Name: The Gift of Story
Brand: John Schu:::100232
SKU: 9781625312082
Price: 27.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Nawal Qarooni:::100384

Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations

9781625316196

$39.00 $29.00 Save $10.00

In Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Elevating Home Experiences and Classroom Practices for Collective Care, Nawal Qarooni invites us to step beyond school-centric, one-off events and practices to create more authentic, engaging collaborations with caregivers. Instead of asking what families can do to support schools, Qarooni asks how schools can identify and celebrate what families already inherently bring to their children’s literacy learning.

Establishing this work in holistic teaching—a pedagogical mindset that affirms the importance of loving the whole child through compassionate, collective care—Qarooni explores five critical literacy tenets by highlighting opportunities to listen for, honor, connect to, and elevate family strengths while inviting them even further into our shared work and encouraging reflection around:

Recognizing the journey of process,
Celebrating the role collaboration plays within the collective
Using observational literacy to read the world
Advocating for the power of talk to grow ideas and connect with others
Giving children choice to make self-directed decisions

With moments of memoir woven in alongside diverse family examples and classroom stories connected to realistic instructional practices, Qarooni shows how all families contribute meaningfully to their children’s literacy lives. Discover how we can tap into those vast wells to support learning at home and in school while building positive, reciprocal relationships across both settings.

With an afterword by En Comunidad authors, Carla España and Luz Yadira Herrera, Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations is rooted in the simple truth that we cannot separate knowing our students from knowing their home, communities, and the people that they love. This book offers a toolkit for connecting with families and elevating the intrinsic strengths that reside in every child’s home.

Katie Walther:::100383

A Year for the Books

9781625315670

$42.95 $32.00 Save $10.95

With a focus on fostering a deep love for reading and prioritizing student growth, A Year for the Books: Routines and Mindsets for Creating Student-Centered Reading Communities is a must-have for educators from kindergarten through middle school. Discover a teacher-friendly resource crafted by Katie Walther, esteemed educator, and respected veteran teacher Maria Walther that will take you behind the scenes and through the school year as they share simple, practical strategies to design learner-centered literacy experiences.

Starting with the first few weeks of school, each chapter highlights multiple ways to embed literacy experiences across the entire year that prioritize learners and literacy. To support you in your decision making, the classroom-tested ideas in each chapter are arranged around five grounding principles:

Actionable strategies for launching and sustaining a vibrant reading culture
Clear processes to define and communicate community beliefs
Creative structures for establishing and maintaining reading routines
Innovative ideas for cultivating an inclusive reading community
Equitable techniques for partnering with families and caregivers

Within each chapter you will also find nuggets of wisdom from the Walthers' collective years of teaching, practical ideas about how to keep it simple, and several book suggestions. As an added bonus, this book features companion podcasts or PDCasts where you can hear the authors tackle authentic classroom dilemmas and share their decision-making process.

Whether you’re a novice or seasoned educator, you’ll want A Year for the Books by your side as you advocate for your student readers and promote independent reading in your classroom all year long.

Matthew R. Kay and Jennifer Orr:::100189

We're Gonna Keep On Talking

9781625315755

$36.00 $27.00 Save $9.00

What should conversations about race look and sound like in the elementary classroom? How do we respond authentically and truthfully to children’s questions about the world?
And how can we build classroom communities that encourage these meaningful conversations about race?

Matthew Kay and Jennifer Orr take on these questions and more in We’re Gonna Keep On Talking: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Elementary Classroom. A companion work to Kay’s Not Light, But Fire, this book focuses on the unique and powerful role discussions about race can play in the elementary classroom.

Drawing its title inspiration from the lyrics of the freedom song “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” sung by hundreds of children marching against segregation in what came to be known as the Children’s Crusade of 1963, We’re Gonna Keep On Talking is written for teachers who are willing to match children’s courage and brilliance, and who believe that “a foundation in meaningful race discourse will help [children] to seek justice for themselves and their neighbors, to be kinder, [and] more thoughtful.”

Writing with the humility and honest storytelling of two career classroom teachers, Matthew Kay and Jennifer Orr share:

Strategies for building safe and supportive classroom and school spaces for productive discourse
Dozens of practical teacher moves for facilitating race conversations
Classroom stories that allow readers to envision ways into the work through picture books, art, graphs, historical photographs, and current events
Tips for aligning the work of race conversations to your grade-level standards

Whether you are unsure of where to begin or looking to deepen your practice, We’re Gonna Keep On Talking will be your guide to the important work of race conversations in the elementary classroom.

