Despite strong support for integrating reading and writing instruction, writing practice is often crowded out of the schedule in elementary classrooms. To promote increased emphasis on writing, a working group of literacy researchers highlights three writing goals and six research-based reading-to-writing practices to enliven instruction with more…

This Teaching Tip describes the use of children's literature to help second-grade students meet Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and for Mathematics. During a shared reading experience, students used manipulatives to represent plot and characters while demonstrating mathematical reasoning. The article offers instructional…

In most elementary schools, students spend more time reading and writing narrative texts and less time with informational texts. Yet, the Common Core State Standards advocate that informational texts comprise nearly half of K-8 students' entire academic reading, including content areas like science and social studies. The authors propose remixing…

Early childhood instruction tends to focus heavily on literacy development, sometimes at the expense of rich concept development (CEP, 2007; Neuman, 2006; NRC, 2012; NSTA, 2014). Because of the emphasis on literacy instruction, many early childhood teachers integrate content areas, such as science, in literacy instruction through read alouds of…

This article presents strategies for integrating explicit vocabulary instruction within a reading workshop. The author begins by describing a process for involving students in word selection. The author then provides a weeklong instructional sequence using student-selected words. Finally, the author briefly examines the role of vocabulary…

This article tells the story of one second grade teacher and the ways she integrated informational texts into her classroom. Reported by the classroom teacher and a researcher who studied her practice for a year, the manuscripts detail the ways Michelle (the classroom teacher) embedded informational texts in her classroom primarily within the…

Discusses four topics and themes--integrated language activities, individualism, literature, and writing--that appeared most frequently this year in the documents and articles indexed by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills. (MM)

Describes how curriculum is integrated in powerful ways in a unique classroom where students stay together for two years and the community routinely becomes a part of learning. (SR)

Suggests that picture book stories about music and musical instruments can be effectively blended with music experiences in an early childhood education program. Offers ideas for doing this in the elementary school classroom; includes a list of recommended books. (FL)

Describes a technique that draws upon popular children's literature to help children learn more complex sentence structures through a sentence modeling cycle. Lists books that are appropriate for use with the technique. (FL)

Offers strategies for teaching reading skills that are important in the study of mathematics. (FL)

Contends that young children can explore mathematics concepts while they enjoy picture and story books. Recommends specific books for several mathematical concepts. (FL)

Describes how a group of third-grade teachers engaged in meaningful and useful curriculum development in the language arts, starting with a belief statement, and moving to program outcomes, integrated topics, specific objectives, and student exhibitions and portfolios. (SR)

Discusses the language learning in "Workshop Pedagogy," an approach used in primary classrooms in Norway and Sweden, in which the instructional sequence and class activities move from the concrete toward the more abstract with concrete expressions given more attention. (SR)