Guest post by Julia Swanner, Baylor University Intern, and Liz Hagins, Midway ISD Teacher The preface: In our PreAP 8th grade English class, my mentor teacher and I were noticing a severe lack of enthusiasm for reading expository writing, specifically breaking down passages to get to the core of them. We implemented Kylene Beers’s nonfiction “signposts” […]
Balancing Literacy Instruction
Student Reading Ability is More than a Level
** Contact us if you would like Rogers Education Consulting to come to your campus with engaging, evidence-based, and practical professional development ** Disclaimer before you begin reading this post: I am not anti-leveling students. Assessing students, with any program, and getting a ballpark idea of their reading level is a great starting point. I do firmly believe, however, […]
Instructional Coaching: Guided Reading
** Contact us if you would like to have Guided Reading modeled or a workshop-style session come to your campus! ** Last month I was asked to model a Guided Reading lesson in second grade. I was told the students’ instructional level was L, mostly because of comprehension. For the model lesson I wanted to highlight four […]
Balancing Literacy Instruction. Part Three: Fiction VS Nonfiction
Welcome to Part Three of my series on balancing literacy instruction! Is fiction or nonfiction more important for students? (We’ll save the non-fiction or nonfiction argument for another time…) Just joining us? Make sure you check out the first two posts in this series: Challenging Text VS Instructional Level Text and Explicit Instruction VS Implicit Instruction Part Three: Fiction VS Nonfiction If you […]
Balancing Literacy Instruction. Part Two: Explicit Instruction VS Implicit Instruction
Welcome to Part Two of my series on balancing literacy instruction! While I’m a huge fan of explicit instruction, the benefits of implicit instruction are also great. What’s a teacher to do?? Just joining us? Make sure you check out the first post in this series: Challenging Text VS Instructional Level Text Part Two: Explicit Instruction VS […]
Balancing Literacy Instruction. Part One: Challenging Text VS Instructional Level Text
I’m excited to introduce a series of posts on a topic that is near to my heart and constantly on my mind these days: balancing literacy instruction. Over the next few weeks, I’ll tackle what I see as some of the major arguments (in no particular order), provide some research, and add my humble opinion […]