Explore the differences among English learners, as well as dual-language, bilingual, and language-immersion programs, to help you decide what makes the most sense for your student population.
Most scholars believe that instruction in academic English ’ done early, consistently, and simultaneously across content areas ’ can make a difference in English learners’ ability to understand the core curriculum.
Walk into any truly excellent school and you can feel it almost immediately — a calm, orderly atmosphere that hums with an exciting, vibrant sense of purposefulness. This is a positive school culture, the kind that improves educational outcomes.
Although occasionally frustrating, spelling is logical, learnable, and critical to reading as well as to writing — but the most important thing is, it makes sense.
Find out how to help your students improve their writing through activities and tools that support the drafting stage. Show your students how to use technology tools to create, revise, and store their drafts in a digital writing portfolio.
Today’s Independent Reading (IR) programs differ significantly from SSR and DEAR. Effective IR programs require active teacher engagement, time, a broad range of leveled texts, talk around texts, and differentiated instruction. The benefits are well worth it: increased student achievement, motivation, and a love of reading.
Reading Rockets offers a rich library of classroom strategies, articles, parent tip sheets, FAQs, videos, research briefs and more — providing research-based and best-practice information for educators, parents, and others who work with young readers. Browse by the topics listed below!
Early identification is crucial when it comes to helping children who are having trouble learning to read. This seminal article by Joseph Torgesen explains the assessment process and reviews the more commonly used assessment tools.
Providing small-group reading instruction in five core reading elements (phonological awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) can really help English language learners in the elementary grades.
There are many people at your child’s school who are there to help your child learn, grow socially and emotionally, and navigate the school environment. Here’s a selected list of who’s who at your school: the teaching and administrative staff as well as organizations at the district level. You might want to keep this list handy all year long.
Find out the characteristics of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that make writing difficult, and how use of technology can help support writing development. Results of a pilot study that utilized First Author® software to improve the writing of secondary students with ASD are described.
Give your students a chance to deepen and share their travel experiences through narrative writing, diagrams and illustrations, and the reading of all kinds of print (including maps, brochures and menus). Authentic reading and writing experiences help students connect what’s happening in class to the real world outside.
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.
We deserve lesson plans that are based on evidence and effective strategies, not on standards and wishful thinking. Equity isn’t about rushing to grade-level standards — it’s about providing the methodical teaching that the students in our classrooms deserve.
Because success with technology depends largely upon critical thinking and reflection, teachers with relatively little technological skill can provide useful instruction. But schools must support these teachers by providing professional development and up-to-date technology for use in classrooms.
When students engage in “word analysis” or “word study,” they break words down into their smallest units of meaning — morphemes. Discover effective strategies for classroom word study, including the use of online tools, captioning, and embedded supports to differentiate instruction.
Just as we differentiate our core content instruction to meet individual student needs, our approach to digital citizenship should take student diversity into account. Get tips and strategies for teaching critical digital citizenship skills to your students with learning and attention issues.
