Heinemann Blog

When student writers know how to reflect, they know how to learn from their writing experiences. It’s one thing to experience something, but if the experience is then forgotten or not connected in any direct way to other experiences, how is it useful?

Talk has a purpose—and that purpose is to tackle the unknown—to strategize, to innovate, to problem-solve, to construct understanding. This use of talk “in the wild” frames the “why” behind purposeful talk in the classroom—our rationale for designing teaching and learning that’s dialogic in nature.

Today on the Heinemann podcast author Tom Newkirk explores the value of creating worlds through fiction writing. As Tom says, “our minds were made for stories,” so he decided to sit down with high school students to hear about the fiction they write in and out of school…

Over the years, the “library” space came to be used for professional development, math labs, anything but literacy programming, and collection development slowed down significantly.

The Comprehension Toolkit series offers robust instruction to encourage students to develop the reading comprehension skills that lead to lifelong learning. See what's inside in this unboxing video!

How can we actively and intentionally involve students in the chart-making process so charts become an integral part of instruction? Let’s take a look at one way to involve students through the use of interactive writing.

When the reader stands in his or her own worldview, unable to see or conceive of any other perspective, a book can be a bridge. The right book, at the right time, can span the divide between where the reader stands in this moment and alternate views, new ideas, and options not yet considered.

The teaching of phonics is a means to an end. Children need to decode in order to independently read and write. Phonics shouldn’t feel like an interruption or detour away from these authentic experiences. Phonics should be the building of a curiosity.

While a whole book assessment is still a part of Complete Comprehension as it was IRA, there are numerous updates and improvements worth noting.

Today on the podcast, we’re talking with Anne Whitney, Colleen McCracken, and Deana Washell, co-authors of “Teaching Writers to Reflect: Strategies for a More Thoughtful Writing Workshop.”

Thinking about your students through a developmental lens will enhance your teaching each and every day. It will also make your job more interesting and therefore more fun. You can do this in a general way by getting into a three-step habit.

Witnessing a roomful of students typing or scribbling away, occasionally pausing to ponder a point or reconsider a sentence—this is teacher bliss. But how do we guide them to a place where they are writing for more than their teacher, for more than a grade?

Complete Comprehension operationalizes top-quality, peer-reviewed research and aligns with national and state standards of learning. Here's your access to all of the details.

Teaching Writers to Reflect is a book about reflection in the context of teaching writing. Anne Elrod Whitney, Colleen McCracken, and Deana Washell decided to start with themselves.

In a world of education that’s crowded by acronyms that vary state by state, teachers often find themselves needing to comply with mandates that someone far away has imposed on them. Sometimes, teachers look to principals for support in either doing away with these mandate, or to help make sense of them.

Katie Wood Ray interviews Carl Anderson and Jenifer Serravallo, who both recently published two conferring books in Heinemann’s Classroom Essentials Series.

We want to build a bridge for children—a bridge between what we are doing in class and the lives that they lead outside of class. We want to be able to show kids how each skill we teach in class makes life right now better outside of class.

Student conversations about writing, whether with a peer or a supportive adult, can provide powerful support on multiple levels. Opportunities to talk during writing workshop might take the form of rehearsal for writing, problem solving, reflection, feedback, or goal setting.