This volume showcases the efforts of real teachers using the teaching events from real middle school classrooms. Included is the work of eight hard-working middle school teachers who are convinced that the form and function of genre is a way to teach writing across the middle school curriculum. Each chapter contains sample lessons, protocols, classroom instructional materials, and assessment tools to provide middle school teachers with an approach to explore rigorous expository writing instruction in their own classrooms.

These engaging Storybooks provide structured practice for children learning to read the Read Write Inc. Set 1 and 2 sounds. Each set of books is carefully levelled to match childrens growing phonic knowledge so children can read them with accuracy, fluency and comprehension. The Storybooks include a range of engaging stories such as fairy tales, myths and legends, rhyming stories and familiar settings. Activities at the start of the books help children to practise the sounds and words they will encounter in the story. Questions to talk about at the end of the story provide an extra opportunity for developing childrens comprehension. The books are part of the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme, developed by Ruth Miskin. The programme is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers. It includes Handbooks, Sounds Cards, Word Cards, Storybooks, Non-fiction, Writing books and an Online resource. Read Write Inc. is fully supported by comprehensive professional development from Ruth Miskin Training.

In A Place for Wonder, Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough discuss how to create "a landscape of wonder," a primary classroom where curiosity, creativity, and exploration are encouraged. For it is these characteristics, the authors write, that develop intelligent, inquiring, life-long learners. The authors' research shows that many primary grade state standards encourage teaching for understanding, critical thinking, creativity, and question asking, and promote the development of children who have the attributes of inventiveness, curiosity, engagement, imagination, and creativity. With these goals in mind, Georgia and Jennifer provide teachers with numerous, practical ways-setting up "wonder centers," gathering data though senses, teaching nonfiction craft-they can create a classroom environment where students' questions and observations are part of daily work. They also present a step-by-step guide to planning a nonfiction reading and writing unit of study-creating a nonfiction book, which includes creating a table of contents, writing focused chapters, using "wow" words, and developing point of view. A Place for Wonder will help teachers reclaim their classrooms as a place where true learning is the norm.

Comic books and graphic novels, known collectively as "graphica," have long been popular with teenagers and adults. Recently graphica has grown in popularity with younger readers as well, motivating and engaging some of our most reluctant readers who often shun traditional texts. While some teachers have become curious about graphica's potential, many are confused by the overwhelming number of new titles and series, in both fiction and nonfiction, and are unsure of its suitability and function in their classrooms.

Drawing on his own success using graphica with elementary students, literacy coach Terry Thompson introduces reading teachers to this popular medium and suggests sources of appropriate graphica for the classroom and for particular students. Taking cues from research that supports the use of graphica with students, Terry shows how this exciting medium fits into the literacy framework and correlates with best practices in comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency instruction. "Adventures in Graphica" contains numerous, easy-to-replicate, instructional strategies, including examples of how graphic texts can be used to create a bridge as students transfer abstract comprehension strategies learned through comics and graphic novels to traditional texts.

" Adventures in Graphica" provides a roadmap for teachers to the medium that the "New York Times" recently hailed as possibly "the next new literary form."

While the population of Hispanic/Latino and African American students in the United States continues to grow, the rate at which they attend college remains alarmingly small. These students, who are often defined as "educationally underrepresented," are a bellwether of a shortcoming in our nation's educational system that has serious implications for the future. In "Greater Expectations," Robin Turner, a high school English teacher from Anaheim, California, offers pragmatic, proven methods for better preparing underrepresented students for higher education.

The book is grounded in Robin's experience as a leader in the Puente Project, a college preparation program started in California high schools over twenty years ago. Since 1981, Puente has proven highly effective in producing positive change by improving academic performance, standardized test scores, and college admission rates for underrepresented students.

Forming the book's foundations are the ideas of "familia" and "carino," or family and caring. The first, "familia," asserts the importance of establishing a sense of community among adolescents and tapping into student culture--ethnicity, music, sports, neighborhood and so on in the language arts classroom. The second concept, a pedagogy of "carino," contends that too often, underrepresented students possess attributes that are overlooked and are viewed with a deficit-model paradigm. Building on this foundation, "Greater Expectations" shows how to effectively teach different modes of academic discourse--literary analysis, autobiographical/biographical, persuasive research, and community-based writing. Offering a combination of personal narrative, how-to lesson plans, and student samples, Robin Turner challenges readers to approach their underrepresented students with greater expectations and be equipped with specific lesson plans to enable their classes to meet them.

