Save Reading Materials for Next Year
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

As you're purging things in your classroom these next few weeks, you might want to look again at some of the reading material you're thinking of throwing away. Even though you just want to recycle it all, consider the other "R" of the cycle and reuse some of that great reading material. [read more...]

More on Text Features
Monday, December 13th, 2010

Students often perceive text features as decoration or filler. They don't read text outside of the gray body paragraphs. However, text features serve a purpose. They are there to provide the reader additional information. It's imperative that students see text features as more than eye candy! [read more...]

Collecting Research
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

When first studying a new concept or subject; students can learn a lot about a topic by simply “reading” images. This is also a fabulous pre-reading strategy for students to get in the habit of previewing the visual text features to build background knowledge, especially on an unfamiliar topic. [read more...]

Introducing Text Features & Conducting a Scavenger Hunt
Monday, October 25th, 2010

If your content-area instruction requires a nonfiction textbook, this month is the perfect opportunity to conduct a quick text-feature treasure hunt. Students need to know how to enter the text and access information quickly. [read more...]

Remove the Text to Reveal the Text Features
Thursday, October 14th, 2010

To introduce text features to students, consider removing all the gray text (traditional paragraph text) from the page. Letting students practice without the distraction of text makes it easier to see text features. This is especially important for struggling readers. [read more...]

Applying Principles of Question-Answer Relationship
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

Teach students the different types of questions that can be created from a text or graphic. Because question types differ, determining the answers requires different processes, too. For many students it never occurred to them that there was anything but an obvious, right-there question. [read more...]

Dabble with Alternatives to the Traditional Research Paper
Monday, March 8th, 2010

The research project can be a daunting task for students and teachers. The nature of research reports is to have students write about something they initially know little or nothing about. This consequently requires you to teach students skills on how to conduct research, identify credible sources [read more...]

Engage More Readers with Highlighter Tape
Monday, March 8th, 2010

West Side Middle School (Union City, IN) seventh grade teacher Carla Durham likes to engage her students with fun reader and writer tools in the classroom. One tool that she has found many uses for is highlighter tape. [read more...]

Picture Books Build Background Knowledge
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Most picture books (also known as “children’s literature”) are usually 32 pages or less with illustrations on every page or double-page spread. At first glance, most middle school and high school teachers would walk past them assuming picture books to be for an [read more...]

Reading Nonfiction to Aid in Research
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

A second use for the nonfiction picture book is to help any student who can’t choose between multiple research topics. Have him read several nonfiction picture books in order to fine-tune his interest to one topic. This helps decrease the likelihood of him wasting a lot of time [read more...]

Seek Magazines with Short Nonfiction Passages
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

Students face multiple reading passages on the state assessment. Not only are there multiple choice and open-ended questions that follow the reading selections, but students must also write to an extended-response prompt. This requires [read more...]

Finding the Important Info in Nonfiction Research
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

We know that comprehension increases when students have an authentic purpose for their content-area and textbook reading. Mary Hall (Sweetser Elementary, Sweetser, IN) helps her students identify their purpose by teaching them to turn traditional chapter subheadings into questions. Finding [read more...]