What's so fun about a shoe box? Everything! It's fun to peak inside a shoe box—especially if there is an intriguing learning center inside! Read More

The Principles of Critical Literacy (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2004) include a number of essential understandings and beliefs about the power relationship that exists between the reader and the author. But what are the four essential principles?

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What basic instructional strategies give you mileage during nonfiction reading workshop time? How do you start? How do you construct a meaningful reading time? Here are five tips to get you started, and keep you going!

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Dr. Jan Richardson, a former teacher and educational consultant, has travelled the United States training teachers and providing demonstrations on Guided Reading. She’s an outstanding presenter, passionate about motivating, engaging and accelerating all readers from emergent to fluent.

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Reading comprehension is fundamentally a logic-driven activity, so it’s no wonder many of our students are sidelined when they attempt to “just read the words.” Rest assured, with some focused strategy instruction, struggling readers at every level can and do learn to “get” the deeper meaning from the texts they read.

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Think November is just for Thanksgiving? Think again! The month of November is full of all sorts of things to celebrate. And here is a list to help you plan for them all!

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Quite simply, the reason we advocate poetry, song lyrics, and rhymes for teaching phonics is that this genre of writing contains word families, which are the rhyming portions of words...

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Where would we be without words? It’s hard to imagine. Words are a basic building block of communication, and a strong vocabulary is an essential part of reading, writing, and speaking well.

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The school year is off and running, it's no longer back-to-school time! Now that you and your class are in a routine, it's a great time to discuss bullying, and also take a look at other dates and causes that are called to attention in October!

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Every citizen of the United States age 18 and over can vote in the Presidential election, as well as all other elections. If you want to make a difference you must vote!

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Jacob, a second grader who can read, has gone from nearly no interest in reading to concern that he won't get to read every book in his classroom over the course of the year. How did his teacher foster this change in attitude? By empowering him with Book Choice!

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Every four years we have a great opportunity to help our students understand exactly how the Presidential and other elections work. Here are some great ideas and resources for older and younger students...

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Find the answers you need with FAQ’s from Scholastic’s teacher helpline...

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In the book or in my head? Understanding the language of QAR (Question Answer Relationships)...

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Learning basic money skills start at an early age. Students learn to identify coins and bills and then understand what they mean. Once students have the idea, learning more about money can be all fun and games!

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Joan Lazar, co-author with Christine Vogel of NOW I GET IT! Teaching Struggling Readers to Make Sense of What They Read, shares six truths about reading, designed to put readers on the road to higher comprehension!

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You cheer when you see your students hovering over graphic organizers, filling in the data, and loving every minute of it. But finding the right "orgs" can be tricky. Here are six that just might fit the bill…

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Inferencing is essential for comprehending a wide variety of texts successfully. However, it’s a skill that’s challenging for most students, so it’s important to model it.  Think-alouds are a great way to do that; they enable you to lend your language and meaning-making strategies to students by modeling them aloud....

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For many writers, young and old, getting started is the hardest part, and nothing is more intimidating than a blank sheet of paper! Prompts can help even the youngest writers to find much needed inspiration!

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Phonics expert Wiley Blevins shares some general phonics instruction dos and don't, based on activities and instructional methods he has observed in classrooms across the country!

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We often tell our students that effective writing “paints pictures in the mind.” Because today’s students are such sophisticated connoisseurs of visual media, we might expect them to be experts at this kind of word painting. But in fact, the opposite may be true. Because kids are bombarded with images everywhere they turn, they may actually have less ability to conjure images in their heads—via their imagination—than kids in previous generations.

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Have You Ever Considered Teaching with Comic Strips?

Teaching with comics can be fun! Consider letting your students read comic books for a few days or a week. When the time is up have them create their own super hero!

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What makes idioms tricky for our students, especially our English Language Learners, is that their literal meanings often have nothing to do with their idiomatic sense. What do cats and dogs have to do with a torrential downpour? Nothing, but when someone tells you it’s “raining cats and dogs,” you know you’d better put on your galoshes!

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Once children grasp the alphabetic principle and learn the most common sound-spellings they meet in primary grade texts, their next hurdle involves decoding multisyllabic words. Some older students find it extremely difficult to read these words.... Discovering the meanings of these unfamiliar words is critical to understanding the text. Learning advanced phonics skills helps.

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It is not enough to have interesting material for students to read. We must create a context that will motivate students to read, help them set purposes and ask relevant questions, and encourage them to create and enter into story worlds. But how?

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Once you’ve introduced your students to the basic parts of speech, give them practice using these grammar essentials in a purposeful and engaging way. Here’s an activity that helps them use nouns, adjectives, and verbs in the context of their own animal poem!

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Dr. Jan Richardson, a former teacher and educational consultant, has travelled the United States training teachers and providing demonstrations on Guided Reading. She’s an outstanding presenter, passionate about motivating, engaging and accelerating all readers from emergent to fluent.

