reading

How to Engage Struggling Students in Reading and Writing Struggling or ‘striving’ readers and writers can be better supported by teachers using a range of strategies to promote higher engagement. On Episode 60 of The Teacher’s Tool Kit for Literacy, literacy expert Sharon Callen talked about the methods for supporting...

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Reading Calendars (Years 2-6) are a simple yet highly effective tool for students to track and showcase their life as a reader over the course of a year. They promote independence and responsibility, supporting all students to be successful. The My Reading Calendar 2022 pack contains new features and tools:...

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Conferring with students is a unique and significant opportunity to learn about what a student is doing as a reader/writer as we engage with them side by side during the Reading Conference. This resource, Conferring with Readers: Assessment Rubric, allows you to have a comprehensive eye on the child as...

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Conferring With Reader Prompts Find out what your readers know about the act of reading with these 5 really good questions/prompts. Have them handy when you confer with each student individually, or during the Reflection/ Share Time. Or glue the sheet into their Reader's Notebook, ready for when you meet...

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Designing effective and engaging instruction means considering the motivational needs of students. The Motivation to Read Profile: Survey for Students is a tool that supports teachers in creating motivating classroom contexts for literacy. Students who are engaged have their eyes on what they are doing, are ardently attending to the...

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This resource, Teaching Poetry: Mini Lessons presents a range of Mini Lesson ideas K-6 to transform your teaching of poetry: from hearing it, to exploring it, to collecting it, to enjoying it, to creating it. The seven categories of Mini Lessons: Reading & Enjoying Poetry Collecting Poems Reading Like a...

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Reading Comprehension Prompts: Finding Specific Information in Texts, Yrs 3-4 and Yrs 5-6 This flip chart resource has a focus on 'Good Readers Find Specific Information in Texts.' It can be enlarged to A3 and made into a handy chart for easy reference and display to students. Purpose: To support...

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Over the years I have tried many ways for my Year 3-6 students to keep a record of their reading, but the most empowering and engaging format I have developed is the Reading Calendar. The Reading Calendar is a simple calendar template on which readers can keep a record of...

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We are very excited to announce that the innovative Triple Treat trios of books are now available online. It is so wonderful that teachers in Pre-school or Foundation can now share all these 36 beautiful books on the big screen and/or children can read them independently on their iPads.  Teachers...

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"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark." — Victor Hugo, Les Miserables "Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words!" — A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1943 "There is more treasure in books than...

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What strategies can we teach our readers to enable them to fix up their reading when meaning is lost? When meaning is lost and children need to know what to do to continue their reading by themselves, they need to use fix-up strategies. The best way to teach fix-up strategies...

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A most significant role for teachers in fostering childen's reading development is the provision of a broad range of supportive texts which allow children to read independently and build up a solid history of success as readers. It has long been recognised that one of the most important influences on...

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Are you looking for better ways to use your Classroom Library? Learn about eight great ways to achieve this   Each book you Read Aloud to the class (or big books used in Shared Reading) can be placed in a special tub/basket at the front of the classroom. Students will flock...

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When students are taught vocabulary in a thorough fashion, their comprehension of what they read improves. Your students develop knowledge of vocabulary through extensive reading of text that is rich in new words. Vocabulary can also be increased through explicit teaching. What does explicit Vocabulary teaching look like? Asking your...

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Luke and Freebody (1997) refer to readers as 'code breakers, meaning makers, text users and text critics', and all of these need to be considered when thinking of comprehension instruction. Improving comprehension is not just a matter of teaching your students strategies. Comprehension also depends on: Word level skills (decoding...

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Yay! They’re here! Our Reading Conference Toolkits have arrived. We’ve put together a toolkit of everything you need to run successful Reading Conferences with your students. One for each year level. The ready to print Reading Conference toolkits give you: A routine for conferring with readers, An easy to fill...

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Establish your Reading Workshop (Years K-7) with strong routines and expectations to build foundations for reader engagement and growth. Each mini lesson flip chart pack contains: 14 Reading Workshop routines and expectations mini lessons A practical, step by step outline that will help you teach an effective daily Reading Workshop...

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Yay! At last it's here and completely FREE! The definitive checklist for developing a stunning classroom library. Are you looking to improve your students' reading achievement? Do you wonder whether you are being effective for all students? Classroom Libraries are a great way to start achieving this easily!   Beginning steps...

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We learn to how to write high-frequency words by writing and we learn to read high-frequency words by reading. In this blog post, Diane Snowball, co-author of Spelling K-8: Planning and Teaching, helps us to understand how to teach spelling within the context of writing, including the automatic writing of...

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What is Comprehension? Comprehension is 'intentional thinking during which meaning is constructed through interactions between text and reader.' (Harris & Hodges,1995) It is personal. It is active thinking.   What comprehension strategies do good readers use? Effective readers are processing text continuously. They draw on a range of strategies and employ...

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What are Reading Response Journals? Reading Response Journals are books in which students write, draw, detail, describe, explore, organize, ponder, problem solve, record and share their thinking in response to texts heard, read and viewed. During reading, the author's meaning connects or transacts with the readers. Rosenblatt refers to two...

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'Time for students to talk about their reading and writing is perhaps one of the most underused, yet easy-to-implement, elements of instruction.' Allington & Gabriel Our students must be involved in analytical interactions in the discussions about the texts being read. Interchanges between a teacher and the students that are...

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Reading Curriculum Essentials Teachers’ knowledge of all of the strategies and processes used by effective readers is crucial because these strategies and processes form the content of what every teacher needs to teach all students to do when they are reading. The processes and strategies are: The reading process Comprehension...

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Reading aloud is the foundation for literacy development. Long after a child has learnt to read for themselves, the value of hearing stories being read aloud does not diminish. It is the single most important activity for reading success (Bredekamp, Copple & Neuman, 2000). As teachers, we couldn't agree more....

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Not very long ago I saw the film Goodbye Christopher Robin. The film gives a rare glimpse into the relationship between beloved children's author A. A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin, whose toys inspired the magical world of Winnie the Pooh. The film explores the enchanting tales that brought...

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