These practice papers are designed to be used as learning reinforcement and are essential for exam preparation. Each paper simulates the format and content of the 11+ exam and may be completed as a standard or multiple-choice test. Each test should take about 40 minutes, however it is more important that a child completes the test accurately and does not rush. Children will speed up naturally with practice.

These engaging Storybooks provide structured practice for children learning to read the Read Write Inc. Set 1 sounds. Each set of books is carefully levelled to match childrens growing phonic knowledge so children can read them with accuracy, fluency and comprehension. The Storybooks include a range of engaging stories such as fairy tales, myths and legends, rhyming stories and familiar settings. Activities at the start of the books help children to practise the sounds and words they will encounter in the story. Questions to talk about at the end of the story provide an extra opportunity for developing childrens comprehension. The books are part of the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme, developed by Ruth Miskin. The programme is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers. It includes Handbooks, Sounds Cards, Word Cards, Storybooks, Non-fiction, Writing books and an Online resource. Read Write Inc. is fully supported by comprehensive professional development from Ruth Miskin Training.

These engaging Storybooks provide structured practice for children learning to read the Read Write Inc. Set 1 and 2 sounds. Each set of books is carefully levelled to match childrens growing phonic knowledge so children can read them with accuracy, fluency and comprehension. The Storybooks include a range of engaging stories such as fairy tales, myths and legends, rhyming stories and familiar settings. Activities at the start of the books help children to practise the sounds and words they will encounter in the story. Questions to talk about at the end of the story provide an extra opportunity for developing childrens comprehension. The books are part of the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme, developed by Ruth Miskin. The programme is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers. It includes Handbooks, Sounds Cards, Word Cards, Storybooks, Non-fiction, Writing books and an Online resource. Read Write Inc. is fully supported by comprehensive professional development from Ruth Miskin Training.

180 Days of Language is a fun and effective daily practice workbook designed to help students improve their grammar skills. This easy-to-use first grade workbook is great for at-home learning or in the classroom. The engaging standards-based activities cover grade-level skills with easy to follow instructions and an answer key to quickly assess student understanding. Students will practice punctuation, capitalization, and spelling with daily activity pages. Watch as students improve their grammar and writing skills with these quick independent learning activities.Parents appreciate the teacher-approved activity books that keep their child engaged and learning. Great for homeschooling, to reinforce learning at school, or prevent learning loss over summer.Teachers rely on the daily practice workbooks to save them valuable time. The ready to implement activities are perfect for daily morning review or homework. The activities can also be used for intervention skill building to address learning gaps.

Ideal for both whole-school and independent learning, this comprehensive and high-quality series builds on pupils' phonic knowledge while also helping them to understand how word structure and meaning can help them to spell words. Providing excellent preparation for the national tests, the Schofield & Sims Spelling activities systematically introduce and revise spelling conventions, explore word structure and the relationship between words of shared origin, suggest strategies for remembering common 'exception words' (or 'tricky words'), teach pupils how to monitor their own spelling, and encourage them to write sentences from memory or dictation. As pupils work through each book, the intensive practice provided will enable them continually to develop, consolidate and improve their skills, encouraging them towards effective spelling for life. Spelling 3 covers: spelling words by adding prefixes and suffixes; using rules for adding suffixes; applying guidelines for endings where pronunciation may mislead; learning and applying guidelines relating to alternative spellings of phonemes; spelling words with apostrophes.

Ideal for both whole-school and independent learning, this comprehensive and high-quality series builds on pupils' phonic knowledge while also helping them to understand how word structure and meaning can help them to spell words. Providing excellent preparation for the national tests, the Schofield & Sims Spelling activities systematically introduce and revise spelling conventions, explore word structure and the relationship between words of shared origin, suggest strategies for remembering common 'exception words' (or 'tricky words'), teach pupils how to monitor their own spelling, and encourage them to write sentences from memory or dictation. As pupils work through each book, the intensive practice provided will enable them continually to develop, consolidate and improve their skills, encouraging them towards effective spelling for life. Spelling 2 covers: segmenting words into phonemes and selecting the correct spelling from alternatives; learning new ways to spell phonemes; distinguishing between homophones; adding prefixes and suffixes to spell longer words; applying rules for adding suffixes; learning spelling guidelines.

