Reading is an essential skill all children and adults need in modern society. With guided reading, students improve their reading skills, problem-solving techniques, and learn to read with meaning. The key to successful guided reading is small groups of students reading from carefully selected leveled text. During the 1960s in New Zealand, Marie Clay and…
I’ve always wondered what would have happened if I discovered NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) when I was still at school. If you ever desired writing a book but aren’t sure if you could, then NaNoWriMo is something to consider. Each November thousands subscribe to reach the goal of writing 50,000 words. The goal is…
The children are home, and the summer activity routine has taken over. The day is full of driving to baseball practice, swim lessons, and trying to fit in some fun time at the beach as well. Maybe you have found the time to get your children involved with a monthly STEM subscription, Khan Academy lessons,…
“I just can’t get her to read!” I often hear protests like this from parents when I suggest that their child read more for fun. Because it’s an important lifelong habit that I want my students to cultivate and because I know reading more will have a huge impact on their success in school, I…
The worst year of my life was the year I was in eighth grade. I was fourteen, had braces on my teeth, and was, according to our grumpy and insensitive doctor, ‘chubby’. I found boys baffling and icky, and had lost my best friend who had moved back to Ohio while I languished in New…
More and more educators are finding success using gaming for education. Minecraft, in particular, has shown its ability to be a game that’s both engaging and potentially educational. For starters, the game allows players to think for themselves in order to survive, and it gives them multiple ways to accomplish pretty much whatever they want…
The following is adapted from Episode 32 of the Word of the Day Podcast. Akin, an adjective, means “like or similar to,” and is perfectly suited for making comparisons between things. The etymology is pretty interesting. Akin contains within it the word “kin,” which means, “family or relatives.” If this reminds you of the word…
Hey! It’s me, Jamie, of the Word of the Day podcast. It’s the show where we take useful (but sadly underused) words and explain how awesome they are, and why it really isn’t too tough to incorporate them into everyday conversation or writing. (Learn more about how the show can help out teachers here, and…
When I lived in New York I would go to Georgia each year to visit my dear friend, Jenn. She and I had met in theater class and had done a few shows together. We got along beautifully from the get go because she had a huge heart, a huge brain and tons of empathy…
![Appreciating What, Where and How Boys Read [Infographic]](https://www.fractuslearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Boys-Read-copy1-e1496237958433-360x216.jpeg)
Unfortunately for many boys, what gets in their way of reading for pleasure are very well-intentioned adults who try to steer them in the “right” direction. That’s why the greatest gift we can give boys this season is an appreciation of their reading preferences! Using and Viewing the Graphic The above infographic is published under…
Today after yoga class, Stephanie, the beautiful woman who once cherished my infant son while I used the gym told me she had six relatives die in the hurricane. I stare into her high-cheek boned face and try to recall if she had ever told me she was French Creole. One of them was bitten…
Summer is right around the corner here in the United States bringing with it both good feelings and worry. For boys, summer equals a long vacation to do what they love every day: nothing, play video games and sports, run around, hang with friends, swim, etc. And who can blame them? Unfortunately, reading doesn’t make…
To expand on a popular saying: Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll pass a fishing test and then forget how because he wasn’t all that into fishing in the first place. Inspire a love for fishing, and he’ll fish for a lifetime. I…
The Product Marbotic offers wooden letters and numbers that work with six apps (free with the purchase of the letter and number blocks), which together allow your child to practice number- and letter-recognition, addition, subtraction, tens and ones units, spelling, and early reading. You can get the wooden letters and numbers as separate items or as…
There was a time early in my 20+ year teaching career when I didn’t plan ahead or think about what aliterate preteen/early teen boys needed from me to become self-directed readers. I truly believed that if I provided quality reading instruction and time to read, plus access to and choice in what books they wanted…
All learners deserve the opportunity to own their learning. They take this ownership when they have input into the what or the how of instruction. The more choice you offer students, the more they will embrace the learning. With technology integration, we no longer need to rely on the teacher as the sole expert in…
Don’t talk grades. You’re not supposed to talk about grades during Open House. Just keep pushing parents to the projects and work on the walls. But, that’s not why most parents show up. They don’t care much about work samples or the bells and whistles you have conjured to make your class seem so exciting…
During my second year of a Masters Degree program in Fiction Writing at Brooklyn College I completed my second novel and learned the importance of connecting content with intent or, to be concise, how to communicate clearly in English because you actually cared about what you were writing, why you were writing and the audience…
Recommending books to boys seems like it should be pretty straightforward. A boy needs a book to read. A parent asks an expert other—teachers/librarians/reading specialist—or book recommendations or reads blogs/articles/books touting the best books for boys. A parent gets said book(s) for the boy and shares it with him. The boy reads the book(s). But,…
When my son, Isaac, who is diagnosed with autism, was three years old, he went to a therapeutic school which was focused on teaching sign language. He caught on pretty quickly and had about a half dozen signs by the time he left the school at age four. We transferred him to a behavioral school because…
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