Heinemann Blog

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re learning about creative ways to grow our thinking. Tanny McGregor explains the power behind putting words and pictures together in the method of “sketchnoting.”

Why do we learn? It's a question principals always have on their mind. Children and adults, students of school, and students of life learn with greatest investment when they are engaged in what they are doing, when they feel that their learning is meaningful and relevant.

The use of sketchnotes is gaining in momentum and credibility in business and education Like so many popular concepts, though, the topical lexicon can be confusing.

Developing an understanding of text characteristics offers you a crucial context for understanding what to expect from readers. To determine whether students 'get it,' we have to know what 'it' is.

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, what role does developmental psychology play in teaching?

Struggle is how we learn. Rich tasks provoke productive struggle, during which students actively struggle through a problem as they work to make sense of it.

Understanding what the whole is, what the parts are, how they are related, and what might be missing in a particular problem are all critical aspects of numerical fluency.

Our aim should be to ensure that every minute is packed with thinking, reading, writing, lots of talk, and lots of books. To that end we need to reexamine the assumption that students can read only one book at a time.

Before you get started on your journey of making books in writing workshop, there are a few things you need to know about the practice.

The value of play comes from the fact that the child wants to play, and has to come up with the play him- or herself. Attempts to simply make a lesson playful miss the very psychological characteristic that renders play such a powerful means for learning during childhood. Play is the child’s work.

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, does the design of an assignment impact the quality of a student’s work? Jim Burke is the author of The Six Academic Writing Assignments: Designing the User’s Journey.

Math has moved on: now, instead of merely memorizing multiplication tables, students are expected to know what multiplication means and use more than one strategy to solve, then explain their thinking to peers and teachers. Let’s talk about why that is and how parents can help.

The PLC Series begins again for the 2018-19 school year!

Reading is a process that is internal, and where the problems lie can seem difficult to pinpoint. Happily, though, for many young readers, once they get focused help working through stuck points, their progress seems to skyrocket.

What happens if we under scaffold a child and he’s not successful? We work with the child to fix it. Everyone—every child in our readers’ workshop, every teacher, every adult, every human—fails and is disengaged at some point.

Understanding as you're reading helps you to engage with the text, read accurately, read with fluency, understand what the author is saying, and think beyond the text. In essence, comprehension is everything.

Turn & Talk is a celebration of Heinemann’s 40th anniversary, hosting conversations between authors who have written for Heinemann since its early years, and those who are newer authors, bringing their unique perspectives to the table.

Begin conferences by asking students an open-minded question that invites them to talk about what they're doing as writers.