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Literacy
An Invitation to Rethink: What Research Says About Syllables
As literacy educators, we must think carefully about cognitive load, instructional payoff, and how word-solving strategies impact readers’ fluency and comprehension. If a strategy requires a lot of mental effort but works inconsistently, it’s worth asking whether it truly supports readers.
Three Essential Practices for Effective Vocabulary Instruction
Vocabulary knowledge is a key element in comprehending text. Students need ongoing instruction and support in developing their vocabulary because it affects their ability to comprehend texts and communicate their ideas clearly. Here are three instructional practices for approaching vocabulary instruction that will support students in expanding their word knowledge.
Season’s Readings: 2025 December Holiday Books
The holiday season is a wonderful time to spark joy, build community, and celebrate some of the traditions your students bring into the classroom.
Reaching All Learners Matters More Than Ever
Classrooms are full of potential, bursting with students who each bring their own strengths, ideas, and perspectives. This year’s Reaching All Learners Speaker Series, kicking off in January 2026, is designed to equip you with the tools you need to make the most of every student’s potential—celebrating diversity, sparking engagement, and discovering ways to make learning meaningful for every student.
Timing is Everything: Moving from the Writer’s Notebook to Draft Paper
How do you know when to move from the writer’s notebook to draft paper? The writer’s notebook is the heart of a writer’s daily life. Just like gardeners plant seeds without knowing which ones will flourish, writers collect ideas.
Igniting a Year of Learning: Building Momentum as a Literacy Coach
For literacy coaches, this is a powerful moment – the chance to move from introductions and early connections into purposeful collaboration that will carry the year forward.
Reading to Learn While Learning to Read
Is it reading to learn or learning to read? In reality, these two processes develop together, not one after the other. As children are learning how print works, they are also learning from what they read. They are making sense of language.
AI Prompting with Purpose: 5 Tips for Teachers
AI has been increasingly integrated into our daily lives. As we learn how to use AI in productive ways with students and for instructional planning, an important skill to develop is effective prompting.
Upcoming Professional Development
Effective Reading Instruction: Community & Practice, K-8
In this 8-week online course for grades 3-8 teachers, learn the purpose, organization, and structure of a readers’ workshop.
Building Deep Thinkers Through Reading: Engaging Students in Robust Comprehension
Let’s teach readers to think deeply. Join us to explore robust comprehension as an active, layered, and dynamic process to synthesize ideas, make inferences, and critique texts – not just recall facts.
Wondrous Words: Igniting Children’s Passion, Purpose, and Skills for Writing
Join us for this two-day, hands-on workshop where you’ll strengthen your ability to read like a writer and learn how to use mentor texts to help students expand their repertoire of craft moves, grow their identities as writers, and deepen their understanding of writing as a meaningful act.