Category · 319 articles
Spelling & Vocabulary
The Problem with Dialectical Journals
Dialectical journals have been teacher favorites since literature-based reading pedagogy was popularized in the 1980s. However, this reader-centered instruction creates more problems than it solves. In…
Problems with Daily Oral Language (D.O.L.)
Daily Oral Language (D.O.L.) requires students to multitask and the instruction consists of merely oral review. Both are poor instructional pedagogy and it is no wonder…
Response to Intervention and the Common Core
RTI (Response to Intervention), ELL, ESL, and ELD (English Language Development), and DI (Differentiated/Individualized Instruction), instructional strategies are all validated in the Common Core State Standards.…
Why Vocabulary Word Lists Don’t Work
Teaching vocabulary word lists does not work. The strategy of giving twenty words on Monday and testing on Friday is both inefficient and ineffective. However, three…
Good Reading Fluency, but Poor Reading Comprehension
Teachers and parents see it more and more: good reading fluency, but poor reading comprehension. Repeated reading practice to build fluency needs to be balanced with…
How to Grade Writing
How can we effectively assess student writing? Should we grade upon effort, completion, standards, achievement, or improvement? Is our primary task to respond or to grade?…
How to Use the Computer to Grade Essays
Here's how one teacher began using the computer to grade student writing and developed a free download of 438 e-comments to automatically insert into student essays.
How to Teach the Voiced and Unvoiced “th”
Teaching the voiced and unvoiced consonant digraphs in the context of beginning and remedial reading instruction can be tricky. Speech therapists and ESL teachers insist that…