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.

The holiday season is a wonderful time to spark joy, build community, and celebrate some of the traditions your students bring into the classroom.

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.

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.