Episode Guide

1. Creating a Literate Community — Looks at the importance of building a strong learning community where reading and writing take a front seat in all learning and communication, and how vital this is to building emerging literacy skills.

2. Supporting the English Language Learner— Explores and addresses the needs of English language learners using similar instructional strategies used with general education students.

3. Word Study and Fluency — Examines effective teaching techniques that are at the foundation of early literacy through a review of research-based principles for teaching word study and fluency. Teachers will critique a word study lesson plan and compare approaches to teaching phonics.

4. Comprehension and Response — Reviews key strategies for teaching comprehension and for how to help students build their own set of strategies to use on increasingly more difficult texts. Motivate your students to challenge themselves with ideas from this program.

5. Teaching Writing as a Process —Discusses the stages of the writing process — planning, drafting, revising, and editing — and brainstorms ways to inspire students’ narrative writing.

6. Differentiating Instruction—Scrutinizes the effects of common classroom grouping practices on overall achievement in reading. Teachers will examine grouping practices in classroom video clips and discuss applications in their own practice.

7. Using Assessment To Guide Instruction —Explores the types of assessments that assist the teacher in making strong instructional choices and also shows the importance of more than one assessment measure and the benefits of adding those measures to daily instructional routines. Teachers are given the chance to practice these ideas.

8. Connecting School and Home —Examines belief systems on engaging parents as partners in student motivation and learning. They will discuss their own interactions with parents and explore ways they might build on existing practices.