In her previous books, "Literacy Work Stations" and "Practice with Purpose," Debbie Diller showed teachers how to productively occupy the "rest of the class" while meeting with small groups. Now Debbie turns her attention to the groups themselves and the teacher's role in small-group instruction. "Making the Most of Small Groups" grapples with difficult questions regarding small-group instruction in elementary classrooms such as: How do I find the time? How can I be more organized?How do I form groups? How can I differentiate to meet the needs of all of my students?

Structured around the five essential reading elements--comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary--the book provides practical tips, sample lessons, lesson plans and templates, suggestions for related literacy work stations, and connections to whole-group instruction. In addition to ideas to use immediately in the classroom, Debbie provides an overview of relevant research and reflection questions for professional conversations.

Treasure House Spelling Skills Pupil Books are aimed at ages 5-11 offering complete coverage of the 2014 National Curriculum. Treasure House Spelling Skills Pupil Book 5: - has 20 units - is directly matched to the 2014 National Curriculum - explains each spelling rule clearly and simply, followed by a set of carefully tailored questions - ensures pupils will master all appropriate language skills - provides regular progress checks with 3 review units. This pupil book can be used with Treasure House Spelling Skills Teacher's Guide 5 and activities on Collins Connect for a complete spelling programme.

"Mum, dad, I don't know what to write next!" Using this book can really help children in a very practical way to overcome their anxieties as they began to develop the story writing skills so essential for their educational development. The ability to write good stories is a basic requirement of examinations at all the Key Stages in State schools. Furthermore it is often a requirement in eleven plus examinations as entry to Grammar Schools and Independent Private schools. Using this book can help children to develop self-confidence in their own ability as storywriters by using their own experiences as the starting point for writing. This book gives easy to understand advice on the importance of Parts of Speech, the job that words to in sentences, it provides a list of the eleven ingredients for a good story plus examples of how to set out direct speech. It also gives advice on how the feelings of characters should be expressed in a story to add interest. Book One contains twenty story plans based upon experiences and activities that most children will have had, for example, "The Birthday Party" and "My First Day at School".The story plans are written in a child friendly way that is accessible and easy for children to understand and follow. Using the structured story plans the young writers are able to write about their own experiences and activities, safe and secure in the knowledge that when they get stuck and aren't sure what to write next, instead of calling out for help, the story plan neatly helps them to move on.

Creative Approaches to Teaching Grammar is an easily accessible, practical guide full of ideas to support teachers in making the learning of grammar a natural part of developing their students as writers and as readers. Written for those teaching years 5,6,7 and 8, the authors' approach concentrates on the individual needs of students rather than of a year group as a whole. Split into two main sections, the first looks at creative ways of exploring grammar and includes more than forty ideas that can be implemented into the classroom. This section can be used as a quick resource or the whole sequence can be followed to ensure students are investigating, exploring and having fun with grammar. The second section includes an extensive glossary of terms to develop a full understanding of grammar which can be used to audit your own competences and highlight areas for further development. Creative ideas explored include: Being silly with grammar Favourite words Exploding sentences Writing for real audiences New punctuation marks and emoticons Sorting out confusing words Broadening active vocabulary Top ten spelling tips Flexing your vocabulary brain Redundancy in language Creative Approaches to Teaching Grammar is a truly practical guide that is a must read for anyone teaching grammar to years 5,6,7 and 8. With plenty of ideas to implement into the classroom it encourages students to take ownership of their own learning and progress.

The next 10 Tippie adventures are proudly South-African, interesting and builds on the skills acquired in the Level 1 books. The text is supported by colourful, engaging illustrations to support comprehension and practise short vowel sounds and simple consonant clusters. Tippie learns and explores alongside his friends whilst staying true to typical child development. These sequential reading books were designed with a focus on sound development, linking sounds and letters as well as continuing building success and self-confidence in reading. The Level 2 books still focus on short vowels, simple consonants, sight words and final position consonant clusters. Children will love Tippie’s latest adventures as it is full of fun and humorous incidents along the way

Encourage second grade students to build their Spanish reading comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and word study skills using daily practice activities. Great for daily checks or homework, teachers and parents can help Spanish-speaking students gain regular practice through these quick, diagnostic-based activities that correlate to College and Career Readiness and other state standards. Includes both fiction and nonfiction reading passages, a convenient answer key, and data-driven assessment tips. With this easy-to-use workbook, students will gain confidence in their reading skills every day! Teacher resources are available via digital download.