Brimming with spelling practice for the KS2 English SATS, this essential SAT Buster workbook is fully up-to-date for the latest tests! It contains plenty of SATS-style questions covering all the spelling techniques pupils will need to master. We've also thrown in self-assessment boxes and a handy scoresheet to help track pupils' progress. Full answers are printed in a separate Answer Book (9781847629111), which also includes full answers to our SAT Buster Book 1s for Punctuation (9781841461755) and Grammar (9781847629074). For even more spelling practice at the same difficulty level, a Spelling SAT Buster Book 2 (9781782942788) is also available!

Every elementary teacher deals with students who struggle as readers on a daily basis. Each struggling child is complex and each has a unique history as a learner. In "One Child at a Time," experienced literacy specialist and consultant Pat Johnson provides a framework she has used in numerous K-6 classrooms to help teachers understand and assist individual children. The four-step process outlined in the book enables teachers to focus carefully on specific strategies and behaviors; analyze them with theoretical and practical lenses; design targeted instruction in keeping with current research on reading process; and then assess and refine the teaching in conferences with the child. The framework is by no means an easy answer to a difficult problem, but through its use teachers learn how the reading process works for proficient readers and how to support struggling readers as they construct their own reading process.

The text is packed with examples of actual conferences with students, detailing how and when Pat and her colleagues intervene to instruct and assess. The examples of follow-up assessment and analysis of struggling readers over days and weeks provide an indispensable model for teachers.

Pat shows how to use this framework successfully with a range of learners, including young children, English language learners, and students in the upper elementary grades who are stalled in their literacy progress. She builds upon her decades of work as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, and consultant in schools with high poverty and diversity, to demonstrate how this framework can be useful in any setting.

The Creative Writing series provides a complete and comprehensive course in creative writing. It prepares children for 11+, 12+ and 13+ state grammar entrance, Common Entrance and scholarship examinations for independent schools. This series of books is designed to be used in sequence from Workbook 1 onwards. A child should work through the exercises in each section and then apply the principles and techniques they have learnt in a draft of their own story. By the end of the course, children will have produced two drafts for each of their six original stories. A Score Chart and Certificate of Achievement are included at the end of the book. All our materials have been rigorously classroom tested. The methodologies have been successfully used in AE Tuition classes for over 20 years.

Reading is all about understanding. Many English language learners simply do not understand what they are reading, whether it's a picture book, a literature selection, or a science textbook. Juli Kendall and Outey Khuon believe that small group comprehension lessons have a key role to play in advancing students' understanding of texts."Making Sense" provides answers to many common questions asked by teachers of English language learners: How do we organize small-group comprehension instruction? How do we select books to teach strategies? How do we know our kids are getting it--and what do we do when they don't get it? It is an easy-to-use, practical resource for ELD, ESL, and ESOL pull-out teachers, and for push-in teachers working "in-class" to support English language learners.The book's five main sections are geared to the stages of language proficiency, and lessons are divided into 'younger' and 'older' students, spanning kindergarten through grade 8. The authors outline fifty-two lessons that teach students how to make connections, ask questions, visualize (make mental images), infer, determine importance, and synthesize. Each lesson follows a four-part teaching framework: Start Up/Connection--helping students build background and use prior knowledge to connect to the lesson;Give Information--explicitly telling students what they are going to learn and why they are learning it, and then teaching them;Active Involvement--often occurs during the teaching as students practice what they are learning while the teacher checks for understanding and monitors and adjusts instruction;Off-You-Go --opportunities for students to practice what they learned with peers or independently."Making Sense" also explores the stages of language proficiency through descriptions of ten English language learners of different ages. A chart of student characteristics for each stage shows how students demonstrate understanding and outlines the implications for planning instruction. This book will appeal to experienced teachers seeking to expand their repertoire of lessons, as well as new teachers just beginning the adventure of teaching comprehension to English language learners.