Nicora Placa:::100310

6 Tools for Collaborative Mathematics Coaching

9781625313843

$40.00 $30.00 Save $10.00

In 6 Tools for Collaborative Mathematics Coaching, Nicora Placa lays out a clear path to help you become a trusted and effective math coach. Her “6 Tools” are flexible structures that you and your colleagues can use to learn together:

Building Teams: Fostering a Learning Community
Student Interviews: Learning to Listen
Visiting Classrooms: Developing Your Lens
Learning Walks: Focusing the Team on Students’ Thinking
Rehearsing Routines: Practicing with Colleagues
Lesson Study: Learning Collectively with Voice, Choice, and Agency

In this easy-to-use, practical guide, Placa introduces each of the 6 Tools with classroom vignettes, step-by-step guidelines for rollout, connections to the literature, resources for further research, planning templates, and opportunities for you to adapt the tool for your particular context.

Whether you're a new coach who loves teaching math to children but is new to adult education, or a more experienced coach who is looking for new strategies to engage your teams, 6 Tools for Collaborative Mathematics Coaching can help you create learning opportunities that honor teachers as professionals. With a collaborative coaching approach, you can improve teaching and learning across your school and for all your students.

"There’s so much to love about how 6 Tools is constructed." --Elham Kazemi

6 Tools for Collaborative Mathematics Coaching

Sara Kugler:::100267

Better Book Clubs

9781625313928

$37.33 $28.00 Save $9.33

In her comprehensive guide, Better Book Clubs: Deepening Comprehension and Elevating Conversation, literacy coach and staff developer Sara Kugler shows you how to combine the power of book clubs with assessment-driven instruction to support your students as they talk and think about texts together. Using authentic book club conversations as an assessment of academic talk and text understanding, Kugler raises the bar on typical professional discussions about book clubs, moving beyond teacher-directed interactions and surface-level conversations to include:

Structures, teaching methods, and routines that support authenticity and independence in book clubs
Suggestions for starting, scaffolding, and sustaining effective, student-centered book clubs
Tips for listening in on clubs as a way to assess academic talk and text understanding
Methods for moving from observation into instruction that improves conversation and comprehension
Touchstone anchor charts and sample lessons for launching and maintaining strong clubs at a variety of independence levels

With a dual focus on stronger comprehension and improved conversations, Better Book Clubs will help you establish effective book clubs that will engage your readers, enhance your learning communities, and become an indispensable component of your literacy classroom.

Gina Picha:::100266

Conferring in the Math Classroom

9781625315137

$38.67 $29.00 Save $9.67

All students enter our math classrooms with ideas worthy of discussion. Some of the most effective breakthroughs come from short, intentional conversations between students and teacher, yet planning for these moments can seem daunting. In her innovative book, Conferring in the Math Classroom: A Practical Guidebook to Using 5-Minute Conferences to Grow Confident Mathematicians, Gina Picha focuses on simple and transformative ways teachers can use math conferences, short conversations between teachers and small groups of students at work, to guide instruction, assess understanding, and build strong math thinkers.

Inside you will learn to:

Facilitate math conferences to listen to students, identify and build on their strengths, and encourage them to share their math thinking
Build a positive math identity that will help nurture student-centered math classrooms
Ask exploratory questions to gain data-driven insight into their math reasoning and plan the next steps for instruction
Provide differentiated math instruction based on the individual or small group needs
Drive fun and interactive math talk in the classroom

Picha includes teacher questioning guides, If-Then charts organized by grade level and math topic, and note-taking templates to help you get started with math conferring right away. This practical and highly accessible approach can help students deepen their math understanding, build confidence in their math abilities, and connect learnings between math subjects.

Robin Griffith:::100265

Teachers as Decision Makers

9781625313904

$45.33 $34.00 Save $11.33

In Teachers as Decision Makers: Responsive Guided Reading Instruction, Robin Griffith draws on years of research and countless interactions with students and teachers to present a framework of instructional decision making centered on the readers we work with, the books we share with them, and the instructional objectives we guide them toward.