Transforming Reading Skills in the Secondary School is a commonsense text designed to help practitioners working in a mainstream context. The book suggests ways to develop the underlying skills necessary for good reading through multiple pathways such as mainstream subject lessons, individual and small group support sessions, whole school initiatives, the use of reading mentors and home-school liaison opportunities. Brimming with ideas and activities, Pat Guy explores a variety of different aspects of reading, including: how reading is taught and why it is such an important skill for the individual how to motivate the reluctant reader the role played by the mainstream & specialist teacher underlying problems pupils may face how to increase parental involvement reasons why a pupil's comprehension might be limited the role of the School Librarian the relevance to reading of vocabulary and general knowledge. Anyone wanting to develop the reading skills of secondary pupils who struggle will find this a resource they return to time and time again.

Let's Write offers a wealth of suggestions for approaches to developing primary school pupils' writing skills that will capture the children's interest, while enabling them to improve their ability to express themselves in writing. It aims to meet the requirements of the new national curriculum for English at KS2 in a way that will develop the children's standard of writing by presenting activities that they will find enjoyable and stimulating. Throughout the book, the emphasis is on providing activities that will engage the pupils in a discussion of how texts are structured, before producing their own writing. John Foster suggests a range of imaginative tasks that both literacy specialists and non-specialists will find useful in developing children' ability to write coherently and correctly. Let's Write includes: a clear explanation of the writing process with activities designed to improve pupils' drafting skills examples of the different types of writing for pupils to analyse, which they can use as models for their own writing a range of imaginative ideas for writing tasks, together with suggestions of curriculum opportunities for practising particular forms writing challenges which can be used to stretch more able writers and thus to introduce differentiation by task, as well as by outcome writing tips, for example, on sentence structure and paragraph structure, appropriate to the different types of writing activities involving pupils in the assessment of their writing a section on writing correctly, focussing on grammar, spelling and punctuation a section containing games and activities designed to extend pupils' vocabulary. Let's Write provides teachers with a lively collection of resources that will be welcomed by teachers and that will help to develop children's writing.

In an era characterized by the rapid evolution of the concept of literacy, the Handbook of Research on Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts focuses on multiple ways in which learners gain access to knowledge and skills. The handbook explores the possibilities of broadening current conceptualizations of literacy to include the full array of the communicative arts (reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing) and to focus on the visual arts of drama, dance, film, art, video, and computer technology. The communicative and visual arts encompass everything from novels and theatrical performances to movies and video games. In today's world, new methods for transmitting information have been developed that include music, graphics, sound effects, smells, and animations. While these methods have been used by television shows and multimedia products, they often represent an unexplored resource in the field of education. By broadening our uses of these media, formats, and genres, a greater number of students will be motivated to see themselves as learners. In 64 chapters, organized in seven sections, teachers and other leading authorities in the field of literacy provide direction for the future: I. Theoretical Bases for Communicative and Visual Arts Teaching Paul Messaris, Section Editor II. Methods of Inquiry in Communicative and Visual Arts Teaching Donna Alvermann, Section Editor III. Research on Language Learners in Families, Communities, and Classrooms Vicki Chou, Section Editor IV. Research on Language Teachers: Conditions and Contexts Dorothy Strickland, Section Editor V. Expanding Instructional Environments: Teaching, Learning, and Assessing the Communicative and Visual Arts Nancy Roser, Section Editor VI. Research Perspectives on the Curricular, Extracurricular, and Policy Perspectives James Squire, Section Editor VII. Voices from the Field Bernice Cullinan and Lee Galda, Section Editors The International Reading Association has compiled in the Handbook of Research on Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts an indispensable set of papers for educators that will enable them to conceptualize literacy in much broader contexts than ever before. The information contained in this volume will be extremely useful in planning literacy programs for our students for today and tomorrow.

Stimulating Story Writing! Inspiring Children aged 7-11 offers innovative and exciting ways to inspire children to want to create stories and develop their story writing skills. This practical guide offers comprehensive and informed support for professionals to effectively engage 'child authors' in stimulating story writing activity. Packed full of story ideas, resource suggestions and practical activities, the book explores various ways professionals can help children to develop the six key elements of story, these being character, setting, plot, conflict, resolution and ending. All of the ideas in the book are designed to complement and enrich existing writing provision in classrooms with strategies such as role play, the use of different technologies, and using simple open ended resources as story stimuli. Separated into two sections and with reference to the Key Stage 2 curricula, this timely new text provides professionals with tried and tested strategies and ideas that can be used with immediate effect. Chapters include: * Creating Characters * The Plot Thickens * Inspired Ideas * Resourcing the Story Stimulation This timely new text is the perfect guide for inspiring children aged 7-11 in the classroom and will be an essential resource for teachers and students on teacher training courses.

