Nearly forty percent of all fourth graders in this country cannot read at grade level, and this number rises to sixty percent for children coming from poor families. This gap in learning increases as students go through grade school and is a primary reason for school failure. Ironically, this problem comes even after comprehensive research demonstrates that nearly all children can learn to read if taught using proven-effective instruction. Here, the authors describe the principles of this research in language that non-educators can understand and educators can use. It discusses how to recognize whether the research on reading is being used appropriately, and if not, how to make that happen. Through the eyes of parents and educators who have succeeded in their own struggles to change the educational system, the book provides the reader with the tools and knowledge for transforming the way reading is taught in their children's classrooms. This book takes the reader step-by-step through an understanding of the research on reading and ways in which a single, determined person can make a difference in the learning ability of every student in our nation's schools. Part One is a series of chapters written by individuals who discuss what they experienced during these battles and what made them successful. Part Two is written by a series of experts who describe how they have overcome the challenges involved in creating widespread change in school systems. This second edition also includes information on Common Core State Standards, increased testing and accountability efforts, and related policy issues that directly impact how children learn to read. The appendix is filled with resources-people, places, sample tools, a glossary and bibliography to help the reader. Some key features of this book include: *Easy to understand descriptions of research *First-person stories of how they have helped teach their kids to read *Clear understanding of scientifically based reading and how it can be applied to the classroom *Summary of reading-related Common Core State Standards *Sample tools for parent advocates *Resource lists of government officials, organizations that can help with reading efforts

In recent decades, the science of reading acquisition has been advancing through interdisciplinary research in cognitive, psycholinguistic, developmental, genetic, neuroscience, cross-language, and experimental comparison studies of effective instruction. Some of the science of reading has emerged from the theory and research into the realm of practice and policy. Yet the science and practice of measuring "reading comprehension" has remained relatively immune to much of this foundational knowledge. Measuring Up questions the traditional format of reading comprehension tests, typically a single series of questions asked about a series of passages, and offers ideas and innovations we might expect in a next generation of 21st century reading assessments. Sabatini, Albro, and O'Reilly believe that in light of the move towards Common Core State Standards and assessments, as well as significant national investments in reading and literacy education, it is a critical and opportune time to bring together the research and measurement community to address fundamental issues of measuring reading comprehension, both in theory and in practice.

The Level 4 Biff, Chip and Kipper Stories, written by Roderick Hunt and illustrated by Alex Brychta, provide a rich story context to help develop language comprehension and decoding skills. Stories, More Stories A, More Stories B and More Stories C help children to progress from teacher-supported reading at the early Levels to more independent reading. Books contain inside cover notes to support children in their reading. Help with childrens reading development is also available at www.oxfordowl.co.uk.

With its reusable wipe-clean surface and dri-erase pen, Writing Skills helps children learn how put together a sentence, paragraph, and story and provides tons of activities to practice their new-found skills. The packed pages feature punctuation; sentence structure; types for words such as describing and question; parts of a story; and sample entries. The book will introduce three types of writing-narrative, opinion, and informative-and provide graphic organizers to simplify the process. As a bonus, the perforated pages allow children to assemble an "all about me" book when they are finished. Perfect for first through third graders, this 128-page workbook, with its useful wipe-off reference chart of proper formation, is ideal on-the-go package for fighting summer brain drain.

Do you wish you had a published writer's secrets at your fingertips, ready to help you achieve your goals of publication, success, and the chance to be the next great teen writer? In Seize the Story: A Handbook for Teens Who Like to Write, Victoria Hanley, award-winning author of young adult fiction, spills the secrets for bringing action, adventure, humor, and drama to stories. All of the elements of fiction, from creating believable dialogue to exciting plots, are laid out clearly and illustrated with examples taken straight from story excerpts by excellent writers. The book is packed with writing exercises designed to encourage teens to tell the stories that are theirs alone.

In addition, other published authors of young adult literature share their insights about the writing life. Teens can gain firsthand advice from accomplished writers T. A. Barron, Joan Bauer, Hilari Bell, Chris Crutcher, David Lubar, Lauren Myracle, Todd Mitchell, Nancy Garden, and many more.

