracking words while reading

It's not uncommon for young readers to need help following the words in a book from left to right without losing their spot. Their eyes have to be trained to hold onto a single line of text. This takes practice.    read more...