Invigorate your teaching and simplify your lesson planning with inquiry! With this book, learn to develop an essential question that students will be engaged by, and then plan lessons, activities, and projects that support students as they pursue answers and understandings. Addresses all the content areas.

How do we inspire students to love reading and discovery? In Passionate Readers: The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child, classroom teacher, author, and speaker Pernille Ripp reveals the five keys to creating a passionate reading environment. You’ll learn how to... Use your own reading identity to create powerful reading experiences for all students Empower your students and their reading experience by focusing on your physical classroom environment Create and maintain an enticing, well-organized, easy-to-use classroom library; Build a learning community filled with choice and student ownership; and Guide students to further develop their own reading identity to cement them as life-long, invested readers. Throughout the book, Pernille opens up about her own trials and errors as a teacher and what she’s learned along the way. She also shares a wide variety of practical tools that you can use in your own classroom, including a reader profile sheet, conferring sheet, classroom library letter to parents, and much more. These tools are available in the book and as eResources to help you build your own classroom of passionate readers.

Ruth Heller's prose and pictures are the perfect means for discovering the variety of oviparous animals and their unique ways of laying eggs.

An important goal of teachers is to get all students, especially those in the upper elementary and middle grades who struggle with academic work, engaged in reading. This book examines current research on instructional principles and actions related to engaged reading. It shows how teachers can translate this research into evidence-based actions that promote productive instructional contexts and focus students’ purposeful use of literacy in acquiring knowledge. The authors integrate descriptions of principles and actions with concrete examples of classroom instruction and thematic teaching across disciplinary contexts and demonstrate how teachers might mediate students’ reading of complex texts. The book provides readers with a vivid picture of the complexities of teaching reading in the upper elementary and middle grades. In particular, the book blends individual principles and practices into a holistic approach to creating productive and engaged learning environments for all upper elementary and middle grade learners.

Would you want to be a student in your own classroom? In Passionate Learners: How to Engage and Empower Your Students, author Pernille Ripp challenges both novice and seasoned teachers to create a positive, interactive learning environment where students drive their own academic achievement. You’ll discover how to make fundamental changes to your classroom so learning becomes an exciting challenge rather than a frustrating ordeal. Based on the author’s personal experience of transforming her approach to teaching, this book outlines how to: • Build a working relationship with your students based on mutual trust, respect, and appreciation • Be attentive to your students’ needs and share ownership of the classroom with them • Break out of the vicious cycle of punishment and reward to control student behaviour • Use innovative and creative lesson plans to get your students to become more engaged and intellectually-invested learners, while still meeting your state standards • Limit homework and abandon traditional grading so that your students can make the most of their learning experiences without unnecessary stress • And much more! New to the second edition, you’ll find practical tools, such as teacher and student reflection sheets, parent questionnaires, and parent conference tools, available in the book and as eResources on our website (http://www.routledge.com/9781138916920) to help you build your own classroom of passionate learners.

"A must-read for all middle and high school teachers interested in motivating and engaging their students to enhance their reading development and help them enjoy it at the same time." —Lesley M. Morrow, Professor of Literacy Rutgers University "This rich compendium of information offers a solid plan of action for teachers who want to ensure that their students are highly motivated literacy learners." —Linda B. Gambrell, Distinguished Professor of Education Clemson University Inspire learners′ passion for reading! Every day, secondary school teachers face the challenge of engaging students in essential reading tasks. This accessible text links key instructional practices with current research on reading motivation, engagement, and classroom context to help reluctant learners become active readers. Featuring contributions from content teachers working in collaboration with reading researcher John T. Guthrie, Engaging Adolescents in Reading offers examples that vividly illustrate how motivation looks from the teacher′s vantage point and how students can experience deep reading engagement. The writers discuss teaching frameworks, student activities, and textbooks, and demonstrate how to use classroom-tested motivational approaches. This insightful book shows educators how to: Infuse reading assignments with significance and meaning Present choices that encourage students to take charge of their learning Tap into adolescents′ social natures through group activities Build proficiency and confidence in struggling readers With examples from the content areas, these strategies help teachers increase adolescents′ engagement with texts and boost their reading enjoyment.

Parents and early childhood teachers know that reading aloud to children is important, but the specific things that adults do while reading with children that make reading a powerful way to improve children’s language, vocabulary, and early literacy skills can remain a mystery. Read with Me makes those behaviors clear and easy to implement for parents and teachers by outlining the ABCs of Active Reading (Ask Questions, Build Vocabulary, and Connect to the Child’s World). Active Reading is an approach to reading aloud with young children that is supported by decades of research. Read With Me provides parents and teachers with the knowledge and skills to engage young children (age 2 to 5) in Active Reading with examples, clear explanations, and ideas for making one-on-one or small group read aloud sessions a powerful way to build children’s early literacy and language skills, all while creating a lifelong love of reading.

Reading for pleasure urgently requires a higher profile to raise attainment and increase children’s engagement as self-motivated and socially interactive readers. Building Communities of Engaged Readers highlights the concept of ‘Reading Teachers’ who are not only knowledgeable about texts for children, but are aware of their own reading identities and prepared to share their enthusiasm and understanding of what being a reader means. Sharing the processes of reading with young readers is an innovative approach to developing new generations of readers. Examining the interplay between the ‘will and the skill’ to read, the book distinctively details a reading for pleasure pedagogy and demonstrates that reader engagement is strongly influenced by relationships between children, teachers, families and communities. Importantly it provides compelling evidence that reciprocal reading communities in school encompass: a shared concept of what it means to be a reader in the 21st century; considerable teacher and child knowledge of children’s literature and other texts; pedagogic practices which acknowledge and develop diverse reader identities; spontaneous ‘inside-text talk’ on the part of all members; a shift in the focus of control and new social spaces that encourage choice and children’s rights as readers. Written by experts in the literacy field and illustrated throughout with examples from the project schools, it is essential reading for all those concerned with improving young people’s enjoyment of and attainment in reading.

Meet Wordy Birdy, a very chatty bird who talks WAY more than she listens! A hilarious new story from Tammi Sauer, beloved author of Nugget & Fang, Chicken Dance, and My Alien. Wordy Birdy LOVES to talk. “Hello, sunrise. Hello, pink sky. Hello, orange sky!” But does she love to listen? NOPE. One day, while she’s walking through the forest, her gift of the gab gets her into hot water: “That’s a pretty tree and that’s a pretty tree and that’s a pretty danger sign and that’s a pretty tree. . . .” Will this inattentive bird walk right into danger? Will her faraway thoughts lead her along a path of doom? It’s up to her long-suffering, heard-it-all-before pals Squirrel, Raccoon, and Rabbit to save their distracted friend. Author Tammi Sauer will have kids and their parents in stitches with this funny, fast-paced, lovable caper about the importance of paying attention—and the importance of standing by your friends through thick and thin. And look for the hilarious sequel, Wordy Birdy Meets Mr. Cougarpants! Praise for Wordy Birdy: A Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year “laugh-out-loud funny . . . caregivers will certainly find this chuckleworthy.”—Kirkus "amusing and entertaining"—School Library Journal "an entertaining approach to the topic of listening."—Booklist

When his beloved jack-o'-lantern starts to decompose, Tim puts it outside and watches it transform from pumpkin—to seed—to pumpkin again. The first pumpkin Tim ever carved was fierce and funny, and he named it Jack. When Halloween was over and the pumpkin was beginning to rot, Tim set it out in the garden and throughout the weeks he watched it change. By spring, a plant began to grow! Will Hubbell's gentle story and beautifully detailed illustrations give an intimate look at the cycle of life.