Friday Favorite: The Opposite of Complex
This week we have thought both about working smarter not harder, as well as the staircase of text complexity. To help you think more about the staircase of text complexity, we recommend revisiting a...
View ArticleWeekend Round Up: January 19
Monday Climbing the Staircase of Text Complexity: The Research and the Reality (Part 1) In this post, we dig into the research that forms the foundation of the staircase of complexity paradigm. We...
View ArticleWhat Should Students Read? Independent Reading (Blog Digest, Part 2)
Yesterday, we launched a three-part digest of our blog posts related to independent reading. Yesterday’s digest presented our accumulated thoughts about reading volume, which run across a series of...
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Academic Vocabulary 101 (and 102 and 103)
Recently, Kim has been able to boast that her sons, ages 10 and 12, can use the words erudite, amity, dauntless, candor and abnegation in conversation with relative ease. To most, this seems...
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“Let us go then, You and I”: A Reflection on Setting High Standards
A couple of weeks ago, when we posted More Than Sparkly, we connected with Angela Stockman, a literacy consultant from western New York. When Angela commented on our blog, she wrote, I am a service...
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Top Ten Themes of IRA Convention 2013
We are both home after a joyful trip to San Antonio where we facilitated an institute and a session, attended several sessions, scouted the exhibit hall, and biked through the city. After presenting...
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The ABCs of the Common Core (Part 3)
About a year ago, Jan lamented how her house was filled with boxes and bread bags that were haphazardly ripped open in her children’s hurried attempts to get at what was inside. She shared her...
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April Favorites 2013
We know we are a week into May, but we are just now finding a minute to reflect on our April posts! One highlight of last month was our trip to San Antonio where we facilitated a pre-conference...
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Building Background Knowledge: Who’s Doing the Work?
In yesterday’s post, The Power of Memorable Learning Experiences, we discussed the importance of building background knowledge by searching for companion texts to read aloud and share with students....
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Building Background Knowledge: Harnessing the Power of the Internet
In yesterday’s post, Building Background Knowledge: Who’s Doing the Work?, we shared a story of fifth grade students working with Cyrus Cassells’s “Soul Make a Path Through Shining,” a...
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More Great Non-fiction: Connections Between Literacy and Art
Given our connection to Literacyhead, it’s no surprise that we are partial to books that either use visual art to teach content or are simply about art. This has been a pleasantly surprising theme...
View ArticleThursday Thoughts: Back-to-School Book Suggestions
For today’s Thursday Thought, we are sending you to the free book reviews on Literacyhead. Literacyhead’s book reviews are collections of ten titles selected around a particular theme. There are a...
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Three Beautiful Informational Text Series
Over the past few months we have really been thinking about informational text in the purest sense and how it compares to narrative nonfiction. Good informational text in non-narrative formats remains...
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Two Clever Historical Fiction/Informational Text Hybrid Series
Yesterday we shared three beautiful, informational text series. Today, we bring you two hybrid series that bridge informational text and historical fiction: The Perspectives Flip Book Series and the...
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Three New Picture Book Titles for Teaching Math Concepts
This week we’ve reviewed informational texts, including books by Kate Riggs on Monday and hybrid informational/historical fiction series yesterday. Today we have three, just-published picture book...
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Clear as Mud: Exploring the Role of Narrative Nonfiction in CCSS Definitions...
What is an informational text really? Technically, it seems that it should be any text that you read to find out information. Such a broad definition would sit well with most of the teachers we know,...
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Misunderstanding Text Complexity
On this blog, given all the ways to misunderstand and misinterpret text complexity, we have written about it quite a bit. In a blog digest that we put together last February, we compiled many of our...
View ArticleResponse’s to Shanahan: Pay Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain
In many respects, Shanahan’s recent article for American Educator, “Letting the Text Take the Center Stage: How the Common Core State Standards Will Transform English Language Arts Instruction,” is one...
View ArticleDoes Instructional Reading Level Exist? A Response to Timothy Shanahan (Part 3)
Today, we finish up our response to Timothy Shanahan’s recent article in American Educator, “Letting the Text Take the Center Stage: How the Common Core State Standards Will Transform English...
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Learning to Read is Like Learning to Ride a Bike
Imagining the wind blowing through their hair as they coast down a hill or picturing themselves racing after an older sibling makes many young children eager to ride bikes without training wheels....
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