Writing Instruction for Generation 2.0 addresses many of the concerns teachers have about the impact of the digital world on student writing and suggests ways for teachers to approach these issues within a 21st century literacies framework. This book is not about teaching the writing process, running a writing workshop, or using specific digital tools to support writing instruction. Forward-thinking teachers who wish to understand the 21st century literacies, understand what youth are doing in respect to those literacies, and discover how they can apply this knowledge to classroom instruction will find answers to their questions. The chapters include specific suggestions, but those suggestions are meant as a jumping-off point for imaginative and innovative teachers to adapt to meet the specific needs of students in their 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.

This book is a fantastic source of Reading practice for pupils in Year 4, 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 8-9. 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 (9781782944492) for Year 4.

Timely and accessible, this book offers tangible strategies that will help teachers plan and sustain writing workshop experiences that are responsive to the needs of their specific students. Angela Stockman helps teachers understand why some writers may fail to meet their expectations and how to help all writers reach their fullest potential. Organized in three parts, this book reframes common narratives about resistant writers, empowers teachers to design, lead and refine their workshop, and provides a toolkit to do so. The appendices and eResources included provide teachers with instructions for mini-lessons and learning targets that support multimodal composition, perfect for pre-service and in-service teachers.

Timely and accessible, this book offers tangible strategies that will help teachers plan and sustain writing workshop experiences that are responsive to the needs of their specific students. Angela Stockman helps teachers understand why some writers may fail to meet their expectations and how to help all writers reach their fullest potential. Organized in three parts, this book reframes common narratives about resistant writers, empowers teachers to design, lead and refine their workshop, and provides a toolkit to do so. The appendices and eResources included provide teachers with instructions for mini-lessons and learning targets that support multimodal composition, perfect for pre-service and in-service teachers.

The effective and fun-filled way to teach spelling to elementary students

"The Spelling Teacher's Lesson-a-Day" gives teachers 180 engaging and ready-to-use lessons-one for each day of the school year-that boost spelling skills in students grades 3-6. These lessons may be used as "sponge" or "hook" activities (five-minute lessons to start off each school day) or teachers may simply pick and choose activities from within the book for the occasional spelling lesson. Fry teaches spelling patterns by contrasting homophones (like-sounding words) to help students recognize these spelling patterns in more complex words. He also boosts students' spelling skills by demystifying contractions, abbreviations, capitalization, silent letters, suffixes and prefixes, and more.Offers an easy-to-use method for teaching spelling that has been proven to be effectiveIncludes 180 ready-to-use, reproducible lessons-one for each day of the school yearA new volume in the new series "5-Minute FUNdamentals"

This book is designed to be used by classroom teachers, homeschoolers, tutors, and parents.

Accessible and engaging, this methods textbook provides a roadmap for improving reading instruction. Leland, Lewison, and Harste explain why certain ineffective or debunked literacy techniques prevail in the classroom, identify the problematic assumptions that underly these popular myths, and offer better alternatives for literacy teaching. Grounded in a mantra that promotes critical thinking and agency-Enjoy! Dig Deeply! Take Action!-this book presents a clear framework, methods, and easy applications for designing and implementing effective literacy instruction. Numerous teaching strategies, classroom examples, teacher vignettes, and recommendations for using children's and adolescent literature found in this book make it an ideal text for preservice teachers in elementary and middle school reading, and English language arts methods courses as well as a practical resource for professional in-service workshops and teachers. Key features include: Instructional engagements for supporting students as they read picture books, chapter books, and news articles, and interact with social media and participate in the arts and everyday life; Voices from the field that challenge mythical thinking and offer realworld examples of what effective reading and language arts instruction looks like in practice; Owl statements that alert readers to key ideas for use when planning reading and language arts instruction.

Reinforce your child's fourth-grade language skills with Spectrum Vocabulary. With the progressive lessons in this workbook, your child will learn words through strategies related to word relationships, context clues, and prefixes and suffixes. Spectrum(R) Vocabulary helps your child systematically build and strengthen vocabulary and comprehension skills. Students in grades 3-6 will find lessons and practice in word classification, context clues, root and base words, prefixes and suffixes, and imported words. Each workbook also includes test-taking practice sections and an answer key. Aligned to current state standards, Spectrum is your child's path to a strong and expanding vocabulary. Spectrum, the best-selling workbook series, is proud to provide quality educational materials that support your students' learning achievement and success.

Practice, practice, practice. Now Walter Dean Myers, the new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, walks you through the writing process.

