3 Things Our ELA Team is Reading Right Now

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With the new school year just around the corner (and for some, already beginning), ELA teachers across the country are preparing to usher the next generation further down the path of literacy. To that end, we asked our ELA team to share articles or books that have helped them improve their practice.

  1.  Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert

How do students learn to read? How can they best be taught? This article takes a deep dive into the science of learning to read, spanning from children’s earliest alphabetic skills to characteristics that define expert readers. It explains the importance of phonics instruction and reviews research on what else children need to learn to become expert readers. And it explains how this knowledge can be translated into effective classroom practice. An essential read for teachers of literacy.

  1. The Leadership Challenge

Anyone aspiring to become a leader (in an educational setting or otherwise) would be well served by this seminal book on leading others. It identifies five practices of exemplary leadership, provides case studies from real-world situations, and offers practical tools for building trust and transparency within and across teams. Not to be missed.

  1. Attending to Language, Engaging in Practice: Scaffolding English Language Learners’ Apprenticeship Into the Common Core English Language Arts Standards

Our community is focused on raising the bar of rigor, maintaining high standards, and teaching with grade-level texts. These issues often lead to questions about what kind of scaffolds we should use, particularly for English learners, that will enable students tackle complex texts. This article provides specific descriptions of effective scaffolds for English learners and shows how they look in action.

What have you read lately? Send us a link on Twitter the next time you read something that resonates. We want to hear your thoughts!