If you are looking for ways to motivate children to improve their writing and thinking skills, consider having students produce digital stories. A digital story is a multi-media text consisting of pictures and video clips embedded in a document like a Power Point that is enhanced by a narrated soundtrack that tells the story. According [...]

We know that good readers are able to picture characters, scenes and events that happen in the books they read. You can help children build their guided imagery skills by asking children to clarify their vision of what was happening in a book. After reading the story without showing children the pictures, ask children to [...]

I am often asked by classroom teachers what they should be doing to help struggling readers who fall into the Tier 2 reading support level in the classroom. Of course, this depends upon the age of the child you are working with but here are some common problem areas that you might consider as you [...]

Older struggling readers often do not have good strategies for deconstructing a word when they come to a word they do not recognize. Helping students understand prefixes, suffixes and affixes helps students become more “word aware” as they are reading. Explicitly teach them how to spot smaller words within more complex words and draw a [...]

Help struggling readers and English-language learners develop a better sense of the “lilt” of the English language by having students read catchy poems orally as a group with your guidance. Consider the poetry of wonderful poets such as Jack Prelutsky or Shel Silverstein to name just a few. Find poems that have a good sense [...]