In this fresh look at the instructional choices we make, Griffith offers an in-depth guide in which you’ll discover how to make effective, student-driven decisions, both while planning for and in the moments of teaching at the guided reading table, including:

The Teacher Decision Making Framework, grounded in the learner, the goal, and the text
Direct applications across three guided reading text level bands: Emergent, Early, and Transitional
Tables, charts, and reproducible materials for easy reference in assessing and monitoring key reading behaviors at each band
50 quick reference Decision Guides for practical planning and responding in three instructional areas: Word Solving, Fluency and Expression, and Comprehension

Whether you’re new to guided reading or looking to refine your practice, this practical resource will give you the tools you need to elevate your instruction and refine your ability to make effective decisions when teaching young readers.

Jeff Anderson, Travis Leech, and Holly Durham:::100065

Patterns of Power, Grades 9-12

9781625315595

$77.33 $58.00 Save $19.33

Traditional grammar instruction often focuses too much on what’s right or what’s wrong, hiding the true power of conventions—the creation of meaning, purpose, and effect. Instead of hammering high school students with the mistakes they should avoid, Jeff Anderson, Travis Leech, and Holly Durham suggest exploring grammar through the celebration of author’s purpose and craft. In Patterns of Power, Grades 9-12: Teaching Grammar Through Reading and Writing, they invite you to create an environment in which writers thrive while studying and appreciating the beauty, effects, and meaning of grammar. Inside this book, teachers will find a comprehensive explanation of the brain-based Patterns of Power invitational process, as well as:

35 standards-aligned lesson sets built around practical, engaging, inquiry-based methods that take deeper dives into grammar and craft than any worksheet, quiz, or editing exercise ever could
A variety of high-interest model texts from authentic and diverse sources, including excerpts from classic and current novels, memoirs, plays, graphic novels, poems, and media
Real-life classroom examples and tips with suggestions for scaffolding new learning and ideas for how to use the lessons in AP courses
Templates for extended application, easy to locate printables, and ready-to-go visuals
Additional Models for Further Study for extension opportunities in every lesson set
An entire chapter devoted to helping high school writers master citations in research

With hundreds of teach-tomorrow resources and implementation supports such as quick-reference guides, specific applications to reading instruction, and soundtrack suggestions to infuse the joy of music into grammar instruction, Patterns of Power, Grades 9-12 gives you everything you need to inspire your high school writers to move beyond limitation and into the endless possibilities of what they can do as writers.

The Patterns of Power series also includes Patterns of Power, Grades 6-8: Inviting Adolescent Writers into the Conventions of Language; Patterns of Power, Grades 1-5: Inviting Young Writers into the Conventions of Language; Patterns of Wonder, Grades PreK-1: Inviting Emergent Writers to Play with the Conventions of Language; and Patterns of Power en Español, Grades 1-5: Inviting Bilingual Writers into the Conventions of Spanish.

Tonya B. Perry, Steven Zemelman, and Katy Smith:::100256

Teaching for Racial Equity

9781625315182

$42.67 $32.00 Save $10.67

Recipient of the 2022 Excellence in Equity Award!

It is not enough to be against racism in education – teachers must be actively antiracist. Yet how do we start reflecting on our own beliefs and lives so we can truly teach for racial literacy? In the award-winning Teaching for Racial Equity: Becoming Interrupters, authors Tonya Perry, Steven Zemelman, and Katy Smith engage in honest conversations between educators of color and their white colleagues. Authentic, inspiring, and sometimes uncomfortable, teachers share stories of personal histories and experiences that shaped them as people and educators.

In this book you will find:

Strategies to understand different backgrounds through a racial lens and ways to address potentially difficult conversations with fellow educators
In-depth overview of Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz’s Archaeology of Self™ and how it can be personally and professionally adopted
Lists of resources for teaching about and actively interrupting racism in education and tools that document systemic inequalities in the classroom
Ways to facilitate student-led conversations which examine race and inequitable conditions found nationwide

By examining inequalities found at a systemic level, teachers can start to remove some of their internal biases and allow students to show who they truly are. In turn, this can help create a school curriculum that makes space for BIPOC voices that inspire and invite students to share. Teaching for Racial Equity: Becoming Interrupters provides a resource for teachers and educators to critically reflect and begin work to interrupt racism at all levels.

Jeff Anderson, Travis Leech, and Melinda Clark:::100065

Patterns of Power, Grades 6–8

9781625315151

$77.33 $58.00 Save $19.33

Authors Jeff Anderson, Travis Leech, and Melinda Clark lead a vibrant approach to grammar instruction in Patterns of Power, Grades 6-8: Inviting Adolescent Writers into the Conventions of Language. Here, young, emergent writers are invited to notice the conventions of the English language and build off them in this inquiry-based approach to instructional grammar.

