This article provides suggestions for how to improve your active listening skills -- and that you could use with your students.

This website provides tools to help literacy leaders identify and select engaging texts for readers who may struggle, as well as teaching tools to help integrate these types of texts into their curriculum.

This PDF houses different supplemental programs and interventions for use with adolescent students. It was authored by Cynthia Shanahan and Learning Point Associates and is available on the WWC website.

Aldean Ketchum is a White Mesa Ute tribal member. He grew up in southern Utah. He is a storyteller and flute player. He share a story about a hawk. The Ute people have a close association with nature and a respect for all living things. They share the earth with animals, and they look to them for guidance. The Utes honor the hawk in ceremonies, and they use hawk feathers in their regalia. Students will learn more about the White Mesa Ute tribe, birds of prey (raptors) and engage in strategies before, during and after reading the story. 

This website is a compilation of fantastic resources for any reading teacher. This page on the website provides a brief overview of before, during, and after reading strategies, as well as links with detailed information about a variety of strategies and downloadable resources for the classroom. They also provide recommended additional reading for interested viewers.

This article explains how teachers can read texts through the lens of preparing to teach the text and provides a model for reading as a teacher.

This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explores the amazing birds that live in or migrate to the polar regions. The issue was co-produced with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. In addition to content knowledge articles and lesson plans, the issue includes information about bird-themed citizen science programs from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

This article assembles free resources from the Arctic and Antarctic Birds issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

This text provides a collection of tests for the comprehensive assessment of skills related to reading. These assessments can help identify why a student is having reading difficulty, determine what the next step in instruction should be to remediate that difficulty, and monitor progress throughout the course of instruction. Data entry forms are available for free download.

From Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching, this web site offers an overview of key terms and principles about assessment and its role in teaching and learning. It includes discussion of different methods and how to make plans for assessment.

You may download and complete this template to fulfill the requirements for Evidence of Preparation and Planning.

This article reprints and links to informational text about the adaptations that allow mammals and fish to survive in polar oceans. Versions are available for students in grades K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Related science and literacy activities are included.

This course pack is designed to meet the learning outcomes for Adult Literacy Fundamental English Level 5 (roughly equivalent to grades 6 to 7.5 in the K-12 system). Every chapter includes a level-appropriate, high-interest reading of between 500 and 800 words. The readings are freely available in a separate reader with convenient links to the readings in each chapter of this course pack. Font size and line spacing can be adjusted in the online view, and have been enhanced for the print and PDF versions for easier reading. This course pack has been reviewed by subject experts from colleges and universities.

This reader contains nine original stories about healing, discovery, survival, relationships, justice, and connections to the land explored through the lens of the plant world. These stories, written specifically for adults, are designed to accompany the BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English - Course Pack 1. This level 1 reader, one of a series of six readers, is roughly equivalent to beginner to grade 1.5 in the K-12 system. Font size and line spacing can be adjusted in the online view, and have been enhanced for the print and PDF versions for easier reading. This reader has been reviewed by subject experts from colleges and universities.

As teachers need to consider long and short writing, formal and informal, in a variety of genres, this article focuses on and gives examples of short writing tasks that can still help students explore learning and write effectively.

In this English Journal article, Bardine et al. apply research on teacher commenting practices (e.g., appearance comments vs. function comments) to the experiences of student writers in the secondary English classroom. They offer suggestions about how to use comments and response to writing more effectively to support student learning in the classroom.

This website provides class discussion strategies grouped by higher-prep, low-prep, and ongoing strategies.

This concise and reader-friendly resources offers a rationale for book clubs as well as easy-to-use supplemental materials that can help teachers implement the approaches described in their own classrooms.

Students will capture their own images to promote or recommend a book from their personal reading. This assignment is designed to blend principles from digital photography, design, and library media standards to demonstrate deeper understanding and critical thinking skills.  This lesson plan was created by Andrea Settle then remixed by Melissa Jensen.Image: "Student Photographer" by Melissa Jensen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

This website includes text, images, and video instruction in the principles of backwards design. The material provides an overview of these principles as well as different stages to help teachers work through in their plans and templates they can use.