Based on her continuing work teaching in schools, Routman proves that good teaching doesn't have to mean lots of hours spent planning. What's necessary is good thinkingthinking about what matters to kids, what kids need to know, how we can move them forward, and how to ensure that they comprehend and enjoy what they readincluding struggling students. Readers will discover research-based strategies, immediately doable ideas, and detailed lessonsall based on an instructional framework that includes:<ul><li>demonstrations<li>shared demonstrations<li>guided practice<li>independent practice.Thoughout the text, Routman emphasizes the use of professional common sense and demonstrates how to maximize your time, making the most of every teachable moment. Practical, philosophical, and political, Reading Essentials gets to the heart of what excellent reading instruction is all aboutand puts the fun back into your teaching.
]]>In Writing Essentials Regie Routman demystifies the process of teaching writing well and gives you the knowledge, research, precise instructional language, and confidence you need to succeed. With Regie's help, you'll transform your classroom into an organized, joyful writing environment where students connect reading with writing every day across the curriculum, learn essential skills like grammar and spelling, and achieve higher scores on high-stakes tests through sensible, writing-based test preparation and daily classroom-based assessment.
Writing Essentials specifically and explicitly demonstrates practical, easy-to-do strategies that turn your writing instruction practices into best practices. Follow Routman's path for successfully leading all students-including English language learners, writers who struggle, and students coping with learning disabilities-from first draft to publication. You'll find expert advice and specific demonstrations on a wide variety of techniques, including:
<ul> <li>demonstrating your own writing process for students </li> <li>organizing and managing the writing classroom </li> <li>conducting effective, efficient writing conferences </li> <li>creating meaningful rubrics for better assessment </li> <li>teaching various forms of narrative and informational writing-and poetry </li> <li>applying shared writing across the grades and across the curriculum </li> <li>teaching editing and revision </li> <li>mapping out your writing instruction with Regie's own flexible, five-day lesson-planning model. </li></ul>In addition, Writing Essentials includes a DVD with eight three-to-four-minute video clips from primary and intermediate classrooms that show Regie conferring with writers and celebrating their work as she teaches and assesses. These invaluable clips, and the detailed notes that accompany them, take you inside the writing conference to see its structures and procedures while the sample classroom publications also on the DVD reveal the exciting possibilities of working with student writers.
Writing Essentials is conversational, upbeat, practical, eminently readable, illustrated with a wealth of children's writing, and filled with proven techniques for teaching writing well and managing your instructional time more effectively. With Routman in hand, you'll not only have the inspiration to say "I can do that too," but you'll have first-rate resources and strategies to answer your questions and help make great writing instruction happen in your classroom immediately.
For more information on using the DVD, please click here.]]>Literacy at the Crossroads takes a hard look at these issues. By informing teachers about what's really happening in our schools, Routman opens up the educational dialogue and disproves some of the misconceptions that threaten good practice. She describes and clarifies critical concerns, suggesting actions we must take so that, in her words, "we can continue to do what's right and best for children."
True, there are problems with schools in America - but, according to Routman, back-to-basics instruction is not the solution. What's needed are teachers who are clear about their goals and outspoken about their beliefs. Here is a book that shows them how.
]]>With the Blue Pages bound in, Invitations is the most exhaustive resource available for any teacher interested in professional development and changing his or her teaching.
]]>Conversations is grounded in the belief that the connections, interactions, reflections, and new thinking that evolve from rich dialogue define what we know. It was written, in part, to spur teachers to challenge assumptions, clarify their own learning, and take the lead in their own professional development. While this is not a book about a particular methodology, Routman does explore current theory and practice, and supports her views with classroom-based and scientific research. The book is upbeat and practical; each chapter is self-contained and can be read in any order. As Routman shares her own experiences and resources - through narratives, anecdotes, step-by-step demonstrations, and examples of students' work - we may find ourselves questioning, modifying, validating, or changing our own practices. Most of all, we will find ourselves talking. And here is where the conversation begins.
Text chapters: 656pp - The Blue Pages: Resources for Teachers: 240pp
]]>Can a teacher inspire learning, develop a sense of classroom community, hold the interests of a changing assortment of nine- and ten-year-olds, and continue to spark her own enthusiasm in the process? Joan Servis has been doing that for twenty-five years, and in Celebrating the Fourth, she shares the experience she has gained over a quarter of a century as a fourth-grade teacher in Ohio's progressive Shaker Heights school district.
Beginning as a "skill-and-drill teacher," Servis reached a turning point more than ten years ago when a classroom experiment using authentic literature texts yielded dramatic results. Questioning her old practices, she began to consult more freely with colleagues and students. Now, Servis champions a collaborative approach to learning, and shows how your classroom can be invigorated with techniques like daily self-reflection, giving students choices and responsibility, creating a risk-taking environment, and applauding students' success.
Celebrating the Fourth is unique not just in its grade-specific focus, but in its comprehensiveness. All subject areas from language arts to math and science are explored, as well as issues like parent outreach and building a sense of classroom community. Along with recommendations for resources and materials, Servis provides sample assessment forms. Especially timely are her ideas for satisfying parents' and administrators' requirements, without diminishing student input.
]]>Drawing from her own experience, she describes an existing program that has worked well for students and teachers and offers suggestions of how any elementary classroom can benefit from the transition from standardized texts to literature. The material she presents is designed to demonstrate the alternatives available, to stimulate thinking, and to give teachers, parents, and administrators the knowledge and procedures that are necessary to make a change.
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