THE ELA Teacher's Wish List
MGES Literacy Coach Newsletter Nov.-Dec. 2016
For Your Wish List!
During this season that for many is focused on giving, we have compiled a set of professional resource books that could make the cut for any elementary school teacher's Amazon (or PTA $ or school instructional fund) wish list! We have included information for each title on where it is located in our building if you would like to preview the book and/or borrow it for a while. The starred "editorial staff" pick from the entire set of recommendations is "The Reading Strategies Book" by Jennifer Seravallo.
Please click on the survey link in the newsletter to take a super short survey. One survey respondent from MGES will win a $5 gift card of your choice to either Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Starbucks.
We hope everyone enjoys their winter break!
Mary Alicia & Collette
Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension
Jennifer Seravallo (K-5)
Source: Heinemann website
To preview this book, see Kelli Smith!
Dorothy Barhouse & Vicki Vinton (K-5)
*notice and name what students are doing as readers to build their identity and agency
*move beyond simple strategy instruction to step students into more complex texts
*show students how readers draft and revise as they read to promote engagement, self-monitoring, and deeper comprehension."
Source: Amazon website
To preview this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Jeffrey Wilhelm (4th-5th)
Source: Amazon website
To preview this book, see Collette Drake!
Small Group Reading Instruction & Conferring with Readers
Jennifer Saravallo (K-5)
"Jen shows how small groups help you uncover hidden time in your teaching for meeting individual students’ needs. ...You’ll see how Jen captures the strength of individual conference while working with multiple students—even if they aren’t reading the same book. For comprehension, fluency, engagement, print work strategies, and comprehension, she shares ideas for assessment and flexible grouping structures as well as her own teaching language. You’ll help readers:
*get into texts and get more out of them
*learn vital strategies that help them read more challenging texts
*talk about books with rigor and vigor."
Source: Heinemann website
To preview this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Jan Burkins & Melody Croft (K-5)
"...Jan Miller Burkins and Melody Croft can help you prevent guided reading from going astray in your classroom by providing clarifications, adaptations, and supports that have helped them work through their own tricky spots. The book is divided into six chapters, each one clarifying a misunderstanding about guided reading instruction in the following areas:
- The teacher's role and the gradual release of responsibility
- Instructional reading levels
- Text gradients
- Balanced instruction
- Integrated processing
- Assessment
With 27 strategies covered in this resource, you're sure to find the help and clarification you need as you guide groups of readers."
Source: Corwin Press website
To preview this book, see Collette Drake or Mary Alicia Lyons!
Goldburg & Saravallo (2-5)
"Conferring with Readers presents repeatable frameworks for conferences that focus on six specific purposes of reading instruction:
- matching students to just-right books
- reinforcing students’ strengths
- supporting students during whole-class studies
- helping students move from one reading level to the next
- holding students accountable for previous learning
- deepening students’ conversations about books in order to deepen their thinking.
...With all this plus ideas for planning instruction, keeping records of your conferences, and even conducting group sessions, Conferring with Readers will make a big difference in how you teach reading.."
Source: Heinemann website
To preview this book, see Collette Drake or Mary Alicia Lyons!
Writing Workshop
Leah Marmelstein (K-5)
" 'I'm done. What should I do now?' If you hear this question all too often during the independent work portion of writing workshop, Leah Mermelstein has a solution for making this time more productive for both students and teachers. Along with making time for writing workshop every day, and planning long-term for it, Leah argues that the “third essential element,” creating self-directed writers, is key to the success of writing workshops.
Using a wealth of classroom anecdotes, student samples and specific teaching language, Leah illustrates how even the youngest students can become self-directed learners." Source: Amazon website
To preview a copy, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Carl Anderson (2nd-5th)
Source: Amazon website
To preview a copy, see Mary Alicia Lyons or check one out from the MGES professional collection!
Leah Mermelstein (K-5)
- content
- craft
- process
- progress.
With in-action transcripts of teachers and students, helpful tips for working with English language learners and struggling writers, suggestions for matching children to share activities, and samples of effective teaching language, Don’t Forget to Share has everything you need to not only invest your teaching time in share sessions but to make them work for you and your students. "
Source: Heinemann website
To preview a copy, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
The Power of Words
Laminack & Wadsworth (K-5)
· define and discuss the important lessons about bullying embedded in each book
· develop literacy skills and strategies, conversation, critical thinking, character analysis, and reflection
· connect read aloud experiences to the anchor standards for reading in the Common Core."
