Learning to compare and contrast different ideas deepens students’ understanding of what they read. How should you begin? Have students think of a question that compares and contrasts concepts, characters, or story elements. This can work for both fiction and nonfiction books. You can introduce this during a whole-class read aloud. You might ask students […]
One of the most important things for an emergent reader to learn is to check that what they read makes sense, looks right, and sounds right. This is called self-monitoring. Often the teacher does the monitoring for the student, but it is critical that students learn to check themselves. One of the first ways that […]
In my last post, I shared a video of educator, Amy Ferris, sharing about the data-driven teaching methods she is implementing at her kindergarten-only school in Richmond, Kentucky. My next data story comes from Julie Allsworth. Julie is a former literacy coach in Pinellas County, Florida, and also a Pioneer Valley Books consultant. She is currently working on […]
Many years ago, I was sitting in the Columbus, Ohio, airport after presenting at the National Reading Recovery conference. I eavesdropped on a conversation across the aisle, and that’s how I met Maryann McBride, a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader from Virginia. She was showing Excel data about Reading Recovery students to a group of teachers […]
Teaching students how to locate cause and effect in the text can help them learn how to analyze relationships between people, events, and ideas. To begin, introduce cause and effect to students using very simple stories. Familiar tales such as The Three Little Pigs can provide a great starting point. After reading the book, ask students, […]
Beginning readers need to learn to check one kind of information with another; this is called cross-checking. Students might check meaning (via the picture) with visual information (via the first letter of the word). They also may check that the words they say match the number of words they point to. Cross-checking leads to self-correction […]
[This post is a guest post from our Marketing Coordinator, Rachel. Rachel handles lots of the marketing and social media business for Pioneer Valley Books. Today she’s sharing some awesome updates from a couple of their digital projects.] At Pioneer Valley Books, we love doing whatever we can to ensure that teachers have as many […]
It’s September, which in our world only means one thing: back to school! Our BookBuilder™ Online tool is such a great resource for getting kids excited to be back in school. BookBuilder™ Online is a fun, easy way to personalize stories for young readers. Just insert the student’s name and the names of important people in […]
Every month, we create two free, printable books and make them downloadable via our BookBuilder Online. For August, we’ve got two awesome new stories for you! Because August means back to school season, our first story is called “Back to School.” (Level 2/B) Our second story this month is perfect for fall weather. It’s called “Delicious […]
Every month, we create two free, printable books and make them downloadable via our BookBuilder Online. For July, both of our stories are about summer vacation! Our first story is “The Summer Book Report.” (Level 18/J) Kids can insert their own names into these stories to personalize them. Fans of Bella & Rosie will especially love […]