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Our schools have become diverse and multicultural. Students are able to share and celebrate their varied backgrounds and traditions. You may have students from different cultures or countries in your class. If you are looking for ways to learn about, highlight, and celebrate the winter holidays, look no further than this holiday-by-holiday guide!

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RTI (Response to Intervention, a federally mandated program) is a plan for the early identification of students who might have difficulty learning and for providing the necessary intervention to prevent them from failing. (Cooper, Robinson, Kiger, Success With RTI)

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The Civil Right Movement was a critical time in American history. December 1st is Rosa Parks Day. Rosa Parks is considered by many to be the mother of the civil right movement. Rosa Parks grew up during a time when African Americans were treated unjustly.

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Students take at least one standardized test a year and often more. The test-taking process can be very trying for some students. Additionally, teachers need to find ways to help their students relax. By doing so, when the time comes to take a test, students will be able to perform at the top of their game!

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Want to implement or expand teaching the traits of writing in your primary classroom? Why not go right to the source, Ruth Culham, Ed.D., one of the original pioneers of this model?

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Bullying Awareness Week is November 13th – 19th and this year’s theme is Stand Up! (to bullying)!

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November is a great time to look at all thirteen of the original colonies. Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Founded in 1607 the settlers suffered through many hardships as they established their settlement on the banks of the James River.

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Happy 100th Birthday to the National Council of Teachers of English! The 2011 annual convention will be held in Chicago on November 17-22—and Scholastic will be there!

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National Young Readers Week 2011 is November 7-11! This is the perfect week to ask a local author or celebrity to read aloud in your classroom!

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The annual conference just for Middle Level Educators is almost here! Scholastic is very excited to be attending this year’s 38th Annual AMLE Conference and Exhibit. If you are attending, we'd love to meet you! If not, don't worry, many of the resources being shown at the conference are also right here!

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Nonfiction writing is a critical form of writing every student needs to learn. And thanks to the work of Jodi Weisbart Mahoney it’s never too early for students to be introduced to nonfiction writing. She has proven this with her outstanding book, Introducing Nonfiction Writing in the Early Grades.

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The NAEYC (National Association of the Education of Young Children) conference is almost here! This year, the conference will be held in from November 2-5 in Orlando, Florida—and Scholastic will be there!

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Spice up your math lessons and more with these pumpkin-themed activities for grades 1-3!

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In order to build suspense, the author must create some uncertainty, anxiety, doubt, and apprehension. The author already knows what is going to happen, who is behind the door, what is making the spooky sound, and to whom the mysterious footsteps belong. The trick is not to give it away too soon!

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From the very first day of school, it's already time for count-up activities, and to plan for a fabulous 100th Day celebration!

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October is National Book Month. This annual month of reading celebration encourages people of all ages to spend time reading and enjoying books!

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Learning centers can be a wonderful addition to any classroom. They give students who finish their regular work early additional learning opportunities, and they encourage responsibility, independent learning and cooperative learning.

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Let a book take your students’ away to an imaginary place or choose a non-fiction book and be transported to the life of a person or a time in history. Teachers know books can transport children anywhere they want to go. The only thing needed, outside of school, is a library card to your local public library. It’s the ticket to open up a whole new world to any place you want to go.

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Brainteasers are a wonderful way to not only challenge young minds but to help them build those all important strategic, critical thinking and problem solving skills. Best of all, they are fun and students love them!

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Let the learning and fun begin! Find a year's worth of activities, clip art, games, puzzles, and more--all in the original Monthly Idea Books.

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The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders is at an all-time high, and more students on the spectrum are being placed in mainstream classrooms every year. Every student on the spectrum will enter your classroom bearing a backpack full of worries. If they can’t put those worries down on Day One, then toting that heavy load will become a way of life at school, a learned behavior.

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It’s that time of year again. Students are worried about what to wear on that all important first day. Parents want to make sure the school supply list is filled and their child/children have what’s needed to start the new school year the right way.

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It is important for students to learn sight words in order to help them become fluent readers. Sight words are words students are able to read upon “sight” without having to sound them out. They help facilitate reading comprehension giving students a better opportunity to understand other words in context as they read.

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When it comes to note taking, do your students know the difference between "meaning" words and "connector" words?

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Establishing classroom routines and procedures is important for all teachers, and for kindergarten teachers, it’s crucial. Our youngest students rely on the comfort of routines to feel safe and secure, and we teachers need them to keep our days running smoothly. Here are five routines to teach your students during the first weeks of school!

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Reading comprehension is fundamentally a logic-driven activity, so it’s no wonder many of our students are sidelined when they attempt to “just read the words.” Rest assured, with some focused strategy instruction, struggling readers at every level can and do learn to “get” the deeper meaning from the texts they read.

Read More

Even though you won’t know what your new students are thinking, you can bet that they are forming an opinion of you and your class on the very first day. Here are ten things you can do to make a positive first impression!

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There are many ways to provide students with a memorable context for your content area of study. Reading aloud part of a diary entry, letters written by soldiers to family and friends, a short story, a historical novel, an essay, a newspaper article, or a poem can help students imagine and visualize the information to be learned.

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