The book comes with standards-aligned lessons that can be incorporated in just 10 minutes a day. Patterns of Power’s responsive, invitational approach puts students in an involved role and has them explore and discuss the purpose and meaning of what they read. Students study short, authentic texts and are asked to share their findings out loud, engaging in rich conversations to make meaning.

Inside you’ll find:

Ready-to-use lesson plan sets that include excerpts from authentic and diverse mentor texts curated for grades 6-8
Real-life classroom examples, tips, and Power Notes gleaned from the authors’ experiences that can be applied to any level of writer
Resources, including a Patterns of Power Planning Guide and musical soundtracks, to use in classroom instruction or as handouts for student literacy notebooks

Patterns of Power, Grades 6-8 provides a simple classroom routine that is structured in length and approach, but provides teachers flexibility in choosing the texts, allowing for numerous, diverse voices in the classroom. The practice helps students build cognitive recognition and provides a formative assessment for teachers on student progress. With these short lessons, students will gain confidence and move beyond limitation to produce effortless writing in your class and beyond.

The Patterns of Power series also includes Patterns of Power, Grades 1-5: Inviting Young Writers into the Conventions of Language; Patterns of Power en Español, Grades 1-5: Inviting Bilingual Writers into the Conventions of Spanish; Patterns of Power, Grades 9-12: Teaching Grammar Through Reading and Writing; and Patterns of Wonder, Grades PreK-1: Inviting Emergent Writers to Play with the Conventions of Language.

Jan Burkins and Kari Yates:::100175

Shifting the Balance, Grades K-2

9781625315106

$43.34 $32.50 Save $10.84

The current emphasis on the body of research known as the "Science of Reading" has renewed the reading wars and raised challenging questions for balanced literacy teachers about the best way to teach reading. Instead of fueling the debate, Dr. Jan Burkins and Kari Yates immersed themselves in the research and produced Shifting the Balance, Grades K-2: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom.

This best-selling guide is concise and practical, integrating effective reading strategies from each perspective. Every chapter of Shifting the Balance, Grades K-2 focuses on one of the six simple and scientifically sound shifts reading teachers can make to strengthen their approach to early reading instruction in these areas:

Reading Comprehension
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
High-Frequency Words
Cueing Systems
Text Selection

Practical Instruction for Primary Grades: Whether your students are just learning to read or building more advanced reading comprehensive skills, Shifting the Balance, K-2 is designed to help teachers meet the instructional needs of K-2 students.

Six Manageable Shifts: Each chapter focuses on a key shift that helps educators understand common misconceptions and adjust their thinking around some common instructional practices that teachers have been using for decades.

Evidence-Based Instruction: Burkins and Yates offer busy educators a blueprint for integrating finding from brain research, cognitive science, and child development into their daily instruction, while keeping meaningful experiences with books a priority.

Classroom Applications: Shifting the Balance, K-2 is full of sample activities and classroom vignettes that paint a picture of what these shifts look like in action with roomful of learners.

The book has already helped countless educators by taking the guesswork out of how to blend best practices with the latest research while keeping students at the forefront of reading instruction. "We've written this book to support you in making sound decisions anchored in the best of science, the truth of responsiveness, and a relentless focus on providing all children learning experiences saturated with meaning," the authors write.

Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos:::100311

The Comprehensive Intervention Model

9781625314758

$94.67 $71.00 Save $23.67

The Comprehensive Intervention Model: Fostering Self-Regulated Readers Through Responsive Teaching by Linda Dorn, Carla Soffos, and Adria Klein introduces educators to an innovative intervention model that puts theory to practice then gives that practice a framework. When implemented with fidelity, the framework has the potential to close the gap between low-progress readers and their grade-level peers.

The Comprehensive Intervention Model (CIM) organizes essential educational theory and effective instructional practices under a complete, layered intervention model. CIM includes both a professional book and resource manual that correlates the intent behind the Response to Intervention (RTI) movement. This well-researched and practical resource begins by laying the theoretical foundation for its methodology before describing its multi-tiered system of instruction across a range of components. The book concludes with a collection of examples that show the model in action.

