Do you have a minute? Of course not. Between the demands of dozens of literacy initiatives, testing, accountability, and preparing your students for life, you are stretched very thin. That’s why we created Corwin Literacy. We believe all teachers are lifelong learners, and we’ve curated
Now that the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has been signed into law, we’re keeping close tabs on national ESSA news as well as ESSA news from the eight most populous states in the union: CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, PA, OH, and GA. Our
Please be sure to read my previous blog post on the major findings from the new federal report, “Evaluation of Response to Intervention Practices for Elementary School Reading”. In response to this new report, I would like to provide the following recommendations to improve RtI processes
A 13-state evaluation report finds that Grade 1 through Grade 3 students receiving Tier II literacy interventions actually lose ground. Here are some reasons why. This past November (2015), a new federal report, Evaluation of Response to Intervention Practices for Elementary School Reading—commissioned by the U.S. Department of
In my previous post I wrote about how to create truly independent readers, ones where students are in charge of their own reading lives. When students are truly independent, they assign, monitor, and manage the decisions they make about what and how to read. They
Corwin Literacy editor Wendy Murray chatted with fourth-grade teacher Leslie Blauman and literacy coach Janiel Wagstaff, and six practices came up in conversation that can make a big difference in your students’ literacy achievement this year—and bring some needed joy back into teaching. WM: First, kudos
We want our students to be independent thinkers and readers and we want our students to have ownership of their learning. But our wants and our roles as teachers sometimes conflict. First, we can get clear on what true independence is and then we can
Picture books are a multidimensional medium that is a rich resource for a broad range of instructional situations. But finding the right picture book can be tricky. Most book lists focus on the static text and do not incorporate the visual and experiential dimensions of
In the renaissance years, an educated person dabbled in all fields of knowledge. By the 20th century, an increasing specialization led to compartmentalization of knowledge. Isolated university departments trickled down to isolated school subjects and now teachers label themselves as “math teachers” or “literacy teachers.” But
I want you to stop covering material, stop covering standards, stop covering a lesson. Instead, I want you to dig deep, to create learning environments where your students read, and think, and question, and write. I never became a teacher in order to cover curriculum.