I’ve been spending a lot of time supporting teachers on elementary campuses in a nearby district this year. Their ELA coordinator is faithful to remind teachers and coaches each time they meet that the work they do this year is aligned to Fountas and Pinnell’s Responsive Teaching Cycle. The cycle: Gather data Observe reading behaviors …
When RtI Seems Lacking We could teach almost every student to read by the end of 1st grade. So why aren’t we doing it?–Dr. Richard Allington I spend most days now on elementary campuses speaking with grade level teams, coaches and campus administrators about their students who are not reading on grade level. I’ve spent …
Recently, I was invited to a fifth grade classroom to model for a teacher. She wanted to watch me assess several of her students with a new assessment tool her district introduced earlier this year. Each time I sit down to work with students in this type of scenario, I spend about 7-8 minutes getting …
We recently launched a subscription box for educators, school counselors, and families. I’d like to share with readers the “about us” content from the ScholaBox website. ScholaBox got its beginning two decades ago. I was a kindergarten teacher at the time and had six students in my boisterous group of learners who were celebrating Ramadan. …
What a great reading summit Scholastic had in Austin, Texas on July 16. Highlights for me: Jenni Holm being interviewed by John Schu. Donalyn Miller’s keynote. Yuyi Morales keynote to close out the summit. This was the highlight of the summit for me. #brilliantartist #beautifulsoul Getting to meet the 130+ educators in the breakout session …
Pamela Koutrakos’s book, Word Study That Sticks: Best Practices, came to me at the perfect moment. I’d been talking that week with some teachers I support and we needed some new ideas to breathe life in to word study. Word Study That Sticks was the resources I needed to facilitate great discussions when collaborating with …
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) 2018 was held in Houston, Texas. I was there and on a cloudy Saturday morning I was up bright and early. Anne Goudvis and Stephanie Harvey were leading a session on inquiry. It was of no consequence to me that it was 8:00 AM on the weekend. …
Years ago I met some teacher friends for lunch well into our summer break. I went on a little too long about a professional book I was excited about. After a few minutes, one of my friends slammed her hand down on the table and said, “Damn it, Valinda, it’s summer. Can we please not …
This is a repost from several months ago. Time to revisit the importance of responsive teaching for our youngest readers. We wring our hands and lament that so many of our students are not learning to read and write. We wonder and debate. We study data and brainstorm solutions. We talk and plan and work …
You know, it used to be that to have a polite conversation, we just had to follow the advice of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, “Stick to the weather and to your health.” But with climate change and anti-vaxxing, those subjects are not safe either. …