Source: Heinemann website
To preview this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons or check one out from the MGES professional collection!
Peter Johnston (K-5)
"Choice Words shows how teachers accomplish this using their most powerful teaching tool: language. Throughout, Peter Johnston provides examples of apparently ordinary words, phrases, and uses of language that are pivotal in the orchestration of the classroom. Grounded in a study by accomplished literacy teachers, the book demonstrates how the things we say (and don't say) have surprising consequences for what children learn and for who they become as literate people. Through language, children learn how to become strategic thinkers, not merely learning the literacy strategies. In addition, Johnston examines the complex learning that teachers produce in classrooms that is hard to name and thus is not recognized by tests, by policy-makers, by the general public, and often by teachers themselves, yet is vitally important."
Source: Amazon website
To preview this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons or check one out from the MGES professional collection!Peter Johnston (K-5)
Grounded in research, Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives shows how words can shape students' learning, their sense of self, and their social, emotional and moral development. Make no mistake: words have the power to open minds – or close them."
Source: Amazon website
To preview a copy of this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Supporting Striving Readers & Writers
Linda Hoyt & Kelly Davis (K-5)
"...Dip into the three parts—Nonfiction, Fiction, and Assessment—where commonly-asked questions from teachers like you frame a menu of solutions covering a variety of instructional possibilities. Following each question you’ll find:
*Side-by-Side Observations—portraits of striving readers and the tools and solutions that will benefit their development
*Solutions—a wealth of instructional tools and scaffolds to support K–6 readers
*Formative assessment tools—reading records, observation checklists, story maps, and more—also available in a customizable format on the accompanying CD-ROM."
Source: Heinemann website
To preview this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Richard Allington (K-5)
Source: Amazon website
To preview this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
M. Colleen Cruz (K-5)
Source: Heinemann website
To preview this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Literacy and Technology
Julia Ramsay (3-5)
Source: Amazon website
To preview this title, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis (K-5)
Source: Heinemann website
To preview this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Frank Serafini (2-5)
Source: Amazon website
To preview this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Pre-K to 1st Grade Resources
Kathy Collins & Matt Glover (Pre-K-1st)
Kathy and Matt show how to nurture, nudge, and instruct young readers to make meaning in any text, whether or not they are reading the words. They share:
*observation guides for children reading any kind of book
*specific descriptions of language and independence development
*sample reading conferences and whole-class minilessons
*suggestions for creating reading opportunities in preschool and reading workshops in K–1
*action plans to get you going
*25 online video clips of children making meaning and teachers supporting them."
Source: Heinemann website
To preview this book, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Katie Wood Ray & Matt Glover (Pre-K-K)
"Already Ready shows you how, by respecting children as writers, engaged in bookmaking, you can gently nudge them toward a lifetime of joyful writing. Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover guide you through fundamental concepts of early writing. Providing numerous, helpful examples of early writing—complete with transcriptions—they demonstrate how to:
*make sense of children’s writing and interpret how they represent sounds, ideas, and images
*see important developmental signs in writers that you can use to help them grow further
*recognize the thinking young children engage in and discover that it’s the same thinking more experienced writers use to craft purposeful, thoughtful pieces."
Source: Heinemann website
To preview this title, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Gay Su Pinnell and Irene Fountas (Pre-K)
Source: Heinemann website
To preview this title, see Mary Alicia Lyons!
Other Great Titles to Check Out...
Donalyn Miller (2-5)
Sharon Taberski (K-3)
Michael Opitz & Timothy Rasinski (K-5)
Ellin Oliver Keene (K-8)
Martinelli & Mraz (K-2)
Fountas and Pinnell (K-5)
Click the below to take the survey!
Oldie and very useful goodies...
Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency by Fountas and Pinnell
When Readers Struggle by Fountas and Pinnell
Guiding Readers and Writers 3-6 by Fountas and Pinnell
Interactive Writing by Fountas and Pinnell
The Next Step in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson
Talking, Drawing, Writing: Lessons for Our Youngest Writers by Horn & Giacobbe
Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Beck & McKeown
Moving Forward with Literature Circles by Day, Spiegel, McLellan & Brown
Reality Checks: Teaching Reading Comprehension with Nonfiction K-5 by Tony Stead