Tag Archives: Reading Informational Text Standards

Culturally Responsive Teaching in Grade 4: Studying Informational Text

Culturally Responsive Teaching, Grade 4

In this ongoing series, we explore what culturally responsive teaching looks like at different grade levels and offer concrete examples and resources. Last month we explored culturally responsive teaching around Valentine’s Day. This month, educator Lindsay Barrett offers guidance for a culturally responsive study of informational text at the fourth grade level.

Selecting diverse stories and setting up related discussions are important and logical aspects of ensuring that your classroom is a culturally responsive one. Stories have the power to draw students in, inspire them, make them feel seen and heard, and stretch the boundaries of their thinking. Continue reading

Teaching Students to See Themselves as Readers

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Katie CunninghamGuest blogger Katie Cunningham is an Assistant Professor at Manhattanville College. Her teaching and scholarship centers around children’s literature, critical literacy, and supporting teachers to make their classrooms joyful and purposeful. Katie has presented at numerous national conferences and is the editor of The Language and Literacy Spectrum, New York Reading Association’s literacy journal.

“Guess What?. . . I Can Read This Book All By Myself!” These are exciting words for any teacher or parent to hear. When we hear them we know the child in front of us sees himself or herself as a reader, often for the first time. Right now, teachers across the country are wrapping up their first round of reading assessments, using the information to make choices about small instructional groups, and determining teaching points to support all of their students as growing readers.
But what assessment measures do we have that gather information on who sees themselves as readers? Are we listening closely enough for those words? When we hear them what do we do? More importantly, when we don’t hear them, what can we do?
Can I Have a Pet? from our Bebop Titles
Can I Have a Pet? from Bebop Books

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