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Children in a grade two/three classroom co-designed photographs of each other's important family objects to develop critical empathy and better understand their peers' home cultures. They engaged in visual critical literacy practices. The paper provides a narrative of what happened and a framework for creative collaborative pedagogy.

Describes how the educational experience of sixth grade remedial readers was revitalized and enriched through a project that grew out of reading "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes." Suggests using "real" books (literature) to liberate remedial students from skill drills and reading games. (NH)

Students in the 3rd and 4th grade often encounter what has been called a reading "slump" when their class curriculums increasingly ask them to comprehend and learn from texts. Students are more likely to struggle if they have not been offered sufficient opportunities to build world and domain knowledge and engage in challenging comprehension tasks while developing their reading skills. Thus, it is essential to give young readers opportunities to build their world and domain knowledge and to teach them comprehension strategies such as asking questions, paraphrasing, and self-explaining. This paper introduces iSTART-Early, an intelligent tutoring system designed to provide instruction and practice opportunities for students to learn comprehension strategies and build knowledge about diverse topics. The theoretical foundations, history and efficacy, and design of iSTART-Early are discussed.

Teaching science can provide opportunities for young children to explore and learn about the world around them and, equally important, to support children's language development. Yet, recent research suggests that children's access to science education is limited, especially in early and elementary education. Since language is critical to children's success in learning to read, teachers need access to a variety of venues to develop these foundational literacy skills. This paper provides evidence of the importance of teaching science in an effort to teach science ideas and develop children's language. In addition, this paper describes a range of approaches teachers can use to facilitate inquiry-based science education and oral language development simultaneously. When educators engage children in high-quality science experiences, they present children with the opportunity to develop both science ideas and language.

Groff argues against an IRA (International Reading Association) position statement assertion that no single method is the best for teaching reading, claiming that the phonics method results in the greatest reading achievement. The IRA Board of Directors replies that the position statement appropriately reflects the diverse views about reading held by IRA members. (ET)

Describes an art technique--creating paper dolls of main characters--to help remedial readers develop their comprehension of characters in novels. (MM)

According to interpretations of results from the latest oral reading fluency (ORF) study conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (White et al., 2020), fourth-grade students who score below the basic standard require interventions that focus on word recognition, phonological decoding, and fluency. Before such mandates for students at the middle grades and beyond are enacted, the available information from ORF assessments should be examined from the view of what students know and what they do not know. In this paper, I examine the performances of students who score below the basic level on oral reading assessments such as those used in the NAEP/ORF study to identify students' strengths and challenges. Results of analyses of students' performances are used to address how instruction and interventions can best support students in developing the proficiencies required to perform successfully on silent reading comprehension tasks. Issues that particularly require attention in the design of instruction and interventions for readers in the middle grades who score below the basic level are the mode of reading (silent or oral), text, and reading volume.

Turn and Talk is widely used in early-grade classrooms, but very little rigorous research or evidence-based guidance has been offered to teachers. In this exploratory paper, we take the first step toward establishing a teacher-friendly discussion on this common technique. After briefly describing the Turn and Talk technique, we first ask: What does research on adult-child and child-child conversations in classrooms tell us would make Turn and Talk as effective as possible for early language development? We summarize evidence-based guidelines from the research. Second, we ask: What specific, real-world examples show how preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade teachers can use Turn and Talk in ways that align with research recommendations? We share short vignettes from observations of teachers bringing these research recommendations to life. We conclude with reflection questions for teachers who are currently using, or considering using, Turn and Talk.

Contends that for children learning to read, imagination is not something separate or extra that their teachers add to their learning. Notes that how hard children work to make sense of the world is evinced in their play and in research analyses of it. Explains that young imaginations often move into a mental space they recognize from what they read. (PM)

Dialogic teaching--a pedagogical approach that involves students in a collaborative construction of meaning and is characterized by shared control over the key aspects of classroom discourse--has been largely advocated by contemporary research and theory. However, studies in the US and UK continue to document the persistence of monologic instruction in today's classrooms. This paper reviews empirically-supported features of dialogic teaching and relates them to relevant theoretical models. It describes the Dialogic Inquiry Tool (DIT), an observational rating scale designed to engage elementary school teachers in a systematic and deliberate examination of their interactions during group discussions of assigned readings. The paper uses excerpts of classroom discussions to demonstrate the use of the DIT and to discuss its potential for informing teacher practice and encouraging reflection on the relationship between language and pedagogy.

This paper describes the lessons learned from a five-year project to develop urban literacy coaches in a large, diverse, metropolitan school system. The narrative begins by reporting on the progress of the schools in the project, which documents gains exceeding both the state and the district gains. It further describes survey data from principals and teachers, both of whom highlighted the role of the coach in these gains. The main part of the paper describes descriptions of practices that contributed to the success of the project, including those to build a strong, communal knowledge base; collaborate to make the curriculum visible in new ways; emphasize culturally relevant instruction and resources; help emergent coaches define their roles over time; support coaches in developing a model for goal setting and coaching cycles; build understanding that development as a coach has recursive phases; provide facilitation that differentiates for coaches-in-training; design methods for coaches to build teams around student data and shared inquiry; help coaches balance "fidelity of treatment" with "formative treatment"; and, finally, connect coaches with the wider professional community. (Contains 1 table, 4 figures, and 1 note.)

Describes how to initiate research projects by having students work with a grid, or QUAD (questions, answers, details). Notes that this approach helps students learn that research stems from asking clear questions about the world around them. (MG)

Revision is an important aspect of the writing process but is often challenging for students. Peer review can be helpful, but training is needed for it to work effectively. This article suggests an approach to preparing students for peer review by teaching specific evaluation criteria and leading collaborative practice in reviewing papers written by unknown peers. This practice supports self-evaluation as well as peer review and increases students' knowledge of effective writing and the quality of their own writing. Specific examples are presented to demonstrate the effects of this approach.

The reemergence of grammar instruction in the Common Core State Standards has likely left teachers confused. On the one hand, they have been told repeatedly that grammar instruction does not improve student outcomes, and can, in fact, be "harmful" to students. However, on the other hand, many Anglophone countries, including the United States, have re-introduced grammar instruction as an important component of the English language arts curriculum. The purpose of this paper is to clarify some of the controversies around grammar instruction by beginning with a brief historical review. Following, we offer teachers various pedagogical suggestions to enable them to address grammar in an engaging, meaningful fashion, as opposed to the isolated, decontexualized activities that have traditionally plagued grammar instruction.

Details a lesson which facilitates the transition from writing narrative prose to writing more difficult expository structures by engaging students in writing a research report on a fantasy animal they create. (MM)

This article describes the implementation of a read-aloud routine focused on the development of vocabulary knowledge and comprehension for English Learners (ELs) in grades K-3. This paper describes the steps of a daily read-aloud system, including key applications of second language acquisition and culturally responsive pedagogy with examples of how they are integrated with literacy instruction for ELs. The routine was implemented across three campuses, and qualitative data was collected throughout the implementation period to inform model development. Data sources include formal observations, focus-group interviews, documents from professional development activities, and researcher field notes. The article concludes with a discussion of the successes and challenges to implementing the read-aloud routine in K-3 classrooms.

Focuses on books, booklets, and position papers that would be useful reading for educators involved in making decisions about selecting materials for schools. Discusses guidelines for judging and selecting textbooks and studies and readings on textbooks. (PRA)