Includes: Examples from his writing and reading experiencesWalter's six-box and four-box outlines for writing fiction and nonfictionExcerpted pages from Walter's own notebooksAn afterword by Ross Workman, Walter's teen coauthor of kickWriting tips from both Walter and Ross

Anyone can be a writer, with a little help from Walter Dean Myers

"This book is a must have for mums who have no clue how to help their child with comprehension. I would recommend to everyone." Sue, Amazon customer As well as being an integral part of the English curriculum, good comprehension skills help children to understand the world around them. Our simple workbooks help to break down the skills children need to master to meet their curriculum objectives in a clear and fuss-free way. This workbook supports children in Year 4 (ages 8-9) to develop their comprehension skills using a mix of fiction and non-fiction texts as well as fun activities. Practice activities to use at home or in school Matched to National Curriculum requirements Quickly builds confidence and understanding Includes extra notes and tips to reinforce skillsAll answers available online Matched to the Scholastic English Skills: Comprehension teacher resource book Perfect for use in class or at home

Teaching grammar can be overwhelming and is often an overlooked part of effective instruction. The Elementary School Grammar Toolkit to the rescue! Now in its second edition, this comprehensive guide makes grammar instruction fun and meaningful. You will learn how to... * Teach grammar in a practical way to help students grow as readers and writers by presenting each grammar rule as a useful writing tool. * Use mentor texts-excerpts from great literature-to help students understand grammar in action. * Promote metacognition along the way so that students become responsible for their own learning. * Implement innovative instructional strategies and tools aligned with Common Core and other state standards. Throughout the book, you'll find step-by-step recommendations for teaching each of the grammar tools to help students meet the Common Core State Standards and other state language standards for grades three to five, plus classroom snapshots that show you the tools in action, handy templates that you can use in the classroom, and new tips for extra support at the end of every chapter. New! The second edition features revised classroom snapshots and exemplars to showcase successful practices, new visuals, more free charts and activities, and new "Bonus Tips for Support" in each chapter, with extra practices and strategies to use with students who need extra support. The expanded, free annotated bibliography is updated to include contemporary, high-quality children's and young adult literature and gives examples of key grammatical concepts found in each work. These resources are available as supplemental downloads on our website.

Reinforce your child's first-grade skills with Spectrum Phonics. With the progressive lessons in this workbook, your child will strengthen reading skills involving ending sounds, consonant pairs, long and short vowel sounds, and vowel pairs. The Spectrum(R) Phonics series provides your child with skill-building exercises that focus on phonics, structural analysis, and dictionary skills. Phonics for grades K-2 guides students progressively through letter sounds, blends, and pairs and how they combine to form words. Word Study and Phonics for grades 3-6 includes lessons in decoding as well as vocabulary comprehension, spelling, word relationships, figurative language, and even foreign words. Unique exercises will keep children engaged, and complete answer keys will help you gauge their understanding of the way words work. Spectrum, the best-selling workbook series, is proud to provide quality educational materials that support your students' learning achievement and success.

Spectrum(R) Writing for grade 3 guides students through each step of the writing process as they write paragraphs, personal narratives, fiction stories, descriptive comparisons, news reports, how-to instructions, persuasive letters, and more. Spectrum(R) Writing workbooks guide students as they write for a variety of purposes, including writing to tell a story, writing to provide information, and writing to state an opinion. Lessons support current state standards. Step-by-step instructions help with planning, drafting, revising, proofreading, and sharing writing. A Writer's Handbook reinforces grammar and language skills, and a complete Answer Key is included. Engaging, open-ended writing projects combined with standards-based learning make these workbooks an essential resource for school success. Spectrum, the best-selling workbook series, is proud to provide quality educational materials that support your students' learning achievement and success.

The Level 6 Biff, Chip and Kipper Stories, written by Roderick Hunt and illustrated by Alex Brychta, provide a rich story context to help develop language comprehension and decoding skills. Stories, More Stories A and More Stories B involve familiar situations and a variety of fantasy settings through the magic key adventures. Books contain inside cover notes to support children in their reading. Help with childrens reading development is also available at www.oxfordowl.co.uk.

The second in a series of 7 fun-filled activity books for children covers the first group of letter sounds. Jolly Phonics teaches children to read and write using synthetic phonics in a fun and engaging way. Each of these 36-page activity books for children aged 3+, includes 2 pages of stickers providing a range of fun activities for children to complete, including colouring, handwriting practice, puzzles, mazes, games, craft activities, word & picture matching and flashcards. There is a story for each of the letter sounds as well as the letter sound action, introducing synthetic phonics in a fun and multi-sensory way, giving children solid support at home.