Category Archives: Educator Resources

Lesson plans, activity guides, and helpful tips from our literacy specialist and guest educators.

Educator Resources

Goal Setting for Reading Success Part 4:

2 Comments

DETERMINING AND DELIVERING STRONG “MAGIC THREE” QUESTIONS

Jaclyn DeForgeJaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In this series for teachers, educators, and literacy coaches, Jaclyn discusses different strategies for ensuring students hit end-of-year benchmarks in reading.

I’ve talked about how to set individual reading goals for students, the importance of student motivation and regular assessment and, most recently, about turning the running record assessment time into a meaningful conference by sending students back to their seats with their own personal “Magic Three,” a set of three questions to focus on while they read.  So where do “Magic Three” questions come from?

Continue reading →

Educator Resources

Goal Setting for Reading Success: Empowerment Post-Assessment

2 Comments

Empowerment Post-Assessment

Jaclyn DeForgeJaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In this series for teachers, educators, and literacy coaches, Jaclyn discusses different strategies for ensuring students hit end-of-year benchmarks in reading.

Two weeks ago, I shared with you some resources to use when determining a reading goal for each student, and last week I talked about how to motivate students about their reading goal and about how to Girl Reading, from Destiny's Giftschedule out regular assessment.  Today, I want to get into the nuts and bolts of the running record assessment time, and how to create a post-assessment conference that really empowers students.

Continue reading →

Educator Resources

Goal Setting for Reading Success Part 2: Regular Assessment & Student Motivational Strategies

3 Comments

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In this series for teachers, educators, and literacy coaches, Jaclyn discusses different strategies for ensuring students hit end-of-year benchmarks in reading.

Last week, I talked a bit about the importance of setting specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-specific goals for your students in reading, and provided some resources to help you determine where to set them.  Today, I want to talk a bit about two  things that are imperative to student success in reaching their reading goals: 1) student motivation and 2) regular assessment.

1)    Using Goal Charts to build student motivation:  Students are super motivated when they can clearly visualize their goal, mark their progress and celebrate each milestone, so creating a goal chart can be a great tool!  Depending on your classroom culture and range of student reading levels, you may choose either to display this information as a large chart on a bulletin board and celebrate individual and class-wide achievements, or to keep separate charts in each student’s reading folder and celebrate progress individually.

Continue reading →

Educator Resources

Goal Setting for Reading Success Part 1: Setting a reachable, standards aligned reading goal

4 Comments

Jaclyn DeForgeJaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In this series for teachers, educators, and literacy coaches, Jaclyn discusses different strategies for ensuring students hit end-of-year benchmarks in reading.

These days, the words testing or assessment tend to bring up many conflicting emotions among educators, but determining where your students need to be at the end of the year and how you (the teacher)are going to keep track of individual progress toward each standard is a key part of proactive planning.

With my students, it was really important to me that they feel ownership of their success by being able to clearly see how their actions affected their achievement, so we did a lot of individualized goal setting and consistently measured our progress toward said goals.  The result was a classroom full of empowered children who were aware of where they were strong and what they needed to work on, and confident in the knowledge that there was a plan as to how we were going to get there.  This transparency in teaching can absolutely yield huge rewards, but it does take some proactive planning.

Continue reading →

Activities and Events, Educator Resources

One More Sensational Summer Read Aloud!

1 Comment

For the last installment in our series on Sensational Summer Read Alouds, literacy expert Jaclyn DeForge shares one final title that has a high student-interest level, can be used to hit multiple Common Core learning standards, and is super rich in terms of content, just like A Full Moon is Rising and Silent Star.

Balarama: A Royal ElephantToday’s Pick: Balarama: A Royal Elephant

Continue reading →

Activities and Events, Educator Resources

Another Sensational Summer Read Aloud!

1 Comment

For the next installment in our series on Sensational Summer Read Alouds, here’s another title that has a high student-interest level, can be used to hit multiple Common Core learning standards, and is super rich in terms of content.

A Full Moon is RisingToday’s  Pick: A Full Moon is Rising 

Written and Illustrated by: Marilyn Singer

Genre: poetry & informational text

Hook: Your homework: stay up late and look up at the night sky.

COMPREHENSION CONNECTION

It’s almost as if Marilyn Singer anticipated the Common Core when she wrote this collection, which is probably why Book Links named it one of their 2011 Lasting Connections titles. The poetry can definitely be used to teach some key literature standards, but the content is so clearly science and social studies related! She also includes amazing maps and an incredibly informative “About the Poems” section that gives further information about the content covered in each poem.

Continue reading →

Educator Resources

(Summer) School is in Session!

2 Comments

In the first in our new series, resident literacy expert Jaclyn DeForge shares her tips for educators on reading comprehension, the Common Core, and much more!  Prior to joining Lee & Low,  Jaclyn taught first and second grade in the South Bronx, worked in teacher support and development, and wrote English Language Arts curriculum as a literacy coach. 

July is *just* around the corner, and for many, it conjures images of fireworks, barbeques and lazy days at the beach.  But for many of our struggling students and dedicated educators, July means something very different: the start of summer school.

I’ve taught summer school several times over the years and keeping my students engaged and learning was sometimes a challenge, as little minds wandered and the gorgeous weather outside beckoned.  As summer school programs across the country kick into high gear, I’ve compiled a list of Sensational Summer School Read Alouds that really go the distance: 1) the topics have a high student-interest level 2) they can be used to hit multiple Common Core learning standards, and 3) they’re super rich in terms of content.

Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William HoyToday’s pick: Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy 

Continue reading →

Educator Resources

New classroom guides, discussion questions, and more

We’ve created lots of new content this February to help you extend the experience of reading our books long after the last page has been turned. Here are some of our newest resources to go with our titles:

Free Classroom Guides for:
–First Come the Zebra
–John Lewis in the Lead

Continue reading →