Stories and Rhymes for Kids to READ online

 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/

Why Read Aloud to Children? Let me count the ways…

Reading aloud to students is important.  Blah blah blah.  Reading aloud to children is necessary because otherwise they won’t read the books we love and think are important.  “Blessing Books” is when the teacher has read a little bit of a book to the classroom or touched the book and talked enough about the book [...]

The Questioning Circle by Jeffrey Wilhelm

Jeff writes about the strategy of the questioning circle on pages 124-129.             He models this strategy with the book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak         Jeff encourages teachers to use the gradual release model of I do, we do, you do.    First, he posed the essential inquiry question related to his [...]

Jeffrey D. Wilhelm – Essential Questions

http://www.amazon.com/Engaging-Readers-Writers-Inquiry-Practice/dp/0439574137 
This book encourages us to think about the essential question that leads to inquiry thinking.

Units of Study: Retelling

This website is developing ideas for units of study for reading. 
This unit encourages students to check for understanding or confusion:  http://bestbookihavenotread.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/strategies-for-checking-comprehension/ 
This unit encourages students to check for retelling:  http://bestbookihavenotread.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/readers-think-and-talk-to-grow-ideas/
This unit encourages students to realize that they have thoughts as they read.  http://bestbookihavenotread.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/readers-think-and-talk-to-grow-ideas/

Shared Reading: Learning to Read by Reading

Early Literacy Instruction in Kindergarten By Lori Jamison Rog
Shared Reading:  Learning to Read by Reading (Chapter 7)
Features of Shared Reading
When the text is large enough for the children to see it during the lesson.  This means that frequently Big Books are used.  Now that technology is catching up, a teacher can put a little book [...]

Reading / Writing Connection

Every child a reader and writer.  This site has several videos showing the reading/writing connection.  I think you will enjoy the clips. 
http://www.insidewritingworkshop.org/

Teaching Genre

To ensure that kids understand genres, many teachers have a flip chart listing the characteristics.  What ones are required by your state standards?  Read a book during a read-aloud, then go over the characteristics of that genre.  Do the students know the characteristics?  Do the students recognize the genre off the shelf? 

 
http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/  This link has posters similiar to [...]

Learning and Studying Informational Texts: Do you have a plan?

Pose the Big Question:  How do I read informational texts about science with understanding?
First, I introduce students to nonfiction text features.  I gather a big book that has most (or all) of the nonfiction text features that I want my students to notice.  I read the selection to my students.  What do you notice?  We [...]

Prior Knowledge Matters, Build It, and They Will Understand

Reading Test Dummies Article  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/opinion/23hirsch.html?_r=2&emc=eta1
E. D. HIRSCH Jr. correctly writes that the primary problem with comprehension reading tests is that the students do not have the prior knowledge necessary to score as high as possible on the test.  He quotes a study from 1988 that shows that students who know about the topic of baseball score higher on a comprehension test than [...]