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Since his grandparents disappeared on an iceberg, Archer’s mother won’t let the well-mannered boy out of the museum-like house. Still, he finds unique adventures and companionship in this fast-paced, charming, witty and well written novel presented in a handsomely illustrated format.

Eight year old Jacque Papier wonders why he is ignored by everyone; is it because they dislike him? However, he learns that he isn’t quite real. Does an imaginary friend exist if no one imagines him? Readers will certainly find Jacque, his imaginary associates as well as the more tangible characters authentic in this gentle and wise “memoir.”

Emily doesn’t mind her family’s annual move because San Francisco is home to Garrison Griswold, book publisher. But there’s a nefarious plot against Griswold, creator of Book Scavenger. How will Emily and her new friend, James, solve the mystery? Find out in this fast-paced, often funny, sometimes tense mystery-adventure.

Strange and humorous adventures begin when Rory and his nemesis, Tommy-Lee, are placed in a secret isolation ward when they turn bright green from a strange ailment. Rory’s understated narration reveals likeable, quirky characters in unlikely but engaging circumstances.

When the goal is supporting excellent teaching, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach. This popular practitioner resource and text helps readers navigate the many choices involved in developing and fine-tuning a coaching program that offers the best fit for a particular school. The authors draw on current research as well as their extensive experience in K-8 settings. They provide clear guidance (with helpful reproducibles) on: (1) Major coaching models and how to choose among them; (2) Applying principles of adult learning and motivation; (3) The role of reading assessment in coaching; (4) Balancing classroom-level, grade-level, and whole-school tasks; and (5) Special considerations in middle school coaching.

This book provides a research-based framework for making differentiated instruction work in the primary grades. It includes scientifically validated techniques for teaching each component of the beginning reading program. The authors describe how to use assessment to form differentiated small groups and monitor student progress; plan which skills to target and when; and implement carefully selected instructional strategies. Vivid classroom examples illustrate what differentiated instruction looks like in action in each of the primary grades. For additional helpful resources, including classroom-ready lesson plans, teachers can purchase the complementary volume, How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3.

This bestselling book gives preservice and practicing literacy coaches the tools they need to build a successful schoolwide reading program. The authors, well-known experts in the field, describe the literacy coach’s crucial, evolving role in today’s schools. They offer step-by-step guidelines for implementing curricula and assessments, selecting instructional materials, and planning for differentiation and intervention. Specific ways to support teachers by providing high-quality professional development are discussed. The book is grounded in state-of-the-art research on PreK-5 instruction and the characteristics of effective coaches. New to this edition: (1) Incorporates the latest research and instructional materials; (2) Expanded grade range now includes PreK and grades 4-5; (3) Content on RTI and the Common Core standards; and (4) Strategies for making professional development more responsive to teachers’ needs.

Offering step-by-step guidance to simplify planning and decision making, this book reviews the basics of differentiated reading instruction and provides detailed, ready-to-use lesson plans and materials to help teachers hit the ground running. Teachers get everything they need to implement four types of instructional groups over multiple three-week cycles. For fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, lessons are based on popular, inexpensive trade books. For phonemic awareness and word recognition, dozens of reproducibles are provided, all in a convenient large-size format. The book can be used on its own or as a complement to Differentiated Reading Instruction: Strategies for the Primary Grades, which offers a complete introduction to the authors’ approach.

This book guides teachers in grades 6-12 to strategically combine a variety of texts – including literature, informational texts, and digital sources – to meet their content-area goals and the demands of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). It presents clear-cut ways to analyze text complexity, design challenging text sets, and help students get the most out of what they read. Practical instructional ideas for building background knowledge, promoting engagement, incorporating discussion and text-based writing, and teaching research skills are provided. Appendices offer sample unit plans for English language arts, history/social studies, and science classrooms. More than 20 reproducible coaching templates and other tools can be downloaded and printed.

A landmark book for parents on why, when, and how to prepare children for going to school and how to support them in the critical early school years. The Rameys lead parents through the various aspects of supporting a child’s schooling, such as fostering good social skills, choosing a school, establishing family routines, and assessing academic progress. This book is based on the Ramey’s twenty years of research, including their National Transition-to-School Demonstration Project, which involved over 8,000 children from kindergarten through third grade.

A concise, up-to-the-minute guide for parents on what the latest research says–and doesn’t say–about enhancing child development and early learning in the critical first 18 months of life. Internationally renowned child development experts Dr. Craig Ramey and Dr. Sharon Ramey have written a readable, informative book that tells parents what works and what counts in raising good-natured, capable, confident, caring, and accomplished children right from birth.

Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children is the landmark research study that uncovered the widely cited “word gap” between children from low-income homes and their more economically advantaged peers. For 2-1/2 years, Haet and Risley recorded every word spoken at home between parent and child in 42 families, categorized as professional, working class, or welfare families. Between professional and welfare parents, there was a difference of almost 300 words spoken per hour. Extrapolating this verbal interaction to four years, a child in a professional family would accumulate experience with almost 45 million words, while an average child in a welfare family would hear just 13 million — coining the phrase “the 30 million word gap.” Hart and Risley’s follow-up studies at age 9 show that the large differences in children’s language experience were tightly linked to large differences in child outcomes. By giving children positive interactions and experiences with adults who take the time to teach vocabulary, oral language concepts, and emergent literacy concepts, children should have a better chance to succeed at school and in the workplace.

