Discover new, practical methods for teaching literacy skills in your early childhood classroom. Has teaching early literacy skills become a stumbling block to getting your preschool students kindergarten ready? Break out of the tired “letter of the week” routine and learn how to transform your lessons with fun and effective techniques. Teach Smarter: Literacy Strategies for Early Childhood Teachers will equip teachers to infuse every aspect of their teaching with exciting hands-on literacy teaching methods that engage students and help them build authentic connections with books, so that 100% of their students will have a strong literacy foundation and will be fully prepared for success in kindergarten and beyond. Respected author Vanessa Levin, veteran early childhood educator and author of the “Pre-K Pages” blog, breaks down the research and translates it into realistic, actionable steps you can take to improve your teaching. Features specific examples of teaching techniques and activities that engage students in hands-on, experiential learning during circle time, centers, and small groups. Offers a simple, four-step system for teaching literacy skills, based on the foundational principles of early literacy teaching Demonstrates how to build your confidence in your ability to get 100% of your students ready for kindergarten, long before the end of the school year Understand the problems with traditional literacy teaching and identify gaps in your current teaching practice with this valuable resource.

Straight from the classroom, these age-perfect lessons provide the tools and strategies young students need to become successful writers. From teaching basic routines and concepts of print, to introducing the writing process and classroom resources such as the word wall, to exploring how to write for different purposes and edit, the lesson you need will be at your fingertips—from September to June. For each lesson, the authors provide a suggested anchor book, modeling ideas, and guided and independent practice activities. Includes assessment ideas, conferring tips, reproducible student sheets, and more! For use with Grades K–1.

Interactive Writing is specifically focused on the early phases of writing, and has special relevance to prekindergarten, kindergarten, grade 1 and 2 teachers.

Beginning Reader Intervention Activities includes lessons covering 37 word families and is the ideal companion for reinforcement of reading, spelling and writing using three- and four-letter words. It includes multi-sensory activities, home-school connections, and over 400 reproducible word cards. Get beginning readers off on the right track with 160 pages of engaging intervention!

Students in today's classrooms must be able to draw evidence, reasons, and ideas from various sources. This invaluable classroom resource offers practical, easy-to-use strategies to help students analyze any text and use it as a source in their own writing. Sample lessons guide students to use the provided text both as a source for information as well as a mentor text. Each section includes 5 lessons tailored to the specific grade spans, and correlations to state standards for each grade span are also included.

As teachers, the beginning of each school year presents us with fresh starts and opportunities. How will we build community and create a culture that values thinking, learning, and risk-taking? How can we create a safe environment where all learners feel welcome and valued? As writing teachers, it's of utmost importance that we launch our students into the world of writing in a way that engages them and helps to build their confidence. In this book, Kelly Boswell shares a variety of ways to kick-start the school year and invite students to engage in meaningful, purposeful and joyful writing experiences.

A comprehensive and step-by-step way to present lessons about the four writing domains-expressive, narrative, informative, and persuasive-to primary students. This book features easy-to-use rubrics, reproducibles, and writing templates to provide the structure young writers need for success.

Modeling is one of the most effective of all teaching strategies and yet many teachers overlook this powerful tool in writing instruction. When teachers think aloud and then craft a piece of writing in front of their students, they give student writers a peek into what is possible in their own writing. In this book, Kelly Boswell shows you how to transform student writers by infusing short bursts of purposeful teacher modeling. As students watch an adult writer think, talk, and write, they can develop the skills needed in order to create writing that is both polished and purposeful. Tony Stead, educator, internationally known literacy specialist and author, says, "Finally Not just another book about how to teach writing, but one that targets the power of modeled writing. What a delight it is to read this professional resource that highlights the importance of this strategy as the cornerstone to successful teaching and learning of the writing process."

Offers advice to teachers on how to set up writing workshops in kindergarten and first grade classrooms, describing ten writing workshop strategies, and featuring tips on how to include parents in the writing program.

Teach writing skills using the Four Square method, which has been proven to work in classrooms just like yours. This revised and updated edition of the book also includes PowerPoint files filled with additional Four Square examples, activities, and writing exercises. The Four Square method can be used with all forms of writing and will fit any reading or language arts program. This step-by-step approach is built around a simple graphic organizer that first shows students how to collect ideas and then helps them use those ideas to create clear and polished prose. Open-ended reproducibles make the technique accessible to writers of all ability ranges. It is also great for content area writing.