Workshop 1. Creating Contexts for Learning
This session examines how classroom organization, routines, and grouping practices can enhance literacy skills in the middle grades. Literacy expert Jeanne Paratore discusses teaching strategies that foster reading and writing skills. Classroom examples illustrate the research.
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Workshop 2. Fluency and Word Study
This session focuses on how students in the middle grades develop vocabulary and reading fluency. Literacy expert Richard Allington discusses specific teaching strategies that help build fluency and vocabulary, illustrated by classroom examples. Go to this unit.
Workshop 3. Building Comprehension
Comprehending text is one of the main goals of reading. In this session, literacy expert Nell Duke discusses what good readers do and strategies teachers can use to help students build comprehension skills. Classroom footage provides examples of comprehension strategies. Go to this unit.
Workshop 4. Writing
This workshop examines the relationship between reading and writing in the middle grades. Literacy expert Nadeen Ruiz discusses the connections, conventions, and inventions that provide a framework for teaching writing, illustrated by classroom examples. Go to this unit.
Workshop 5. New Literacies of the Internet
This workshop focuses on the evolving use of networked technology in education. Literacy expert Donald Leu discusses strategies that help students effectively read, write, and communicate on the Internet. Classroom examples illustrate strategies for using Internet resources in the classroom. Go to this unit.
Workshop 6. Teaching English Language Learners
Changing classroom demographics call for a range or teaching strategies. In this session, literacy expert Robert Jiménez discusses strategies teachers can use to create a successful learning environment for all students, while supporting English language learners. Classroom examples illustrate the research. Go to this unit.
Workshop 7. Teaching Diverse Learners
In this session, literacy expert Dorothy Strickland discusses how teachers can meet the diverse needs of readers and writers in their classrooms. Classroom examples and teaching strategies address different aspects of diversity, including culture, language, background, ability, and learning approaches. Go to this unit.
Workshop 8. Assessment and Accountability
This session explores assessment, standards, and outcomes. Literacy expert Kathy Au discusses the strategies teachers can use to assess students' understanding in reading and writing. Classroom examples illustrate how students can participate in their own assessment. Go to this unit.
Classroom Program 9. Investigating Word Meaning
Using a passage from Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, Angie Zapata teaches her third graders how to use context clues to discover the meaning of unfamiliar words. Ms. Zapata's mini-lesson also models individual and small group work, as well book groups. (Optional classroom program) Go to this unit.
Classroom Program 10. Fostering Book Discussions
Third-grade teacher Maria Ruiz-Blanco is piloting the use of book club in her bilingual classroom. The class is starting a new book, My Name Is Maria Isabel, in their year-long unit on immigration. Working in groups, students discuss what they read, ask questions, and make connections to their own lives. (Optional classroom program) Go to this unit.
Classroom Program 11. Choosing Words Strategically
Caroline Cockman's third grade class is learning how to revise biographies using transitions and more descriptive nouns. A whole-group exercise models the revision process, and small group instruction focuses on students who need extra help in writing. (Optional classroom program) Go to this unit.
Classroom Program 12. Revising for Clarity
Through a whole class mini-lesson and small group work, Tatiana With and her fourth-grade class explore the difference between editing and revising, with a focus on revision. In this lesson, Ms. With uses IN-Focus technology to model revision of an Indian folk tale. (Optional classroom program) Go to this unit.
Classroom Program 13. Reading Across the Curriculum
Gage Reeve's class is learning new vocabulary in a lesson on global warming. Students also use an idea tree to record main ideas and supporting details and write their own questions to be answered after reading the nonfiction text. (Optional classroom program) Go to this unit.
Classroom Program 14. Looking at Cause and Effect
Holly Concannon and her fifth-grade class discuss cause and effect in a passage from Gary Paulsen's book, Wood Song. The lesson models grouping students for independent reading, as well as guided reading. (Optional classroom program) Go to this unit.
Classroom Program 15. Close Reading for Understanding
Fifth-grade teacher Dana Robertson models strategic reading, and teaches his students the strategies readers use to comprehend the text. He then continues with small group instruction while other students work independently. (Optional classroom program) Go to this unit.
Classroom Program 16. Summarizing Nonfiction
Eleanor Demont's fifth-grade class completes a mini-lesson using summarization as a comprehension strategy for reading nonfiction texts. Students examine the importance of differentiating what is interesting from what is important in a social studies unit on Ancient Egypt. (Optional classroom program) Go to this unit.