After reading brief nonfiction passages about science, geography, or history topics, students answer multiple-choice and short-answer questions to build seven essential comprehension skills.

The Level 9 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 and More Stories A continue to provide a mix of fantasy settings and familiar situations. More complex sentences with conceptually more challenging storylines develop stamina, ensuring that readers will be able to progress to more demanding texts with confidence. Books contain inside cover notes to support children in their reading. Help with childrens reading development is also available at www.oxfordowl.co.uk.

Host family reading nights at your school These events promote literacy outside of the classroom and encourage families to get involved in their children s achievement. They also build relationships among educators, families, and community partners. This practical book is full of step-by-step guidelines and reproducible activities to help you bring family reading nights to life in your own school or district.

Special Features:

• The book is organized by month of the school year, so you can quickly find activities that meet your needs
• Each activity is easy to implement and includes a page of instructions for teacher-leaders and an activity page for families
• An appendix provides all of the forms you need to get your Family Reading Night started, including invitations and registration sheets
• All of the family activities can be photocopied or downloaded for free from our website, www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138021471, so that you can print and distribute them during your event

This enhanced second edition includes connections to the Common Core State Standards for reading. It also features a special new appendix with all of the family activities translated into Spanish, to help more families get involved "

Teachers who want to cut lesson planning time should welcome this series in the new edition, revised in line with the New Framework and updated with new models. It aims to: help teachers cover every sort of writing type they need; fine tune lessons by following key teaching points for each model; and deliver the literacy hour to pupils of varying ability using different versions of the same model.

Writing History 7-11 supports students and primary teachers helping them to explore ways in which activities involving the talk that underpins historical enquiry can be developed into reading and exciting, extended, reflective writing. The step that teachers and pupils take from 'talk for learning' to 'talk for writing' is a vital one. In this book the authors argue that all aspects of historical enquiry leading to writing involve discussion and dialogue which permeate every aspect of 'doing history'. From this perspective they set out a theoretical framework for understanding the role of talk and reading in developing pupils' critical thinking and confident reflective writing, then demonstrate through a series of case studies, in which teachers, university lecturers and pupils work together, how the theory is put into practice in the classroom. Themes include: How to support children in writing in a variety of interesting genres How to make links between the National Curriculum (2013) for History and for English How to plan for breadth and depth studies in the new National Curriculum How activities in History 5 - 11 can be developed into exciting extended writing The second half of the book draws upon case studies from a number of real primary classrooms with children of different ages. Each case study shows how teaching was planned to develop children's confidence and enjoyment in discussion and to scaffold reasoned, written explanation and argument. Topics presented are all relevant to the new curriculum framework and include talking and reading about: Time, change and significance over 6000 years - writing a television script Celtic Britain and the Roman Army - writing a travel brochure about Celtic Britain The destruction of Roman towns - writing a Saxon poem An archaeological investigation of a body in a Danish peat bog - writing a newspaper report Did any countries benefit from WW11? - writing an argued viewpoint The expansion westwards of European settlers - writing a flap book exploring different perspectives. This indispensable book provides not only sources for pupils to use in their writing, but also models and exemplars of different styles and voices to draw upon.

Spectrum(R) Writing for grade 6 guides students through each step of the writing process as they write paragraphs, personal narratives, fiction stories, descriptive comparisons, outlines, research reports, persuasive arguments, 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.

Treasure House Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation Skills Pupil Books are aimed at ages 5-11, offering complete coverage of the demanding 2014 National Curriculum, and ideal practice of the skills in the Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling test. Treasure House Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation Skills Pupil Book 5: - has 20 units - is matched directly to the 2014 National Curriculum - explains each concept clearly and simply, followed by a set of carefully tailored questions - ensures pupils will master all appropriate language skills - provides regular progress checks with 3 review units. This pupil book can be used with Treasure House Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation Skills Teacher's Guide 5 and activities on Collins Connect for a complete programme to enhance children's vocabularies and use of grammar and punctuation.

Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds features exciting fiction and non-fiction decodable readers to enthuse and inspire children. They are fully aligned to Letters and Sounds Phases 1-6 and contain notes in the back. The Handbooks provide support in demonstration and modelling, monitoring comprehension and expanding vocabulary. Find out all about looking after a pet dog in this non-fiction book. Pink A/Band 1A offers emergent readers very simple, highly predictable texts and provides direct support through illustrations. The focus sounds in this book are: /s/ /a/ /t/ /p/ /i/ /n/ /m/ /d/ Pages 14 and 15 allow children to re-visit the content of the book, supporting comprehension skills, vocabulary development and recall. Reading notes within the book provide practical support for reading Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds with children, including a list of all the sounds and words that the book will cover.

As schools shift to the Common Core, many English language arts teachers are left with questions about how their classrooms should look. Is fiction out? Can I still do strategy instruction? Does close reading mean deliberating on each word? Finally, there's a resource with all of these answers and more. In Focus on Text, bestselling author Amy Benjamin provides practical guidance on how to realistically implement the Common Core reading standards. Part I of the book examines misconceptions about the standards and what's really required. It also takes you inside classrooms to see how teachers are modifying their instruction. Part II tackles each reading standard for grades 4-8. You'll learn how to teach the standards with literary and informational texts and how to use them as a springboard for instruction in writing, language, speaking, and listening. Topics include... * Defining close reading and how is it different from word-by-word reading. When and how do students need to go over a text meticulously? * How to use scaffolding through background knowledge to help students with challenging texts * The best instructional practices to help students increase their range of reading and level of text complexity * Ideas for teaching key concepts such as text structure, point of view, theme, stated and implied meanings, and the progression of ideas and characters * Tweaking your assessments to better align with the Common Core--how to create reading check quizzes, unit tests, and cold reading tests to see if students are growing as readers. * And much, much more! Throughout the book, you'll find teaching tips and practical resources to use with students, such as question starters and sentence stems. You'll also get a wide variety of classroom examples at different grade levels and with different texts. Whether you're experienced with the Common Core or just getting started, this book will give you exciting new ideas for making them work in your own classroom so your students grow as readers!

This bright, clear frieze provides a stimulating reference point for the classroom wall. Great for whole class work on letter shapes, sounds and alphabetical order, which makes referring to both a-z and A-Z easy and quick. The double sided frieze now features pre-cursive letters on one side and straight letters on the other side.

The Common Core is placing a heavier emphasis on nonfiction, but that doesn't mean you have to give up your literature lessons! In this book, English teachers Stacey O'Reilly and Angie Stooksbury describe how you can combine nonfiction with fiction to meet the standards and give students a deeper understanding of what they are reading. This practical book provides a variety of nonfiction reading strategies as well as ready-to-implement lesson plans and text pairing suggestions. You will get... A variety of useful strategies to help students analyze nonfiction Sample units with step-by-step agendas and lesson plans Ready-to-use classroom handouts and rubrics for assessment Suggested text pairings across genres and time periods

Host family reading nights at your school These events promote literacy outside of the classroom and encourage families to get involved in their children s achievement. They also build relationships among educators, families, and community partners. This practical book is full of step-by-step guidelines and reproducible activities to help you bring family reading nights to life in your own school or district.

Special Features:

• The book is organized by month of the school year, so you can quickly find activities that meet your needs
• Each activity is easy to implement and includes a page of instructions for teacher-leaders and an activity page for families
• An appendix provides all of the forms you need to get your Family Reading Night started, including invitations and registration sheets
• All of the family activities can be photocopied or downloaded for free from our website, www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138021471, so that you can print and distribute them during your event

This enhanced second edition includes connections to the Common Core State Standards for reading. It also features a special new appendix with all of the family activities translated into Spanish, to help more families get involved "

Reinforce your sixth-grader's spelling skills with Spectrum Spelling. With the progressive lessons in this workbook, students will practice diphthongs, regular and irregular plurals, related words, Greek and Latin roots, and dictionary skills. Engage your child with brainteasers, riddles, and puzzles in these full-color spelling lessons from Spectrum(R). Students in grades K-6 will find systematic instruction and practice in spelling patterns, spelling strategies, and spelling skills related to meaning and context. Each workbook also includes a speller's dictionary, proofreader's guide, and answer key. Aligned to current state standards, Spectrum is your child's path to spelling success. Spectrum, the best-selling workbook series, is proud to provide quality educational materials that support your students' learning achievement and success.