Renée Watson is a poet, a teacher, and an award-winning author of books for young readers, including the Ryan Hart middle grade series, the picture book biography Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Florence Mills Story, the story of Maya Angelou told in free verse (Maya’s Song), the picture book Born on the Water, and the middle grade novel Some Places More Than Others. Many of her books are inspired by her experiences growing up as a Black girl in the Pacific Northwest.
In one school day, an elementary school teacher will instruct children in reading, math, science, social studies, and more. Children should be reading and writing across all these disciplines, using specific techniques and knowledge to help them navigate different types of texts.
Children’s magazines are a wonderful supplement to classroom instruction. Students are exposed to a wide variety of texts and lots of interactive content. From stories, poems, and action rhymes to nonfiction, crafts, puzzles, and games, kids’ magazines can offer an abundance of high-interest content to support your curriculum.
With the Common Core, literacy is intentionally taught within content areas. See what a CCSS mini-thematic unit in science might look like for children in the primary grades.
The challenges of teaching English language learners to read. Hosted by Rita Moreno, Becoming Bilingual examines the challenges of teaching children to read in a new language. We visit six cities across the country to learn about the different ways schools are working to create bilingual readers.
Join the conversation! We’re writing about the best practices in reading instruction, how to support literacy at home, building background knowledge, and choosing and using children’s books.
When it comes to deciding what books to share with the young readers in your life, there is so much to choose from! Get pointed in the right direction with our themed booklists and articles on choosing and using children’s books at home and in the classroom.
Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) teaches children reading comprehension through the integration of science and reading. Learn more about how CORI aims enhances students’ reading engagement in order to increase reading ability.
Carole Boston Weatherford is a children’s book author and poet who “mines the past for family stories, fading traditions, and forgotten struggles.” A number of Weatherford’s books tell the stories of African-American historical figures such as Harriet Tubman, Jesse Owens, and Billie Holiday. Other books recount historical events such as the Greensboro Sit-ins and the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Weatherford’s books have received a wide variety of awards, including the 2022 Coretta Scott King Book Award for Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre.
Dr. Maya Angelou was a renowned poet and storyteller who wrote for children and young adults as well as for adults. Here you’ll find a selection of her poetry and writing for young people, as well as anthologies of poetry by other Black poets.
Janet Wong’s career switch was so dramatic that she was featured on a segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show. When Wong left her job as Director of Labor Relations at Universal Studios in Hollywood, she dreamed of becoming a children’s book author. Over the next two years, she took a writing class, submitted manuscripts, and piled up more than two dozen rejection letters. Through a combination of practice, persistence, and talent, Janet Wong quickly became a successful writer of poetry and picture books for young people.
Kwame Alexander, an award-winning poet and author, writes picture books for children and cross-genre books for teens. The Crossover — his basketball-concrete poetry-hiphop mashup — was awarded the 2015 Newbery Medal. Kwame is also the creator of the in-school Book-in-a-Day writing and publishing workshop.
Signs of spring bloom in April: brighter colors, new growth, busy insects are all evidence of spring. And so is poetry! April is National Poetry Month. Regardless of whether you greet spring in the city, country, or somewhere in the middle, take a look around to enjoy the sights, smells, and sounds of the changing season! It’s time to welcome spring with a book …
Watch video clips from well-known children’s authors, talking about their journey to becoming writers, describing their writing process, and offering advice for young writers.
The best strategy for developing reading fluency is to provide your students with many opportunities to read the same passage orally several times. To do this, you should first know what to have your students read. Second, you should know how to have your students read aloud repeatedly.
Marilyn Singer has written all kinds of great books for children and young adults — picture books, fairy tales, mysteries, non-fiction, and novels — but poetry is her favorite. Singer is on a mission to “knock poetry off its pedestal” and to introduce kids to the pleasing rhythms and powerful emotion of poems, but also to encourage kids to express themselves through verse.
Discover how one elementary teacher set up her classroom library, making it easy to use and inviting — encouraging her students to find joy in selecting and reading books they will love.
