Children's Books and Inferring

Contrary to what you might believe, picture books are an EXCELLENT tool for teaching older students key reading and writing concepts. Their simplicity allows for a deep examination of complex literary themes an messages. Not to mention, they can convey a very different set of meanings to readers of varying ages.

Below is a short list of quality children's texts that can be used to deepen student's understanding of inferring.


The Arrival - Shaun Tan

The Woods - Paul Hoppe

Two Bad Ants - Chris Vann Allsburg

The Stranger - Chris Vann Allsburg

The Lost Thing - Shaun Tan

Crow Boy - Taro Yashima


Riding the Tiger - Eve Bunting

Encouraging Students To Take Risks

Encouraging Students To Take Risks

Some ways to increase student risk taking and, in turn, increase their opportunities for learning!

Literacy Hopes

“Literacy arouses hopes, not only in society as a whole but also in the individual who is striving for fulfilment, happiness and personal benefit by learning how to read and write. Literacy... means far more than learning how to read and write... The aim is to transmit... knowledge and promote social participation.”
^{- UNESCO Institute for Education, Hamburg, Germany}

“It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations--something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.”

- Katherine Patterson

Balanced Literacy In Action

The staff of Towne Meadow Elementary made a goal to provide students with meaningful daily opportunities to read and write.  They used a Balanced Literacy program to do just that.  The Wordles below give you a snapshot of where they were and where they are currently in meeting their literacy goals.

The first Wordle represents the discussion the staff had on what they used to do:  whole group, stations, and prompts. 

But now they have a Balanced Literacy program, and they have the Daily 5, book-clubs, choice, and student-led.

Here is a link to a video that shows their Balanced Literacy program in action:  http://animoto.com/play/Mbstx1QEhQtDtR43EMQnGg?utm_content=main_link

Inquiring Minds

"It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known but to question it and inquire into it."

Jacob Bronowski       

Tried and true Writing Prompts

Check out Tried and True Writing Prompts for this, and other fantastic photographic writing prompts.