Being told what to read

We’re experiencing a strange phenomenon in our house this summer. Molly, who turns 11 in August, has two books she’s required to read before she starts 5th grade this fall. The two books are Little Women and The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book 1: The Mysterious Howling. This required reading list marks the first time Molly has ever been told what to read outside of school. The result? No...

Moo Baa La La La

See larger image Moo Baa La La La (Board book) By (author) Sandra Boynton Serious silliness for all ages. Artist Sandra Boynton is back and better than ever with completely redrawn versions of her multi-million selling board books. These whimsical and hilarious books, featuring nontraditional texts and her famous animal characters, have...

Introducing Science Concepts to Primary Students Through Read-Alouds: Interactions and Multiple Texts Make the Difference

This study of first and second graders looked at teacher-led read-alouds as a way to introduce science concepts. Results suggest that multiple exposures to a related concept across different stories gave students more time to build a mental representation of important ideas. This evidence suggests that moving beyond a single text as a source for building students’ understanding is an important instructional...

Reading Together: Tips for Parents of Children with Speech and Language Problems

Children with speech and language problems may have trouble sharing their thoughts with words or gestures. They may also have a hard time saying words clearly and understanding spoken or written language. Reading to your child and having her name objects in a book or read aloud to you can strengthen her speech and language...

Monitoring self-monitoring

I recently read a post about recognizing, teaching, and supporting self-monitoring behaviors in young readers. The post describes two readers: David, who asks questions and self corrects word errors as he reads, and Frannie, who plows through text regardless of errors that either change the meaning of the text, include nonsense words, or don’t make any sense at all. The author stresses how important it is for...

Froggy Read Aloud Books

Froggy books are loved by Kindergarten through Second Grade Students. It’s very very difficult not like Froggy. Looking for a good read aloud story? Just pick up the nearest Froggy book you can find and start reading it. Children react to Froggy’s setbacks and mistakes with smiles, laughter and even self connection. AUDIO BOOKS Froggy Fun Come to Fernleaf Forest and meet Freddy, a very shy...