Gretchen Owocki lets other teachers in on one of the best-kept secrets of early childhood education: play is a virtual goldmine for facilitating literacy learning. When children play in a purposefully designed, literacy-rich environment, teachers can discover and capitalize on some truly important, highly teachable moments.
Literacy Through Play is a resource for preschool and primary teachers who are looking for proven methods for preparing young children to become confident and flexible readers and writers. Owocki begins the book by establishing the theoretical rationale for the importance of play in literacy development, then outlines what teachers can do to set up a developmentally appropriate environment. She takes us inside two classrooms that use play in smart ways, offering proven ideas for:

Literacy Through Play

Education & Teaching

Owocki, Gretchen

Schools & Teaching

Heinemann

With Literacy Through Play, Gretchen Owocki revealed to thousands of early childhood educators what a virtual gold mine play is for facilitating literacy learning. Now, with Make Way for Literacy!, Owocki offers effective guidelines for creating a classroom community that supports children's developing literacies. 
 Make Way for Literacy! starts with a brief explanation of how literacy begins to develop, first in a child's home and neighborhood. Owocki points out the various individual traits, family activities, and basic literacy practices that can be so influential - and then focuses on preschool, kindergarten, and the primary grades. Next, the book offers four key principles for understanding and facilitating literacy, along with easy-to-follow techniques for starting - or refining - teacher research and inquiry in the classroom. 
 The bulk of the text is devoted to practical, curriculum-enhancing literacy engagements. For each type of engagement, Owocki explains how it fosters language and literacy development; provides ideas for instruction, assessment, evaluation, and teacher research; offers practical methods and materials for getting the engagement started; suggests related activities involving art, drama, movement, writing, drawing, talk, or play; and includes actual teaching and learning examples from classrooms.

Make Way for Literacy! Teaching the Way Young Children Learn

This smart, practical guidebook shows preschool, kindergarten, and primary teachers how to refine their literacy evaluation practices through careful kidwatching. By observing and recording children's literacy development, teachers also develop new understandings of the ways children think and learn. Ultimately, through kidwatching, teachers plan curriculum and instruction that are tailored to individual strengths and needs. Gretchen Owocki and Yetta Goodman are the perfect pair to guide teachers through the kidwatching process. Yetta coined the term in her seminal article in 1978 and has spearheaded the use of miscue analysis as a window into the reading process. Gretchen, Yetta's former graduate student, is an outstanding educator and published author on the ways young children develop literacy. Together, they have written a book that will serve as a professional development tool as well as a kidwatching handbook. In each chapter, they provide <ul>
<li>a clear description of how kidwatching enhances teaching and learning </li>
<li>specific guidelines and suggestions for kidwatching </li>
<li>practical tools and resources to be used in documentation and analysis </li>
<li>empowerment for children-a chance to evaluate and revalue themselves by partnering with teachers to document and reflect on their knowledge. </li>
</ul>
Kidwatching provides a framework for engaging in systematic, yet very personalized, data collection in all areas of literacy. High-quality kidwatching gives teachers the information they need to teach effectively and to share detailed, factual information with families and administrators. Kidwatching can also be used to strengthen school reform, to develop a common set of principles and practices that are in tune with local needs and interests. Learn to watch kids and see how effective you can be on these fronts.

Kidwatching: Documenting Children's Literacy Development

Goodman, Yetta

Foster children's passion for literature early on. Sustain that passion with strategies that ensure listening and reading comprehension. Find out how in this essential guidebook for primary grade teachers. An expert in the ways young children develop literacy, Gretchen Owocki offers primary teachers just what they need for effective reading comprehension instruction-research-based strategies that enable children to meaningfully connect with text. Owocki bases her book on comprehension strategies that are known to be used by proficient readers: 
<ul>
<li>predicting</li> <li>inferring</li> <li>purpose setting</li> <li>retelling</li> <li>questioning</li> <li>monitoring</li> <li>visualizing</li> <li>connecting</li> <li>deciding what is important</li> <li>evaluating.</li> </ul> She then puts the strategies into context by providing a framework for comprehension instruction that has proven to be successful in a range of instructional settings. Here you will find practical ideas for supporting comprehension through whole-class and small-group instruction, literature circles, partner reading, and independent reading. For further help, Owocki includes graphic organizers, evaluation tools, instructional charts, and plentiful examples of the kinds of language that effective teachers use to engage students in talk about books. Read Owocki and feel freshly equipped to provide thoughtful comprehension instruction. And see how these practices greatly enrich not only children's literacy learning but also their experiences in and outside school.

