The Reading Teacher articles from March 2003

The Reading Teacher archives from March 2003

Struggling readers get hooked on writing: a teacher-researcher describes an expository writing lesson, taught in the context of a modified writing workshop, that motivates his neediest students to compose meaningful essays.
March 1, 2003... The teacher tapes up the flip chart pages filled with notes--organized in red, green, and black--that her grade 5 social studies class had taken together in preparation for their shared-writing report. The topic is the northeastern region of...

I know someone who loves to read.(Poem)
March 1, 2003... I know someone who loves to read I know someone who loves to read And loves to share her reading with me. We read Mother Goose tales written in rhyme. We travel with Meg in A Wrinkle in Time. We laugh at the...

Body parts reading: giving your two cents' worth. (Teaching Ideas).
March 1, 2003... My favorite word is synchronicity. When things turn out just right, not because of any special planning, but just through happenstance, it's synchronicity. If you grab a big handful of Halloween candy to distribute when a group of...

No time for play: throwing the baby out with the bath water.
March 1, 2003... Across the United States, teachers of children ages 4 to 6 are saying that play has been expelled from school. Because of all the pressure to meet standards and score well on high-stakes tests, play seems to some principals to be a waste of...

Strategy strips for self-reliant readers.
March 1, 2003... Small-group guided reading, based on the work of Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, is making an important difference in the reading instruction of students at our school. One of the most important tasks we wanted to accomplish in our small...

Beyond sight words: literacy opportunities for students with autism.
March 1, 2003... Although people with the label of autism may share some characteristics, they tend to have more differences than commonalities. Autism is often referred to as a spectrum disorder--that is, one in which symptoms can occur in many forms and...

The many lives of the cut-up sentence.
March 1, 2003... Marie Clay has influenced my reading instruction in many ways in the years since I first became familiar with Reading Recovery (Clay, 1993). One of the things my students and I have profited from most has been the transferability of...

Integrating literacy and science in the classroom: from ecomysteries to readers theatre.
March 1, 2003... We all know that elementary school teachers should be master generalists who have working knowledge of all disciplines from literature to math. A solid background in all the core subject areas is important, but some areas seemingly pose more...

Silent G.(a child learn how to pronouce a word with a silent G sound)
March 1, 2003... Cheyenne, age 6, is reading The Runaway Bunny from her booster seat in the back of the car. We are driving through some of the most gorgeous landscapes in New England, but she won't look up at the horses in corrals, the red barn, the acres of...

Building effective practice: using small discoveries to enhance literacy learning: a little classroom inquiry led to big changes for one teacher.
March 1, 2003... Attention is currently focused on effective practices in literacy learning. By studying what effective teachers do, together with how and why they do it, researchers are building a body of knowledge to inform successful literacy instruction...

Beyond beginning learners. (Instructional Materials).(resources for reading teachers)
March 1, 2003... All good things must come to an end, and this is the last time I will share this column with you. Those boxes of new materials will soon stop coming to my door. I've so enjoyed looking at materials and studying the richness of resources...

Teacher Rating of Oral Language and Literacy (TROLL): individualizing early literacy instruction with a standards-based rating tool: this rating system measures skills critical to the New Standards for Speaking and Listening. TROLL can be used to track children's progress in language and literacy development, to inform curriculum, and to stimulate focused communication between parents and teachers.
March 1, 2003... Keisha is a quiet little girl with tawny skin, long black hair, and large brown yes. Her teacher has observed that she is shy with other children, reluctant to participate in groups, and often the last to join in activities, but the teacher...

Trends in Teacher Certification and Literacy: Literacy partnerships in education.
March 1, 2003... In the early 1990s, as the United States was looking ahead to a new century, a group of educators, legislators, and business professionals formed the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. Their charge was to contemplate how...

The gift.(Poem)
March 1, 2003... The gift What a precious gift So many of us have To pick up the paper To know, to understand What is happening in the world, What the weather will be. Can you imagine If we couldn't read? We...

Becoming literate in the technological age: new responsibilities and tools for teachers: the authors identify the new literacies of this technological age and explore a variety of tools available to teachers.
March 1, 2003... Consider the following two scenarios (both teachers' names are pseudonyms): Ms. Jones's first-grade students have been using computers to improve their spelling skills. Through the process of reading trade books, students...

FAQs about IRIs. (Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement).(frequently asked questions about informal reading inventories)
March 1, 2003... Assessing children's reading development is more important than ever--not just because test scores are visible indices of educational accountability that are reported in newspapers but because teachers use many types of assessment to inform...

People: past, present, and future. (Children's Books).(Book Review)
March 1, 2003... Do Ya Know 'Em? Do ya know 'em? Can you guess what they invented? Can you? Yes? If you can, you'll get a jolt a' James Watt and Alessandro Volta and Wilhelm Geiger (Count, of course). And while you're at it, do...

Literature strategy. (Children's Books).
March 1, 2003... The Pot That Juan Built by Nancy Andrews-Goebel uses a three-part structure to tell the story of Juan Quezada of Mata Ortize, Chihuahua, Mexico, who rediscovered the pottery process of the Casa Grande people who had vanished from that part of...

Paired books. (Children's Books).(Book Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... As the Civil War draws to an end, 13-year-old Eulinda, a house slave on a plantation in southwestern Georgia, USA, waits for news from her older brother who ran away to join the Union Army. When Eulinda travels to Andersonville Prison in...

Why read? (Children's Books).(Poem)
March 1, 2003... Why read? It's fun to get a book and read about things near and far, of things you never thought were true, and things that really are! Books let you travel anywhere, your mind's eye is the key that lets...