Now there’s a way to blend balanced literacy and formative assessment. This book infuses research-based best practices of formative assessment through the lens of Common Core, with assessment support in these areas: read-alouds, guiding language into reading, language and literacy centers, and independent reading and writing. It also includes the "how" for novice and veteran K-8 teachers, administrators, and school literacy teams. Resources are included to help educators collect information and provide feedback to students.

Formative Assessment in the New Balanced Literacy Classroom (Maupin House)

Children's Books

Margaret Mary Policastro

Becky McTague

Diane Mazeski

Education & Reference

Capstone Professional

Today’s early literacy programs are more demanding than ever. No longer is it sufficient to teach letters, letter sounds, sight words, and simple texts in kindergarten through second grade. Children are expected to read and comprehend texts in a variety of genres with increasing complexity. Then they must integrate the ideas and concepts from those texts into their own writing. Two Books are Better Than One: Reading and Writing (and Talking and Drawing) Across Texts in K-2 helps teachers meet those demands. Each chapter contains an anchor lesson focused on a different way of connecting texts, including: by theme, characters, perspective, structure, or genre. The lessons feature research-based and common core aligned strategies: interactive read-alouds; shared reading and writing; scaffolded small group reading; accountable talk; close reading; and opinion, narrative, and explanatory writing. Each anchor lesson features two high-quality children’s books, and each chapter is rounded out with a list of other recommended book pairs to support you in creating your own lessons.

Two Books Are Better Than One!: Reading and Writing (and Talking and Drawing) Across Texts in K-2 (Capstone Professional: Maupin House)

Education & Teaching

Shari Frost

Schools & Teaching

Creating differentiated instruction is an essential yet time-consuming component of effective teaching. Since students learn at different paces and in different ways, some students may be able to apply a targeted comprehension skill in cognitively complex ways immediately after being taught the skill while other students may need additional scaffolding in order to grasp it. All students, regardless of their skill level, benefit from activities that are at their just right level. This means activities are not too difficult or too easy. In this book, Nancy Witherell and Mary McMackin share easy-to-follow lesson plans that address key reading skills for students in grades 3 to 5. A set of three, tiered, differentiated follow-up activities accompanies each lesson. Fiction and nonfiction mentor text suggestions are included.

Differentiating for Success: How to Build Literacy Instruction for All Students (Capstone Professional: Maupin House)

Nancy Witherell

Mary C. McMackin

Reading to children at home is a joyful and celebratory time for parents and children alike. Both relish in the story and the time spent together. Early exposure to texts provides other benefits as well because it prepares children for school and builds a love of reading. Living Literacy at Home provides tips and strategies to help parents build those connections. Included is a snapshot of what literacy looks like in today’s classroom and support on how to make that home-to-school connection, how to build a home library and develop a reading routine, and how to make every day a literacy-rich day. Easy-to-use forms and a glossary of literacy terms round out this resource. Although the book is intended for parents of children in kindergarten through grade 8, the routines and suggestions can be easily adapted for any grade level.

Living Literacy at Home: A Parent's Guide (Capstone Professional: Maupin House)

Dr. Margaret Mary Policastro

Comprehending complex informational text can be difficult for students. Use this book to help students simplify the process. Lessons will engage students and guide them to read a text critically in order to build comprehension. Lessons are also based on the Common Core State Standards and help move students purposefully through increasingly complex text. Strategies, including the Guided Highlighted Reading Framework, are provided for meaningful discussions on a variety of text structures.

Interacting with Informational Text for Close and Critical Reading (Maupin House)

Jill Erfourth

Theresa Hasenauer

Lorri Zieleniewski

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."

Write This Way: How Modeling Transforms the Writing Classroom (Maupin House)

Kelly Boswell

Write the SAT Essay Right! is not your average-ho-hum-SAT-prep book, full of fluff and boring, useless stuff. Instead, Write the SAT Essay Right! gives college-bound students the down-low skinny on the ten best-kept secrets to raise SAT scores. In an easy step-by-step way, students learn proven secrets, then practice their newfound skills. Sample tests to study and evaluate, key strategies, and lots of score-raising tips make this a must-have resource for conquering the SAT essay. The teacher/trade edition of Write the SAT Essay Right! contains write-in- the-book worksheets, making it a perfect choice for students who need effective and convenient practice.

Write the SAT Essay Right!: Ten Secrets to Add 100 Points to Your Score (Maupin House)

Test Preparation

LAURA WILSON

College & High School

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Books by Capstone Professional