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Find and level books with Book Wizard. Plus, get booktalks, lesson plans, author studies, videos, and discussion guides. Note the topic and author search is fine without locking students into leveled reading

Colleen Pennell, of the Nerdy Book Club reflects on her teen daughters early disinterest in reading. "My guess is that many girl readers who are reluctant may not have been provided enough choice over what they read and/or have been fed a nonstop diet of leveled books since kindergarten. Moreover, little respect has been afforded to the multiple types of texts, both traditional and nontraditional, that girls consume. In this blog post, I reflect upon the reading lives of girls, especially those who are reluctant, and focus upon three avenues that can help all girls feel like a member of the literacy club."

"One of the projects we planned and executed together had the goal of supporting students' liberation from strict ideas about what books they should be reading. Often, without realizing it, when we lean too heavily on data pertaining to reading levels and achievement and share this information with students, it can lead to the development of prejudicial ideas about which books belong to which grades and readers. In my library, I much prefer the message that all books belong to all readers."

A recent study by University College London (UCL) has suggested that heavy use of social media can cause lower levels of literacy in children. The study was based on 11,000 children tracked from their births in 2000 and has found that time spent on social media could be distracting children from reading and homework, thus having an adverse effect on their literacy.

"Our Automatic Readability Checker takes a sample of your writing and calculates the number of sentences, words, syllables, and characters in your sample. Our program takes the output of these numbers and plugs them into seven popular readability formulas. These readability formulas (see below) will let you know the reading level and grade level of your text and help you determine if your audience can read your writing."

FlipSnack Edu takes classes to a whole new level and makes learning fun, being an ideal tool for teachers and students to collaborate and share their work with parents and colleagues. Create a private network for your class, where you can safely share assignments, curriculums, reading materials and various projects as flipping books. Great resource for flip teaching and e-learning.

FlipSnack Edu takes classes to a whole new level and makes learning fun, being an ideal tool for teachers and students to collaborate and share their work with parents and colleagues. Create a private network for your class, where you can safely share assignments, curriculums, reading materials and various projects as flipping books. Great resource for flip teaching and e-learning.

Exposing all students to complicated storytelling, no matter their reading level, is just one benefit of using audiobooks in the classroom. But the research shows there are many other advantages too, including an increase in reading comprehension, motivation and self-confidence.

"Readability calculator (a.k.a reading level checker) helps you to successfully identify what grade kid could easily read and understand your article / text."

"Merely inviting students to contribute verbally when you read aloud to them isn't enough. Take it to a higher level with analytical talk."

"A longitudinal literacy study completed by Dr. Stephen Krashen, an international linguistics scholar, and his colleagues Christy Lao, Sy-ying Lee, and Jeff McQuillan, looked at literacy levels in children. Their research showed that school libraries are the only thing that matters when it comes to closing the gap that exists in literacy levels when poverty comes into play"

"Nontraditional books can help students make connections to content at the word level and deepen understanding by providing visual context. Let's look closely at the literacy work that can be done with comics and graphic novels in literacy instruction, particularly with upper elementary and middle grades students. While some strategies helpfully focus on work at the word level, these visual texts afford additional possibilities."

" As a school librarian, I feel it is our responsibility to look into these programs and practices. Not only should we research these practices, but as school leaders, we should offer training on these practices to our teachers. Librarian Scott McGinley commented, "School librarians need to be proactive in providing professional development to staff, whether it be an informal grade level team meeting or something school-wide" (2021)."

"Audiobooks allow students to enjoy books above their reading level, introducing them to engaging stories that will hook them for life"

A teacher librarian recounts her shift from restricting borrowing to levels as a classroom teacher to championing free choice as a TL.

The Story Map interactive includes a set of graphic organizers designed to assist teachers and students in prewriting and postreading activities. The organizers are intended to focus on the key elements of character, setting, conflict, and resolution development. Students can develop multiple characters, for example, in preparation for writing their own fiction, or they may reflect on and further develop characters from stories they have read. After completing individual sections or the entire organizer, students have the ability to print out their final versions for feedback and assessment. The versatility of this tool allows it to be used in multiple contexts. The quality of this activity is the different foci and purposes under the grade level tabs.

Literature Circles involve a small group of students exploring a piece of literature in depth. Although you'll find lots of books and articles on the Literature Circles, there are many ways to implement the strategies across grade levels and subject areas. Think of literature circles as one element of a balanced literacy program rather than "the solution." In most cases, the application of literature circles evolves over time as students and teachers become more experienced readers.

In spite of their reputation for simplicity, graphic novels can display a surprising level of depth. This sense of depth can come through in a variety of ways-from the language to the interplay of words and images to the themes that can be explored in visual texts. And like novels, graphic novels employ a range of literary conventions, so they're ripe for classroom discussion.

Literature is an important component of a total language arts program at all grade levels because of the many benefits it offers. Here are some reasons for integrating literature into your curriculum.) By B.D. Roe|E.P. Ross - Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall Updated on Jul 20, 2010

The way to engage students in classroom book discussions is to simply ask great questions. But that's easier said than done. Which questions will elicit one-word answers from students, and which will generate rich, meaningful conversation? Here are 23 tips to help you take book discussions to the next level.

"Instead of matching students to texts they can breeze through, literacy guru Tim Shanahan says that students should be engaging with challenging texts that push them out of their comfort zones."