Teacher Created Materials

Wordless books can be enjoyed by all levels of emergent readers. They encourage children to apply critical visual literacy skills, which are important for today’s focus on visual images. Wordless books provide scaffolds for storytelling, vocabulary use and fluency, and language learning. Opportunities for creative dialogue and characterization abound when children “read” these stories.

The summer countdown is on, but the school year is not over yet! So, why not end the year with some great activities to get through those last few days of school? Great end-of-year activities should spice up the schedule, wrap things up, and yet squeeze in a few last moments of student learning and practice before you send students on their ways to summer and the next grade.

There’s a book, isn’t there, that you loved as a child? Just thinking about it brings back a flood of memories. Either the story itself delighted you, or the memory of reading it with someone you love sealed that book in your heart forever. Either way, the book sparked something in you‚ and the fire that was lit is a love of reading that you carry with you to this day. Every child deserves that spark, don’t they? The great news is that there is a book like that for every reader. One that will st

There are literally millions of texts that are there for the reading, right at your fingertips. Not so with all other forms of art! To see the Mona Lisa, you must travel to Paris and pay the entry fee into the Louvre. To see the Taj Mahal, you must make your way to India, pay your entrance, and step only where allowed to tread. And whether Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, or The Wiggles, that concert is going to cost you. But to read the works of the masters through time and the present day? Nothing.

Have you ever wondered why some kids become voracious readers and others avoid reading like it’s a laundry basket full of stinky socks? We asked top literacy experts around the country what they feel is the key to building a love of reading in students. Here is what they had to say.

Fiction or nonfiction?  Often, teachers view these two types of texts as separate and distinct, with little overlap in purpose or instruction. However, pairing fiction and nonfiction texts together in instruction can have many beneficial effects. While some students are drawn to fiction, others are naturally attracted to nonfiction. Pairing fiction and nonfiction texts help to engage both types of students, while also broadening their vocabulary and knowledge about a common topic.