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Elementary teacher giving a student a high-five for encouragement
Article

Checklist for Using RTI to Promote Reading Achievement

This is a checklist to help educators carry out the five recommendations made in the What Works Clearninghouse report “Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tier Intervention in the Primary Grades.”

Elementary boy in yellow plaid shirt taking a test
Article

Early Screening Is at the Heart of Prevention

Early intervention works. Because it is also expensive, it’s important to be able to identify the kids who are most at risk of reading failure. Thanks to a new generation of screening assessments, we can identify these students as early as kindergarten — and then invest in interventions for them.

Accessible Materials for Students with Print Disabilities
Article

Accessible Materials for Students with Print Disabilities

Many struggling and special needs students have a print disability. Teachers can meet these students’ needs by translating the three principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into practice. Learn about the seven features of “born accessible materials” and how to select these materials for your school and classroom.

Elementary student in class thinking pensively about the lesson
Article

Critical Thinking: Why Is It So Hard to Teach?

Learning critical thinking skills can only take a student so far. Critical thinking depends on knowing relevant content very well and thinking about it, repeatedly. Here are five strategies, consistent with the research, to help bring critical thinking into the everyday classroom.
Young girl pointing at text as she reads aloud

When Sisyphus Was in First Grade or One-Minute Reading Homework

Listening to your child read aloud — though for longer times and without the timer — can be good practice for fluency and comprehension. Ask questions about the text, and repeat the reading if your child struggles with word recognition, pace, or expression. And always be positive and encouraging.

Map Making
Article

Map Making

Students often have difficulty understanding abstract map symbols. Learn how to introduce map skills with literature that contextualizes mapping in a narrative, can be related to where in the world each student lives, and engages students by actively “doing geography.”

three elementary students discussing a text together in class

Listen-Read-Discuss

Listen-read-discuss is a comprehension strategy that builds students’ prior knowledge before they read a text. It supports both listening and reading comprehension and involves three key components: listening to a teacher presentation about a topic, independent reading, and engaging in discussions about the text and the topic. 

young red-headed boy outside writing in a notebook
Article

Journal Writing

Writing in journals can be a powerful strategy for students to respond to literature, gain writing fluency, dialogue in writing with another student or the teacher, or write in the content areas. While journaling is a form of writing in its own right, students can also freely generate ideas for other types of writing as they journal.Teachers can use literature that takes the form of a journal by reading excerpts and discussing them with students.

young red-headed boy outside writing in a notebook
Article

An Introduction to Letter Writing

Letter writing can be fun, help children learn to compose written text, and provide handwriting practice — and letters are valuable keepsakes. This article contains activities to help children ages 5–9 put pen to paper and make someone’s day with a handwritten letter.

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