Teaching Summary Writing to Support Comprehension

Watching this webinar from PaTTAN, you will learn why summarizing has been identified through research as highly effective for developing comprehension and writing. It defines a quality summary and how it differs from retelling or paraphrasing.  Practical suggestions for explicitly teaching summary writing based on text and non-text sources will be shared, including scaffolds. The…

Text Complexity: Stretching Readers with Texts and Tasks – Second Edition

When it comes to choosing texts for the classroom, educators have a lot of questions. Should we be looking at levels, lexiles or other readability criteria? Do we limit kids to “just-right” books? How can we scaffold instruction to help struggling readers access age- and grade-appropriate material? This book has answers! The authors cover quantitative…

Reading Road Trip: Novels in the Elementary Class: Best Practices with Clara Maria Fiorentini

Kate chats with Clara Fiorentini this week. Tune in to explore novels in the classroom: how class novel studies fit into structured literacy, how complex text can be scaffolded, using « read-alikes » to choose texts, and avoiding the perils of « extractitis » – don’t miss this thoughtful conversation about chapter books!

Reading Road Trip: Classroom Comprehension with Dr. Kristin Conradi Smith, Tamara Williams & Ellen Frackelton

This week Kate talks to Kristin Conradi Smith, Tammy Williams, and Ellen Frackelton about research-based comprehension strategies for the classroom, including considerations for text selection and preparation, common pitfalls to avoid and “use it tomorrow” ideas. Bottom line: no more strategy of the week!

Enseignement explicite: pratiques et stratégies

Les fondamentaux de la formation à l’enseignement explicite : en théorie et en pratique. Pour choisir ses pratiques pédagogiques, tout enseignant est confronté à une multitude d’informations de qualité variable. Certaines reposent sur des traditions ou encore des opinions, tandis que d’autres reposent sur des recherches de terrain, ayant permis d’en démontrer l’efficacité. C’est notamment…

« No More Strategy of the Week »: Considerations for Connecting Comprehension Instruction Back to the Book

In this article, the authors present some considerations for abandoning decontextualized strategy instruction and instead provide some ideas for how to shape comprehension instruction around the texts we use in the classroom. They offer some guiding theories, some key considerations, and they present examples for classroom teachers.

Home Reading Materials

Fostering partnerships between school and home is key to supporting strong student outcomes. Jenni vanRees and other educators at Blue Heron Public School (WRDSB) have created this collection of materials to support a home reading program aligned with structured literacy and the science of reading. The materials include: a letter home to parents and caregivers…

Mes clés…Qu’est-ce que l’enseignement explicite?

Cette vidéo de huit minutes démontre un excellent exemple d’une leçon avec un enseignement explicite avec ses cinq phases. Elle débute avec une introduction claire du concept, la modélisation, la pratique guidée, la pratique indépendante et la généralisation dans la pratique continue à l’avenir. Son exemple porte sur les mots de la question qui doivent…

Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom

In this well-organized book, the authors walk readers through six shifts that teachers of Grades 3-5 should consider when bringing reading science into the classroom: Reconsidering How Knowledge Impacts Comprehension, Rethinking the Role of Strategy Instruction in Learning to Comprehend, Recommitting to Vocabulary Instruction, Reclaiming Word-Reading Instruction in the Intermediate Grades (by which they mean…