The CIM professional book includes:

High-quality, differentiated classroom instruction
A portfolio of evidence-based interventions
A seamless assessment system at an individual and system level
School-embedded professional learning for increasing teacher efficacy and building capacity in schools

Beyond boxed programs and quick-fix options, the authors outline and advocate for an intervention approach that includes a commitment to systemic reflection, teacher development, precise assessments, and data-driven, responsive instruction—all centering on student needs.

The resource manual provides administrators, coaches, and teachers with the tools needed to implement the CIM with fidelity including planners, guide sheets, observation forms, data collection forms, phonics and word learning guides, and more. Use these two books together to support a Response to Intervention (RTI) method for closing the gap between low-progress readers and their grade-level peers.

Whitney La Rocca and Jeff Anderson:::100224

Patterns of Wonder, Grades PreK-1

9781625314505

$77.33 $58.00 Save $19.33

Whitney La Rocca and Jeff Anderson adapt their vibrant approach to grammar instruction in Patterns of Wonder, Grades Prek-1: Inviting Emergent Writers to Play with the Conventions of Language. Here, young, emergent writers are invited to notice the conventions of language and build off them in this inquiry-based approach to instructional grammar.

The book comes with standards-aligned lessons that can be incorporated in just 10 minutes a day. Patterns of Wonder’s responsive, invitational approach allows young students to play and inquire about language and experiment, take risks, and have fun.

Inside you’ll find:

Ready-to-use lesson plan sets that pinpoint and build across the most common needs of emergent writers
An adjusted invitational process adapted for young learners, and the Phases of Emergent Writing as tools to plan for effective, scaffolded instruction
How to position grammar concepts about print instruction across three overlapping levels of support: oral language, illustrating, and writing
Over 200 engaging picture book recommendations to stir curious classroom conversations

Patterns of Wonder, Grades PreK-1 provides a simple classroom routine that is structured in length and approach, but provides teachers flexibility in choosing the texts, allowing for numerous, diverse voices in the classroom. The practice helps students build cognitive recognition and provides a formative assessment for teachers on student progress. Grounded in play, conversation, and most of all, wonder, Patterns of Wonder brings the authors’ irrepressible excitement for inquiry and writing instruction to the ways we support our Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st grade emergent writers.

The Patterns of Power series also includes Patterns of Power, Grades 6-8: Inviting Adolescent Writers into the Conventions of Language; Patterns of Power, Grades 1-5: Inviting Young Writers into the Conventions of Language; Patterns of Power, Grades 9-12: Teaching Grammar Through Reading and Writing; and Patterns of Power en Español. Grades 1-5: Inviting Bilingual Writers into the Conventions of Spanish.

Shelley Harwayne:::100253

Above and Beyond the Writing Workshop

9781625314307

$59.33 $44.50 Save $14.83

When writing workshops first blossomed in classrooms, its hallmarks were genuine curiosity, individual choice, quality conversations, and engaging children's literature. A joyous hum of intention, creativity, and craft enlivened the school day. Today's teachers are often faced with a range of obstacles, as new initiatives are embraced, mandates handed down, and scripted programs are purchased. Sometimes teachers must sacrifice the original principles of the writing workshop and lose the creative venue they provide.

Above and Beyond the Writing Workshop is filled with original writing challenges designed to bring back the spirit of the original writing workshop model and encourage teachers to enhance it with invention, innovation, and inspiration. Teaching creative writing is not only possible, but an important process in their instruction. Author Shelley Harwayne invites teachers to keep the workshop spirit alive by:

Encouraging professional conversations on classroom ideas and methods between colleagues
Developing writing cues that allow young writers to be inquisitive, outspoken, and independent
Showing how high quality writing can make a difference
Offering an inspired and stimulating outlet for students to express their passions

Harwayne's book will help teachers encourage students to write the world around them, which can generate more critical thinking and make for a more well-rounded child.

Melissa Stewart and Marlene Correia:::100153

5 Kinds of Nonfiction

9781625314178

$39.33 $29.50 Save $9.83

Once upon a time...children's nonfiction books were stodgy, concise, and not very kid friendly. Most were text heavy, with just a few scattered images decorating the content and meaning, rather than enhancing it. Over the last 20 years, children's nonfiction has evolved into a new breed of visually dynamic and engaging texts.

In 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children’s Books, Melissa Stewart and Dr. Marlene Correia present a new way to sort nonfiction into five major categories and show how doing so can help teachers and librarians build stronger readers and writers. Along the way, they:

Introduce the 5 kinds of nonfiction: Active, Browseable, Traditional, Expository Literature, and Narrative—and explore each category through discussions, classroom examples, and insights from leading children’s book authors
Offer tips for building strong, diverse classroom texts and library collections
Provide more than 20 activities to enhance literacy instruction
Include innovative strategies for sharing and celebrating nonfiction with students.

