Matt Halpern

Welcome to interactive writing, a foundational classroom practice that helps our youngest students discover the joy of writing as a community of learners.  Letters, sounds, spelling patterns, and concepts of print come to life when teachers share the pen with children, collaborating to create text. A Teacher’s Guide to Interactive Writing shares the principles, routines, and strategies of interactive writing in the PreK-2 classroom.... more

Katie Wood Ray, Lisa B Cleaveland

How can I help my youngest students become writers? How can I establish a routine for writing in my classroom? Why is making books developmentally appropriate? In Lisa Cleaveland’s classroom, writing workshop is a time every day when her students make books. Katie Wood Ray guides you through the first days in Lisa’s classroom, offering ideas, information, strategies, and tips to show you step by step how you can launch primary... more

Carl Anderson

In this step-by-step guide, Carl Anderson shows you how to put teaching with mentor texts at the center of the way you teach writing in your elementary classroom. You’ll learn how to find just-right mentor texts for your students, analyze them for multiple craft and convention teaching points, and teach with mentor texts with your whole class, in small group lessons, and in writing conferences.
Classroom video, annotated mentor... more

Jennifer Serravallo, Edited By Katie Wood Ray

Why are reading conferences so important? What do effective reading conferences look and sound like? How do I fit reading conferences into my literacy block? “Conferring,” writes Jennifer Serravallo, “is where the magic happens.” In this primer, she reveals that this seeming magic is actually purposeful, responsive instruction. Jen presents conferences for... more

Carl Anderson, Edited By Katie Wood Ray

How can I get started with conferring or improve my conferences?
How can I fit conferences into my busy writing workshop schedule?
How can conferences help me meet the diverse needs of student writers? Helping students become better writers is what writing conferences are all about.In A Teacher’s Guide to Writing Conferences, Carl Anderson explains the underlying principles and reasons for conferring with students, and how... more

Katherine Bomer, Corinne Arens, Edited By Katie Wood Ray

*How can I get started with writing workshop, or refine my workshop?
*What are the essential elements of a writing workshop?
*How can I create daily structures and routines that support writers?

In this foundational guide, Katherine Bomer and Corinne Arens describe the elegant simplicity of a Writing Workshop focused on just three essentials—time, choice, and response. Based on the research-based belief that children learn... more

Lisa Eickholdt, Patricia Vitale-Reilly

In writing workshop, the minilesson allows teachers to connect a lesson—often one that is mandated by a set of standards, a district curriculum, or a grade-level unit plan—to the specific objectives you have, as well as to the cultural knowledge and experiences of your students. Lisa Eickholdt and Patricia Vitale-Reilly explain the four-part structure of minilessons and share methodologies and tools, including charts, visuals, and materials that... more

Nicki Newton, Alison J. Mello, Janet Nuzzie

• How can I get started with math workshop?
• What are the essential elements of math workshop?
• What does a math workshop look like in action?

A Teacher’s Guide to Math Workshop shares a step-by-step process for implementing a math workshop in any classroom and with any math curriculum. Grounded in research-based best... more

Tanya S. Wright, Edited By Katie Wood Ray

You probably know that having young children memorize new words or relegating vocabulary instruction to one time of day is not the way to go, but you may not know what else to do to support students’ vocabulary development. In this guide, Tanya Wright shows you how to make word learning more meaningful and engaging as you incorporate teaching about words across the day. Young children love to learn and use new words; the key is... more

Allison Marchetti, Rebekah O'Dell, Edited By Katie Wood Ray

Using mentor texts from a range of high-interest sources and diverse authors can be a real game changer in secondary writing classrooms.  Students learn to read like writers, deepening their understanding of quality writing and inspiring them in their own drafting and revision. In this foundational guide, you’ll learn the what, why, and how of teaching with mentor texts in small ways as well as large—and discover the power of mentor texts to serve... more