The importance of authentic audiences is crystal clear as I work with classrooms around the world. When I begin work with a class of “new to me” students, I always ask them to write. This is usually greeted with groans, sometimes tears! There are a multitude of reasons for these groans and many different remedies, […]
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Reading Nonfiction Text in Guided Reading and Small Groups
Children are naturally fascinated by learning through nonfiction books, but many don’t know how to navigate the complexity of the text. Small groups and guided reading groups are the perfect places to teach and reinforce how to read nonfiction texts. First, you’ll want to choose strong nonfiction texts! Think about what the students want to […]
Best Practice: Motivating Students in the Classroom
Over the past two years, I have been asked to work with schools to help them motivate their students to work and learn. Almost any current research on motivating students will discuss the growth mindset, autonomy, and relationships. While I wholeheartedly agree with the importance of these factors, I want to approach student motivation a […]
Independent Reading Goals to Improve Reading Instruction
It’s time to be transparent with our students. Should it be a secret that we want them to ask more questions while they read? That we want them to read at a higher fluency level? That we want them to analyze the characters more closely? Obviously, the answer is no. Have you ever tried to […]
Comprehension Strategy: Retell a Story
** Contact us if you would like Rogers Education Consulting to come to your campus with engaging, evidence-based, practical professional development ** For the past year, a number of districts I work with have identified reading comprehension as a target for improvement, and so I have been supporting them through explicit instruction, Guided Reading, and Readers’ […]
Choosing Books for Guided Reading
One huge component of preparing for Guided Reading is selecting books to use with your groups, and this requires some quality thinking ahead of time! It is not enough to just choose an “M” book or an “average book” from the book adoption. When choosing a book, you must take into consideration why the students […]
Best Practice: Teaching Spelling Patterns for Retention.
** Contact us if you would like Rogers Education Consulting to come to your campus with engaging, evidence-based, practical professional development ** One of my biggest inner battles when it comes to teaching is…spelling. What I knew about spelling instruction is that what I was doing wasn’t working. I was locating lists of words based on […]
Readers’ Workshop: Activate Schema with Movie Clips
** Contact me if you would like Rogers Education Consulting to come to your campus with engaging, evidence-based, and practical professional development ** Over the past five years or so, there has been a big emphasis on using media in the classroom. If you scour Pinterest for ideas on making inferences, you will find tons of pictures […]