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The Teacher Studio

Learning, thinking, creating

10 Ways to Create a Culture for Reading

Developing a love of reading seems to come naturally for some students, but for some--it takes a loving teacher to make the magic happen!  Check out these ten tips for getting started building a culture for reading in YOUR class! 1.  Share YOUR love of reading. Whether you are in a "grown up" book club of your own or can simply model your love with HOW you read, how MUCH you read, or your ... Read the Post

Responding to Literature: Thinking Deeply

One thing I have noticed about my students is that they LOVE to listen to me read aloud and are getting better and better about picking just right books and reading with amazing stamina.  What we really need work on (and I bet I am not alone in this!) is thinking deeply and writing about our reading. How did we start thinking deeply about texts? We've worked on a number of things like ... Read the Post

Novel in a Day? A Collaborative Reading Comprehension Lesson

I am always looking for ways to keep reading interesting and exciting for students while still working on comprehension skills and reading behaviors and processes. I have done this novel in a day activity for more than 20 years, and I thought I’d finally put it in a more useful format! What is it? Novel in a Day is a way to take a chapter book, divide it into sections, assign a section ... Read the Post

More Than a Graphic Organizer! Written responses to reading

As you know, the purpose of a graphic organizer is to help students (or adults!) make sense of information and organize it into a visible, usable fashion. Sometimes using an organizer is all we need from students—a way for them to represent the information we are asking for. Sometimes, however, we want students to organize information for other reasons…like to do a piece of writing. I wanted a way ... Read the Post

Responding to Reading Character Prompts: Gradual Release Model

I often hear teachers stressing out about how they can get everything they need ready for all their book groups, standards-based grading, and so on.  Sometimes I think we work WAY too hard--and I always work to try to do best quality instruction without driving myself into the ground.  We focus on characters throughout the school year. The easiest way I do this is that I have a bank of resources ... Read the Post

Helping Students Fall In Love With Books: A Reader’s Workshop Intervention

One group of students who I think we often ignore is those students who are solid readers, are compliant--but aren't "engaged readers".  We know that students learn to read by READING, so if they aren't reading at home and aren't challenging themselves at school, their progress will be impacted. Check out this reader's workshop lesson for some inspiration! Getting Students Talking About ... Read the Post

Reading interventions, “Ready Freddy”, and chapter book strategies!

Fourth grade reading is tough.  Many students have "unlocked" the key to reading...they can read most of the words and can track ever-increasing storylines.  As teachers, we can provide countless texts for them, coach them, model for them, and know that they will continue to become more sophisticated as readers. Unfortunately, there are still some students who haven't made this jump. It ... Read the Post