Teaching comprehension with informational texts is a critical component of any reading program and one that many children struggle with as they progress through their schooling. Nonfiction can be overwhelming to young readers, presenting them with complex vocabulary and a new density of information that may combine text, diagrams, pictures, captions, and other devices. In this book, Tony Stead provides wonderful ways to enhance children's understanding and engagement when reading for information. Based on many years of working in K-7 classrooms, he outlines practical approaches to ensure all children can become confident and competent readers of nonfiction.

"Reality Checks" offers insights into why children struggle when faced with informational reading, and practical concepts, skills, and strategies that help them navigate nonfiction successfully.

Part one examines effective ways to teach children how to extract the information that is explicitly stated in a text. Covered are strategies such as using prior knowledge, retelling, locating specific information, and the role of nonfiction read-alouds.

Part two explores interpreting information, including making connections between the text, the reader, and the outside world, making inferences and making revisions to inferences based on reflection.

Part three looks at evaluating information, assisting children in developing critical reading skills, differentiating fact from opinion, locating author bias, and identifying techniques writers use to persuade readers' thinking.

Part four offers an array of practical ways to reinforce and extend children's nonfiction reading skills, including working with visual information such asmaps and diagrams. It also provides pre-and-post-assessment strategies, procedures for monitoring progress, curriculum planning ideas, and instruction on guided reading.

A helpful appendix provides graphic organizers, assessment rubrics, curriculum mapping sheets, and more.

Teaching reading to children in a language that is not their own is a daunting task. Combining the best classroom practices and research on teaching reading and language acquisition, Mary Cappellini integrates effective reading instruction with effective language instruction. Through the framework of a balanced reading program, she emphasizes the importance of constantly listening for and assessing children's language and reading strategies during read aloud, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading, including literature circles.

Mary plans and demonstrates whole-class, small-group, and individual reading instruction using a model of "reading to, with, and by children" with fiction and nonfiction texts. She works in the primary and upper grades with children at all stages of English language development and at all developmental reading levels. With on-going assessments based on those interactions, she shows how to plan for more effective instruction. Mary constantly questions and discusses whether the child needs more support in language development or in developing reading strategies, breaking down assumptions that equate a low level of English proficiency with a lack of reading strategies, or English language fluency with accomplished reading skills.

Through the use of wonderful literature, and by maintaining a focus on the children's strengths, needs, prior knowledge, and interests, Mary constantly challenges students as they develop their fluency in English while becoming fluent readers.

Included in this text are: how to set up an environment that will allow all English language learners to succeed;the stages of English language proficiency and stages of reading development--how they compare and how to use them to assess and plan for individual children;A focus on tapping into children's prior knowledge in their primary language while teaching reading in English and using Spanish/English cognates to help develop academic language;a collection of in-depth lessons and mini-lessons based on children's language proficiency and reading strategy needs with ongoing assessment, teacher reflection, and with an emphasis on choosing the right books to match their reading and language level;how to manage numerous guided reading groups with children of all stages of reading and language proficiency;thematic planning, with sample units for primary and upper grades, to support academic language and meet content standards;ideas for literacy evenings, school tours, and other events to involve parents with the learning community;extensive resources: numerous forms and checklists--observation sheets, planning sheets, literature response sheets, focus sheets for shared and guided reading, and more. Also included are lists of books for read alouds, shared reading, and thematic units, and lists of recommended guided reading series appropriate for English language learners.

"Balancing Reading and Language Learning" provides the strategies proven to be effective in a balanced reading program, while at the same time valuing the native culture and first-language skills of the English language learner. Regardless of how many or how few ELL students a teacher has, this invaluable resource helps them meet the challenges and reap the rewards of teaching children to read as they learn the language.

This book is a fantastic source of Reading practice for pupils in Year 5, and is the ideal way to build skills for the SATS. It's packed with engaging and varied texts, each followed by heaps of SATS-style questions, all set at the perfect difficulty for pupils aged 9-10. Tips on how to tackle the different question types are scattered throughout the book, and answers are included in the back! For more Reading practice with a heavier focus on Comprehension try our brilliant Comprehension Book (9781782944508) for Year 5.