With more than 150 exemplary nonfiction book recommendations and Stewart and Correia’s extensive knowledge of literacy instruction, 5 Kinds of Nonfiction will elevate your understanding of nonfiction in ways that speak specifically to the info-kids in your classrooms, but will inspire all readers and writers.

Jennifer Fletcher:::100170

Writing Rhetorically

9781625313881

$42.67 $32.00 Save $10.67

In Writing Rhetorically: Fostering Responsive Thinkers and Communicators, author Jennifer Fletcher aims to cultivate independent learners through rhetorical thinking. She provides teachers with strategies and frameworks for writing instruction that can be applied across multiple subjects and lesson plans. Students learn to discover their own questions, design their own inquiry process, develop their own positions and purposes, make their own choices about content and form, and contribute to conversations that matter to them.

Inside this book, Fletcher helps remove some of the scaffolding and explains how to put in practice some methods which can successfully foster:

Inquiry, Invention, and Rhetorical Thinking
Writing for Transfer
Paraphrasing, Summary, Synthesis, and Citation Skills
Research Skills and Processes
Evidence-Based Reasoning
Rhetorical Decision Making

Rhetorical decision making helps students develop the skills, knowledge, and mindsets needed for transfer of learning: the ability to adapt and apply learning in new settings. The more choices students make as writers, the better prepared they are to analyze and respond to diverse rhetorical situations. Writing Rhetorically shows teachers what it looks like to dig into real texts with students and novice writers and how it develops them for lifelong learning.

Lisa Eickholdt and Patricia Vitale-Reilly:::100245

Writing Clubs

9781625313232

$37.33 $28.00 Save $9.33

Ask teachers about their biggest challenges in elementary and middle school, and many will say the teaching of writing. It is often difficult for students find the joy, discovery, and satisfaction writing can yield. What Lisa Eickholdt and Patricia Vitale-Reilly have found is that adherence to genre studies can get in the way of student collaboration. Believing writing instruction should be more authentic, they want students to have more choices, develop better collaboration, and sustain a sense of community, all through the implementation of writing clubs.

In their book Writing Clubs: Fostering Choice, Collaboration, and Community in the Writing Classroom, you'll discover ways to:

Collaborate throughout the process of writing
Choose what to write and how to write it
Examine mentor texts and study craft techniques across genres
Develop speaking and listening skills
Celebrate classmates’ accomplishments through publication

Collaboration is widely recognized as a vital life skill. Eickholdt and Vitale-Reilly present a plethora of ideas on how gratifying it can be right now, as well as in the future. There’s an old proverb that says, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.’ In Writing Clubs, we discover that there is no limit to how far young writers can go when teachers show them what it means to collaborate.

Mary Ann Cappiello and Erika Thulin Dawes:::100243

Text Sets in Action

9781625312976

$51.99 $39.00 Save $12.99

Finding ways to organize your classroom instruction for knowledge building and literacy learning can be challenging. How can you incorporate more nonfiction and informational text in your content area curriculum while expanding and deepening representation with diverse texts? What can motivate student learning while providing equity and access for different learning styles and needs? Text sets are the answer!

In Text Sets in Action: Pathways Through Content Area Literacy, authors Erika Thulin Dawes and Mary Ann Cappiello demonstrate how text sets offer students the opportunity to build critical thinking skills and informational literacy while generating interest and engagement across the content areas. Put your students in the center of the meaning-making in your classroom with multimodal multi-genre text sets in action.

In Text Sets in Action, the authors:

Model how text sets build foundational skills and metacognitive strategies as students experience a carefully scaffolded and sequenced exploration of ideas, academic, and content vocabulary
Explain how text sets encourage classroom discussion by having students ask questions about what they read, debate different perspectives, and relate the texts to their own personal experiences and the changes they would like to see in the world
Show how children’s literature and multimodal, multi-genre texts can serve as mentor texts for student writing and inspire creativity and advocacy
Demonstrate how to curate text sets that can introduce diverse and underrepresented voices into the classroom, fostering appreciation for different points of view and generate deeper critical thinking
Provide resources and suggestions for designing text sets – a multimodal, multi-genre text set can include children’s literature of all genres, as well as digital texts, YouTube videos, news articles, podcasts, and more

Text Sets in Action will help you create a collection of text sets that can be added to or edited over the years to align with your lesson plan goals. Teachers who have adopted this approach saw greater student reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. By introducing a multitude of text, teachers will ignite a spirit of inquiry and engagement for lifelong learning.

