In this guest post, educator and writer Tami Charles presents text-dependent questions and inquiry-based activities for students to practice close reading and critical thinking with the book Shame the Stars. Continue reading
Tag Archives: reading comprehension
The Importance of Text Selection: How to Incorporate Social Justice in an English Classroom
We at LEE & LOW BOOKS are excited to share the engaging, culturally relevant work happening in the high school classroom of Jarred Amato, veteran educator in Metro Nashville Public Schools. In his essay, Jarred describes the importance of text selection and how to incorporate social justice and relevant content into the English curriculum at the start of the school year. Originally posted at Jarred’s blog, A Look Inside Mr. Amato’s Classroom, this essay is reposted with permission.
Confession: In eight years of teaching, I have never assigned work from a textbook. I don’t believe in test-prep passages or outdated texts that I know my students will struggle to relate to, connect with, or enjoy, either. My experience is that they generally do more harm than good.
Building Classroom Community in Second Grade
Check out LEE & LOW BOOKS’ Building Classroom Community Unit for Second Grade! The FREE and downloadable unit consists of eight read aloud lesson plans to inspire your best classroom community yet. Continue reading
Celebrating 25 Books Over 25 Years: Bird
LEE & LOW BOOKS celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and to recognize how far the company has come, we are featuring one title a week to see how it is being used in classrooms today as well, as hear from the authors and illustrators.
Featured title: Bird
Author: Zetta Elliott
Illustrator: Shadra Strickland
Building Classroom Community in First Grade
Check out LEE & LOW BOOKS’ Building Classroom Community Unit for First Grade! The FREE and downloadable unit consists of eight read aloud lesson plans to inspire your best classroom community yet.
Building Classroom Community in Kindergarten
Check out LEE & LOW BOOKS’ Building Classroom Community Unit for Kindergarten! The FREE and downloadable unit consists of eight read aloud lesson plans to inspire your best classroom community yet.
10 Reasons to Celebrate Bilingual Books
Last year, we gave our 10 favorite reasons to read diversely. One reason being that we live in a diverse world, so why not the books that we read? Books help us see the world through someone else’s eyes, and in the case of bilingual books, through another language.
Celebrating 25 Books Over 25 Years: Cool Melons–Turn to Frogs! The Life and Poems of Issa
LEE & LOW BOOKS celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and to recognize how far the company has come, we are featuring one title a week to see how it is being used in classrooms today as well, as hear from the authors and illustrators.
Featured title: Cool Melons–Turn to Frogs! The Life and Poems of Issa
Author: Matthew Gollub
Illustrator: Kazuko G. Stone
Interview: Why Culturally Responsive Literature Matters
In this interview with The Open Book, guest blogger R. Joseph Rodríguez, Assistant Professor of Literacy and English Education at The University of Texas at El Paso, shares strategies on teaching Guadalupe García McCall’s novels in middle and high school English Language Arts, as well as discusses the impact of culturally responsive and relevant literature in the classroom.
What inspired you to write about Guadalupe García McCall, her literature, and classroom applications?
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“¿Qué es deportar?”: Teaching from Students’ Lives
We at LEE & LOW BOOKS believe that high-quality bilingual books help build a solid foundation to achieve literacy in any language while affirming and validating a child’s identity, culture, and home language. We are so excited and honored to share this one educator’s example of why books featuring characters like her students belong in her classroom and curriculum.
In this guest post, Sandra L. Osorio describes using books that captured her students’ bilingual and bicultural experiences. An elementary bilingual teacher for eight years, Osorio is now an assistant professor at Illinois State University. This article originally appeared in Rethinking Schools magazine, and is cross-posted here with permission. Article is also available in Spanish from Rethinking Schools.