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The practice of sustained silent reading (SSR) is based on the belief that motivation, interest, self-selection, modeling, and time spent reading contribute to student reading achievement. This article describes a study designed to ascertain the prevalence of SSR in classrooms in a particular geographic area and the degree to which the program's original goals are being met. Seventh-grade teachers were surveyed regarding participation in SSR, organization of the program, material selection, and methods of evaluation. Findings indicate that silent reading is popular in the classroom in part because of the opportunities for instructional decision making it provides teachers. However, the individual implementation of the program has resulted in many aspects of the actual practice of SSR deviating from the original model. Questions regarding the integrity of current practices as compared to the original model are discussed, and suggestions to teachers who plan to implement or revise SSR programs are offered.

Successful middle schools engage students in all aspects of their learning. There are many strategies for accomplishing this. One such strategy is student-led conferences. As a classroom teacher or administrator, how do you ensure that the information shared in a student-led conference provides a balanced picture of the student's strengths and weaknesses? The answer to this is to balance both summative and formative classroom assessment practices and information gathering about student learning.

Excellent tips, very practical steps a teacher can take to begin improving their classroom management skills

Listening to Themselves: Podcasting Takes Lessons Beyond the Classroom Student-produced podcasts bolster knowledge and communication skills.

Classroom Strategies Explicit strategy instruction is at the core of good comprehension instruction. "Before" strategies activate students' prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading. "During" strategies help students make connections, monitor their understanding, generate questions, and stay focused. "After" strategies provide students an opportunity to summarize, question, reflect, discuss, and respond to text. Teachers should help students to understand why a strategy is useful, how it is used, and when it is appropriate. Teacher demonstration and modeling are critical factors for success, and student discussion following strategy instruction is also helpful. The most frequently researched strategies can be applied across content areas; other content-area specific strategies are emerging, and we will include them here in the future.

Using the New Middle School ELA Classroom Library Collections

Many Roots, Many Voices is designed to support teachers, principals, and other education professionals at the elementary and secondary levels in working effectively with English language learners. In it, you will find a rich source of practices and strategies that can be put to immediate use in the school and the classroom. You will also find an in-depth exploration of the English language learner, and an annotated list of references and resources for further reading and study.

Community Classroom is an innovative and free resource for educators, offering short-form film modules adapted from ITVS's award-winning documentaries and standards-based lesson plans for high school and community colleges, NGOs, and youth organizations."

Fantastic source for flipping the classroom. . .to a degree

"Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5 offers crystal-clear advice on how to lead strong, efficient writing workshops in upper-elementary classrooms. "

"Inside Writing Communities, Grades 3-5 A video workshop for grades 3-5 teachers; 8 half-hour workshop video programs, 8 half-hour classroom video programs, workshop guide, and Web site

"Teacher Ideas This page features all the lesson plans and classroom ideas I've collected. They're organized by topic, with general education and Dahl resources first, books next, and shortstories last"

Short Story unit

Using mentor texts to examine, write, revise leads in writing

As teachers we need to adopt a very sensitive approach to the teaching of poetry, one that combines discussion and writing, one that examines ideas and feelings, one that encourages appreciation of the poetry of others while also giving room for our students to write freely when creating poetry. In this document I have tried to offer approaches to the teaching of writing poetry that can be used by all classroom teachers. Download a Word copy of this document here. These approaches encourage children to play around with words, to experiment with their sounds, their rhythm. They also allow the teacher to introduce new terminology in a fun way.

POETRY UNIT

The Hip Hop Circuit illustrates the connectedness among Hip Hop, Popular Culture and, Education. This website is designed to facilitate the promotion of understanding the histoical importance of hip hop, to provide interesting instructional strategies for teachers to use hip hop in the classroom, and to give members of a larger community a mechinism to expand their knowledge base of Hip Hop, Popular Culture and, Education.

Great Poems to Teach Compiled by the Teachers & Writers Collaborative, this list contains 341 poems submitted by teachers who participated in a workshop organized by TWC. Selected for participation by C. K. Williams, teachers applying to the workshop were asked to supply a list of poems which they had successfully taught in high school English and Language Arts classrooms.

Bring poetry to life in your school! These pages are specially designed to help you and your students to get the most out of the Poetry Archive. There are lesson plans and activities for all key stages and for the inclusive classroom. Poetry can enrich other areas of the curriculum too; there are ideas here for History teachers, and we will be adding material for other subject areas in the coming months. This is a growing, developing resource, so come back and visit regularly to see what's new. Our plans include a forum for teachers to discuss their experiences, as well as a space where you will be able to create your own teaching materials and share them with colleagues.

This lesson encourages students to use skills and knowledge they may not realize they already have. A classroom game introduces students to the basic concepts of lobbying for something that is important to them (or that they want) and making persuasive arguments. Students then choose their own persuasive piece to analyze and learn some of the definitions associated with persuasive writing. Once students become aware of the techniques used in oral arguments, they then apply them to independent persuasive writing activities.

This is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.

Great resource for finding and using authentic student writing in the classroom