Articles from A-Z

Literacy Instruction with Digital and Media Technologies

By: Diane Barone and Todd E. Wright (2008)

This article describes how digital and media literacies are woven into a fourth-grade classroom. Background on how a teacher and school brought new literacies to students through the use of technology is revealed so that other teachers can engage in similar instructional support.

Avoiding a Rush to Judgment: Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Quality

By: Thomas Toch and Robert Rothman (2008)

Comprehensive methods of evaluating teachers that avoid the typical "drive-by" evaluations can promote improvements in teaching.

I Love Storytime: The Best Way to Read to Your Toddler

By: Leslie Garisto Pfaff (2008)

Reading to your toddler is one of the best ways to boost language skills. Here are 12 tips to help make sure your toddler gets a head start on reading.

Teacher-Student Interactions: The Key to Quality Classrooms

By: Marla Muntner (2008)

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) describes ten dimensions of teaching that are linked to student achievement and social development. Each dimension falls into one of three board categories: emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support.

The Development of Phonological Skills

By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman (2008)

Basic listening skills and "word awareness" are critical precursors to phonological awareness. Learn the milestones for acquiring phonological skills.

Speaking Is Natural; Reading and Writing Are Not

By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman (2008)

Human brains are naturally wired to speak; they are not naturally wired to read and write. With teaching, children typically learn to read at about age 5 or 6 and need several years to master the skill.

Phonological Instruction for Older Students

By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman (2008)

Additional and explicit instruction in phonological awareness is a critical component in helping fourth grade readers who struggle with phonological deficits. The exercises can be used as a warm-up prior to reading, spelling, or vocabulary instruction.

Eye Movements and Reading

By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman (2008)

Although we may not be aware of it, we do not skip over words, read print selectively, or recognize words by sampling a few letters of the print, as whole language theorists proposed in the 1970s. Reading is accomplished with letter-by-letter processing of the word.

Types of Reading Disability

By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman (2008)

Researchers have identified three kinds of developmental reading disabilities that often overlap but that can be separate and distinct: (1) phonological deficit, (2) processing speed/orthographic processing deficit, and (3) comprehension deficit.

Why Phonological Awareness Is Important for Reading and Spelling

By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman (2008)

Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing system. And research shows that difficulty with phoneme awareness and other phonological skills is a predictor of poor reading and spelling development.

What Should Be Emphasized at Each Stage of Reading Development?

By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman (2008)

Familiarity with the five essential components (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) in core, comprehensive reading programs is necessary for all teachers of reading. Although all components are needed at all levels, different skills and activities are emphasized at different stages of reading development.

Six Syllable Types

By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman (2008)

Learn the six types of syllables found in English orthography, why it's important to teach syllables, and the sequence in which students learn about both spoken and written syllables.

Historical Layers of English

By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman (2008)

English is a layer-cake language. Not only is it organized to represent sounds, syllables, and morphemes, but its spellings are derived from several languages that were amalgamated over hundreds of years due to political and social changes in Great Britain.

English Gets a Bad Rap!

By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman (2008)

English orthography, or the English spelling system, may not be as transparent or easy to spell as Spanish, Italian, or Serbo-Croatian, but it's not crazy! Most English word spellings can be explained and most English words do follow spelling patterns.

Reading to Two: A Double Challenge

By: PBS Parents (2008)

While parents understand the importance of reading to children, it is often a struggle to read to two. How can parents negotiate the "book wars," when one child only wants to read chapter books and the other insists on reading picture books? What can parents do when one child wants to read about dinosaurs and the other wants to read about ballerinas?

Teaching Metalinguistic Awareness and Reading Comprehension with Riddles

By: Marcy Zipke (2008)

Riddles are the perfect medium for learning how to manipulate language for many reasons, including students' familiarity with them and motivation for reading them. Here's how riddles can be used in the classroom to stimulate student's metalinguistic awareness.

Selecting Books for Your Child: Finding 'Just Right' Books

By: Kathleen Rogers (2008)

How can parents help their children find books that are not "too hard" and not "too easy" but instead are "just right"? Here's some advice.

Handwriting

By: Reading Rockets (2008)

Adventures in Reading: Family Literacy Bags

By: Reading Rockets (2008)

Parent Involvement Checklist

By: Project Appleseed (2008)

One way to start improving your school's parent-school partnerships is by assessing present practices. This checklist can help you evaluate how well your school is reaching out to parents.