Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Special Education

Understanding Dyslexia and How to Help Our Students Succeed

We process the sounds of our alphabetic language as we read and write. The three necessary phonological processing abilities are phonological awareness, phonological memory and the ability to retrieve auditory information from long term memory (referred to as rapid naming). A deficit in some aspect of phonological processing is considered to be the cause of […]

Posted inBook Review, Featured, How to Fix Education, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy

Book Review: Vocabulary StrategiesThat Work: Do This – Not That!

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] In Vocabulary Strategies That Work: Do This-Not That! Lori G. Wilfong does an amazing job of bringing to light the importance of students actually learning vocabulary and making it useful instead […]

Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, School Improvement, Uncategorized

Written Text or Audiotext in the Classroom? We Should Have Both

I am passing out Brave New World to the 10th graders. “Is there an audiobook for this?” a student asks. “Why not just read the book?” I respond. “I can’t read this without help,” explains the student. “I’ll see,” I sigh. I admit that in the past I had been a little frustrated at these requests. I […]

Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy

Shakespeare Doesn’t Have to be Scary! Six Tips to Help you Start Teaching Shakespeare and be Glad You Did!

In my first year of teaching, I wanted to teach a Shakespeare play, but was completely intimidated by where to start. I befriended the most veteran member of our English department, an actress, director and drama teacher, who gave me fantastic tips and assured me that I would love it and that students would, too. […]

Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, From the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum, Languages, Literacy

What Common Core ELA Is Doing For Me

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”  ~Victor Frank  I think it is exciting to see the changes coming with the Common Core State Standards Initiative, especially with regard to English Language Arts.  I have been learning how these standards will impact my students; it is […]

Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Opinion

What Are We Accelerating in the Classroom?

As teachers we know how important it is to encourage reading in our classrooms, no matter what subject we teach. We equate reading success to lifelong success all around. As teachers we also know how incredibly busy our days are and how difficult it can be to meet children’s needs who either need daily remediation […]