Comprehension: Strategic Instruction for K-3 Students

In a recent survey, 80% of K-3 teachers considered outstanding in literacy instruction reported using literacy centers in their classrooms. Surprised? Gretchen Owocki isn't. She knows that literacy centers are an ideal tool for teachers who seek out opportunities to differentiate their instruction, and in Time for Literacy Centers, she shows you every aspect of using centers successfully. Owocki has thought of everything you need to know to make learning centers happen, from planning to assessment to ensuring that centers help all students meet content and skills standards. Grounded in solid research, yet lively and practical enough to keep on the corner of your desk, Time for Literacy Centers offers explicit, helpful advice on teaching with literacy centers, including: <ul>
<li>smart suggestions for on-the-spot and preplanned differentiation through centers-including tips for working with special-needs students and English-language learners</li> <li>specific learning and teaching principles that guide and enhance center-based instruction</li> <li>literacy goals for centers that are developmentally appropriate for your students, yet flexible enough to work in grades K-3</li> <li>ideas for organizing the physical space in your classroom for one or many centers</li> <li>strategies for managing center-based instruction that help even the busiest classrooms run smoothly</li> <li>plans for more than 50 literacy centers with activities and reproducibles that are ready to roll out right away.</li> </ul>
If you're trying literacy centers for the first time, Time for Literacy Centers gives you plenty of start-to-finish help in getting your centers up and running-and running well. If you're a center veteran, you'll uncover some nitty-gritty details that will help you provide the best individual support for your students as they develop their literacy capabilities.

Time for Literacy Centers: How to Organize and Differentiate Instruction

Gretchen Owocki's Literate Days: Reading and Writing with Preschool and Primary Children is a multimedia curriculum resource for preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade teachers looking to enrich and broaden their literacy-related instructional practices. Framed by research notes and kidwatching forms, lessons present ideas for enhancing existing teaching practices (such as whole-group read-aloud and circle time) and for extending the quality of students' literacy experiences in times that are not typically considered “instructional” (such as independent reading and play). Ample research evidence shows that when teachers accomplish the types of teaching described in this resource, children's achievement soars - and their lives as literate individuals flourish   Components A jump-in-and-get-started Teacher's Guide outlines the thinking behind Literate Days   33 lessons are organized into three lesson books.  • Book 1: Grounding Children in Routines and Procedures for Meaningful Learning  • Book 2: Building, Energizing, and Re-envisioning the Literacy  • Book 3: Deepening the Scholarship in the Classroom Community  Framed by research notes and kidwatching forms, lessons provide that provide detailed plans, teaching tools, and reproducibles for children.   The Lessons from Literate Days DVD models effective literacy instruction with two hours of live-from-the-classroom video footage.   

Literate Days: Reading and Writing with Preschool and Primary Children

Firsthand Books

Children's needs differ so vastly that a single program designed to support numerous students can only do so much. More than anything else, your students need you to use your professional expertise to unravel their needs and to plan instruction that is directly responsive. -Gretchen Owocki The RTI Daily Planning Book, K-6 makes exemplary RTI possible in every reading classroom. Gretchen Owocki (author of Comprehension) gives you clear-cut directions and specific tools and strategies for RTI that are sensible and developmentally sensitive. She breaks the process down to its essentials: Collecting &amp; Assessing Reading Data <ul>
<li>Gretchen's research-based framework shows exactly what to assess and how </li> <li>reproducible rubrics, data charts, and class checklists for ongoing assessment, gauge readers' progress and point toward follow-ups</li> </ul>
Targeted Follow-Up Instruction <ul>
<li>streamlined strategies linked to assessments by if-then strands help you meet wide-ranging needs efficiently </li> <li>ideas for grouping that increase your instructional flexibility and help you avoid unnecessary interruptions.</li> </ul>
Gretchen's authentic reading assessments give you the truest-possible sense of your readers' abilities and open up opportunities for differentiation. She follows these with suggestions for planning and organizing Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction to meet all readers' needs during the day. RTI doesn't have to be complicated. "The success of RTI depends simply on teachers engaging in thoughtful assessment that leads to thoughtful instruction," writes Gretchen Owocki. "But teachers have to be ready-really ready." Get ready with The RTI Daily Planning Book, K-6 and let it make RTI focused and effective.

