Picture walking into a classroom and observing a teacher is leading a whole class discussion where they ask a series of questions and several of the same students raise their hands to respond. Then, imagine walking into another classroom where the teacher is posing a
One way to build a more equitable and just society is to help students master the foundational skills that beget fluent reading. Once fluent, students are able to access all types of text, especially ones of personal interest. In turn, fluency and text choice motivate older readers, leading to greater reading volume and
April is National Poetry Month -- but please don’t relegate poems to only one month! Rather, use them all year long to get kids excited about language and to build foundational literacy skills. Poems can be used to teach fluency, vocabulary, phonic patterns, text structure, speaking and listening, author study, and comprehension. Most children find poems engaging and enjoy reading, writing, and presenting them. Perhaps this is due to the brevity, rhythms, and rhymes of poems, as