This companion to the award-winning Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children reveals how daily child-parent social interactions govern children’s language and social development. Based on data from 2-1/2 years of observing the everyday interactions of 1- and 2-year-old children learning to talk in their own homes, Hart and Risley have charted the month-by-month growth of the children’s vocabulary, utterances, and use of grammatical structures. The narrative highlights reliability-tested research findings and is supplemented with numerous transcripts from observations and a list of 2,000 words of children’s expressive vocabulary from 19-36 months of age.This book is must-reading for professionals in speech and language, child development, psychology, and education who need to understand how children come to talk as much and as well as their parents and caregivers.

Children, Schools, and Inequality examines elementary school outcomes in light of the socioeconomic variation in schools and neighborhoods, the organizational patterns across elementary schools, and the ways in which family structure intersects with children’s school performance. Adding data from the Baltimore Beginning School Study to information culled from the fields of sociology, child development, and education, this book suggests why the gap between the school achievement of poor children and those who are better off has been so difficult to close. The authors show why the first-grade transition — how children negotiate entry into full-time schooling — is a crucial period. This book can inform educators, practitioners, and policymakers, as well as researchers in the sociology of education and child development.

Making the Most of Summer is a resource for providers who want to improve the quality of their summer programs by meeting the academic and youth development needs of their participants. The handbook contains a variety of easy-to-use planning tools designed to help summer programs be able to do the following: (1) incorporate the characteristics of effective summer learning programs; (2) implement engaging thematic units that meet challenging academic and youth development standards; (3) improve the quality of summer staff development opportunities; and (4) evaluate the success of their programs and services; and e) develop a long-term strategy for sustaining their work.

Comprehensive and authoritative, this forward-thinking book reviews the breadth of current knowledge about early education and identifies important priorities for practice and policy. Robert C. Pianta and his associates bring together foremost experts to examine what works in promoting all children’s school readiness and social-emotional development in preschool and the primary grades. Exemplary programs, instructional practices, and professional development initiatives — and the systems needed to put them into place — are described. The volume presents cutting-edge findings on the family and social context of early education and explores ways to strengthen collaboration between professionals and parents.

This book identifies the six attributes that lead to success for children with learning disabilities — self-awareness, proactivity, perseverance, goal-setting, social support systems, and emotional coping strategies — and presents structured activities that foster those traits in students. Each of the 60 fun, ready-to-use activities contains a lesson plan and reproducible student worksheet, complete with modifications, accommodations, and helpful teaching tips.

“Life without friends is a lonely and barren existence,” but that’s a common fate for children who fail to develop proper social skills, writes veteran special education teacher Lavoie in his insightful guidebook to helping children with learning disabilities overcome social skill deficits. Eschewing sink-or-swim and carrot-and-stick approaches, Lavoie stresses communication and patience for parents looking to guide their children through the maze of social interactions encountered daily, from arranging successful play dates and navigating the hidden curriculum of school, to language difficulties, social anxieties and family issues. Lavoie, who has taught and worked in the special education field for over 30 years, shows how to detect learning disabilities, discusses their impact on a child’s social development and provides strategies for implementing behavior change.

This book is the leader’s discussion guide for the F.A.T. City Workshop (opens in a new window). This important program looks at the world through the eyes of a learning-disabled child by taking you to a unique workshop attended by parents, educators, psychologists and social workers. There they join in a series of classroom activities which, cause frustration, anxiety and tension — emotions all too familiar to the student with a learning disability.

Backed by decades of experience in the classroom, Lavoie explodes common myths and gives specific advice for motivating children with learning disabilities. He outlines parents’ and teachers’ roles, suggesting ways in which they can work together to encourage any child to reach his or her potential. Finally, he reveals what we can learn from some of the most powerful motivators in the world: advertisers. With empathy and understanding, Lavoie offers parents and teachers the key to unlocking enthusiasm and responsiveness, proving any child can be motivated to learn.

Learn what young children can do as competent, confident writers when we create writing classrooms that support their developmental patterns and provide them with multiple opportunities to write for numerous purposes across the curriculum. The authors spotlight the children’s strengths in brief case studies to help you understand the significance of their efforts, and offer specific recommendations you can use to help your own students use writing as a meaning-making tool in various subject areas and settings.

Kids will giggle as they count all the animals that have frightened the monkeys off the pages. Full of fun reader interactions and keeps readers guessing until the very last page!

When a skunk first appears in the tuxedoed man’s doorway, it’s a strange but possibly harmless occurrence. But then the man finds the skunk following him, and the unlikely pair embark on an increasingly frantic chase through the city, from the streets to the opera house to the fairground. What does the skunk want? It’s not clear ― but soon the man has bought a new house in a new neighborhood to escape the little creature’s attention, only to find himself missing something …