John Schu:::100232

The Gift of Story

9781625312082

$36.00 $27.00 Save $9.00

With the rise of teacher stressors, new and changing state standards, and high-stakes testing, it is more important than ever to remind literacy teachers and teacher-librarians about the reason that brought them to this profession: the love of story.

The Gift of Story: Exploring the Affective Side of the Reading Life, by John Schu (affectionately known as "Mr. Schu" all over reading communities), invites readers to consider literacy beyond its academic benefits and explore how universal truths found in stories can change us, inspire us, connect us to others, answer our deepest questions, and even help us heal along the way. Using his experience as a teacher, librarian, book lover, and story ambassador, Mr. Schu asks readers to reflect on what it means to share their hearts through stories and how it can connect us to individuals and learning communities.

The Gift of Story is presented through a study of five affective elements: Healer, Inspiration, Clarifier, Compassion, and Connector. Along the way, readers will encounter insightful contributions from educators, children’s writers, and illustrators, as well as recommendations for sharing the gift of story with learning communities including: treasured book suggestions that stir reflection, engaging tips for celebrating literacy, and heart-growing applications to lift classroom and library practices.

Celebrate the way we define and imagine ourselves through literacy by using stories to connect to others, build and strengthen community, and honor the children we were called to teach.

Carolyn Helmers and Susan Vincent:::100226

Intentional From the Start

9781625311948

$39.33 $29.50 Save $9.83

In Intentional from the Start: Guiding Emergent Readers in Small Groups, Carolyn Helmers and Susan Vincent take a concentrated look at the often-underestimated reading and writing work that occurs during the emergent reading stages of literacy development (PreA–D) and the seemingly simplistic books we use to teach them in small-group guided reading. Though both may appear unsophisticated, these earliest readers and the texts we use to meet their needs are each unique and full of nuances that generally go overlooked.

The authors explore how emergent readers learn best and position text levels appropriately in the service of students. They also turn their attention to a comprehensive exploration of the particular needs of emergent readers and how the work they do at text levels PreA–D lays a critical foundation necessary for them to continue growing successfully into text levels E and beyond. As they examine the needs of learners working at each emergent text level individually, the authors:

Detail specific demands books in that text level make on young readers and the best ways to coach students as they work through them
Highlight instructional procedures for reading, writing, and word study that can be implemented immediately at your small group table
Suggest optimal schedules, techniques, and formats for efficient instruction at that level
Unpack the book characteristics specific to that level and demonstrate ways to capitalize on them to intentionally support emergent readers and writers.

With plenty of useful classroom examples, as well as additional online resources with literacy center ideas that correlate directly with the work students are doing at particular levels, this book is a resource your emergent reading teacher heart will reach for again and again.

Allison Hintz and Antony T. Smith:::100160

Mathematizing Children's Literature

9781625311580

$37.33 $28.00 Save $9.33

Many teachers use traditional counting and shape books in math class. But what would happen if we approached any story with a math lens? How might mathematizing children's literature give learners space to ask their own questions, and make connections between stories, their lives, and the world around them? These are the questions authors Allison Hintz and Antony T. Smith set out to explore in Mathematizing Children’s Literature: Sparking Connections, Joy, and Wonder Through Read-Alouds and Discussion as they invite us to consider fresh ways of using interactive read-alouds to nurture students as both readers and mathematicians.

Inside Mathematizing Children’s Literature, you'll learn how to do the following:

Select picture books according to the goals of the read aloud experience
Plan and facilitate three styles of read aloud discussions – Open Notice and Wonder, Math Lens, and Story Explore
Utilize Idea Investigations - experiences that invite students to pursue literacy and math-focused ideas beyond the pages of the read aloud
Connect with students' families and communities through stories

Along the way, Hintz and Smith provide a wide range of picture book suggestions and appendices that include ready-to-use lesson planning templates, a form for notes, and a bookmark of guiding questions. Mathematizing Children’s Literature is a practical resource you'll find yourself referring to frequently.

New and Notable

Mathematizing Children’s Literature

The Literacy Workshop

Patterns of Power Family