Despite proficient math skills, students may struggle to make sense of and solve story problems. While educators are encouraged to promote the use of comprehension strategies, students must first understand vocabulary at all levels as they work to make sense of and solve math story problems. Language skills are a prerequisite for schema…

As the number of children who are immigrants or refugees continues to grow due to a variety of issues taking place around the world, i.e., war, political unrest, famine, and persecution, how do schools meet their needs? The article provides advice on working with children who are immigrants or refugees and the importance of viewing them through an…

In their Four Resources Model, Freebody and Luke (1990) described four roles that readers take as they engage with texts: the code breaker, meaning maker, text user/analyst, and text critic. In this article, we propose the addition of a fifth role, the text actor. In this role, readers engage with texts that can incite, inform, and inspire them to…

Much has been written about the roles and responsibilities of literacy coaches, including the ways in which they can effectively communicate and work with teachers. Teachers, however, are often less certain about their roles and responsibilities when working with coaches. Many teachers also lack a clear picture of the varied opportunities…

Question asked in a preschool/primary teacher PD session on read-alouds: "After our Family Night presentation on home read-alouds, we got so many questions from families and caretakers. How can we give follow-up support?" This teaching guide suggests three simple ideas for supporting parent home-read-alouds with preschool, kindergarten,…

Serving both teachers and students in a hybrid literacy professional role requires thoughtful planning and reflection. In this article, the authors reflect on their work over the course of one school year to determine how to manage time effectively to combine the job descriptions of reading specialist and literacy coach. Strategies are presented…

As schools continue to focus on elementary student achievement and literacy growth, the role of the elementary school-based literacy coach is as imperative as ever. However, as a lever for reform and professional learning, the literacy coach role remains underspecified, variable, and often misunderstood in practice. This article aims to address…

The advent of Generative AI technologies, such as ChatGPT, in November 2022, necessitated immediate and critical attention from the educational research community. The impact of GenAI in education, though not yet clear, has the potential to be transformative. More specifically, the focus of this paper is on how to integrate GenAI into elementary…

Amplifying the racial, linguistic, ethnic, and broader sociocultural resources of Black, Latine, and Indigenous communities remains an urgent endeavor during these precarious times in literacy education. In the wake of continued global and U.S. racial reckoning movements and legislation that narrows early literacy curriculum to isolated skills and…

As children of immigrants are increasing in number across the U.S. classrooms, schools need to develop strategies to engage with immigrant families. Structural and attitudinal issues in the school system create challenges in communicating with immigrant parents. Immigrant parents have high expectations for their children's academic achievement…

Digital literacies play a foundational role in the rhythm and pattern of our lives, yet debates continue about how to harness them for educational purposes. In an effort to humanize digital literacies, this column provides a venue for research and practical applications that depict technology use as part of the fabric of being human. This…

In 2010, more than 40 states adopted the Common Core State Standards. Initially, the standards were quickly and easily embraced, but over the past year the standards have become enmeshed in various controversies, raising many questions about how the standards were written and what they include. This article attempts to provide authoritative…

Technology-enhanced classrooms offer dynamic possibilities for teachers and students. The teacher's role can shift from being an expert in control of the class to being a coach who challenges students to use technology to explore the world and share their findings in innovative ways. Such redefining of roles, however, involves risk and often…

The adoption of the Common Core in many states across the country means we need to explore instructional approaches that promote student language use in order to meet many of the complex linguistic standards that comprise the Common Core. In this Teaching Tip, we provide a blueprint for a 4-week collaborative discussion mini-unit that a second…

There are approximately 1.5 million children in the United States who go to sleep each night without a home of their own (National Center on Family Homelessness, 2009). In this article, we provide insights into how educators can create greater classroom support, particularly in literacy learning and development, for this population. Drawing from…