The RTI Daily Planning Book, K-6: Tools and Strategies for Collecting and Assessing Reading Data & Targeted Follow -Up Instruction

Business & Money

Education & Reference

"To reach their potential, children need an engaging environment and a reason to learn. This book is aimed at helping teachers implement quality Common Core instruction around this principle." -Gretchen Owocki The quality of instruction is the most important factor in helping students meet the Common Core Standards. That's why Gretchen Owocki's Common Core Lesson Book empowers teachers with a comprehensive framework for implementation that enhances existing curriculum and extends it to meet Common Core goals. "Children," writes Gretchen (author of The RTI Daily Planning Book), "need teachers who believe in the power of meaningful reading as a context for instruction." She breaks the CCSS reading standards into manageable chunks that emphasize engaged, authentic reading and differentiated teaching. For each standard, she offers: 
<ul>
<li>a clear description of what it asks from students</li> <li>an instructional decision tree that connects assessment to planning</li> <li>instructional strategies that gradually release responsibility to students</li> <li>techniques for intensifying instruction when readers need more support.</li> </ul>
"In implementing the standards," writes Gretchen, "we want children to deeply engage with multiple forms of reading. I wrote this book to offer encouragement to stay grounded in meaningful instruction, and to offer a set of strategies that emphasize meaningful reading." Respond to the Common Core with The Common Core Lesson Book-you'll help students meet the standards, and so much more.

The Common Core Lesson Book, K-5: Working with Increasingly Complex Literature, Informational Text, and Foundation al Reading Skills (Owocki Common Core)

Reference

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

"As we work within the Common Core, we must take care to not lose sight of meaningful teaching and learning. In working toward the new standards, kids are going to be doing hard things. But children can still write for reasons that matter. This is not inconsistent with the goals of the Common Core State Standards." -Gretchen Owocki "My goal with The Common Core Writing Book," writes Gretchen Owocki, "is to support K-5 teachers as they provide differentiated instruction in relation to the ten Common Core writing standards." Gretchen presents a comprehensive framework of strategies that help you choose the best path for meeting students' needs and the Common Core standards. As she did for reading in the bestselling Common Core Lesson Book, Gretchen empowers teachers with information and proven practices. She breaks the writing anchor standards into manageable chunks, emphasizing differentiation, engagement, and writing for authentic purposes. She offers: <ul>
<li>a clear description of what each standard asks from students</li> <li>instructional decision trees that connect assessment to planning</li> <li>instructional strategies that gradually release responsibility to students</li> <li>suggestions for tailoring support to meet students' individual needs.</li> </ul> "Because effective teaching does not emerge from a mandate, a state office, or a manual," writes Gretchen Owocki, "we must avoid paths that cast educators as secondary decision makers or that offer quick solutions or static packages." Whether you turn to The Common Core Writing Book to enhance your current curriculum or to design your own, Gretchen Owocki will help you create instruction that is standards focused and student centered.

The Common Core Writing Book, K-5: Lessons for a Range of Tasks, Purposes, and Audiences (Owocki Common Core)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Owocki, Gretchen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Owocki, Gretchen

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Owocki, Gretchen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Literacy Through Play

Make Way for Literacy! Teaching the Way Young Children Learn

Kidwatching: Documenting Children's Literacy Development

Comprehension: Strategic Instruction for K-3 Students

Time for Literacy Centers: How to Organize and Differentiate Instruction

Literate Days: Reading and Writing with Preschool and Primary Children

Literate Days: Reading and Writing with Preschool and Primary Children

The RTI Daily Planning Book, K-6: Tools and Strategies for Collecting and Assessing Reading Data & Targeted Follow -Up Instruction

The Common Core Lesson Book, K-5: Working with Increasingly Complex Literature, Informational Text, and Foundation al Reading Skills (Owocki Common Core)

The Common Core Writing Book, K-5: Lessons for a Range of Tasks, Purposes, and Audiences (Owocki Common Core)