Some readers thrive more than others because they are more actively involved in their learning. All students can become active participants in their learning through quality teacher prompting. In this article, teachers will learn how to promote emergent learners' active participation as they decode and comprehend, while problem-solving unknown…

Making personal connections to words is a strategy that can bolster young students' vocabulary learning. The personal connections strategy involves teacher-initiated prompts that propel teacher-student conversations that connect students' experiences with new word learning. In this article, we draw from complementary theoretical frameworks,…

Conversations between an adult and a child are effective ways to promote language and vocabulary development in young children. Considerable attention has been paid to teachers asking open-ended questions to promote conversations. However, the feedback that follows the question is also an important part of promoting back-and-forth dialogue, and…

We know that teacher support during independent reading can greatly impact the growth and development of beginning readers. However, the rapid conversion to online learning in the 2020-2021 school year required teachers to rethink and retool traditional strategies to meet the needs of their online learners. This teaching and learning guide…

This article offers a framework for more equitable classroom reading assessment known as a Critical Assessment Practices (CAPS) approach. CAPS includes a set of four principles that teachers can use to partner with, and to empower, students to support more equitable and informative classroom-based reading assessment. Teachers can apply the CAPS…

In this teaching tip, I describe how students in my second grade classroom and I developed a curricular structure called Monday Music that involved reading, singing, the study of grammar conventions in the English language, and critical conversations about popular music. Drawing on Dyson's conceptualization of the permeable curriculum, I offer…

Text-related oral participation is ubiquitous in literacy and language instruction. As such, considering how invitations to these interactions are framed is critical, as this framing is directly implicated in the design of equitable classrooms. In this Teaching Tip, one common technique teachers have been encouraged to use--a class set of…

Scaffolding serves as an important instructional tool for supporting students' literacy development. To be effective, however, teachers must continually adapt the scaffolding offered to students to provide appropriate levels of both support and challenge. In this article, the sociolinguistic concept of stance is used to conceptualize how…

This teaching tip describes a translanguaging read-aloud protocol. In a translanguaging read-aloud, teachers and students interact with a text (either a bilingual text or a monolingual one) in multiple languages. Teachers plan explanations, questions, and other interactions in multiple languages to amplify and clarify the text. Teachers can adapt…

Theory and research have demonstrated the importance of teacher scaffolding to facilitate effective classroom conversations during shared book reading. When teachers scaffold conversations, young students can develop language skills more quickly. The authors describe a scaffolding framework and findings from research on how open-ended questions…

With increasing expectations on students regarding written communication, the promotion of student agency in writing is more important now than ever. Teachers must find ways to engage and empower all learners throughout the writing process so they can produce authentic and meaningful writing independently. To promote such agency, educators must…

Supporting young students' oral language development is vital in ensuring their future success as readers. One important way that early childhood teachers can foster language development is by having extended conversations with students. The authors share research about the importance of rich teacher-student conversations and explain how less…

Across the globe, students increasingly use literacies to cross boundaries, locally and globally, virtually and geographically, willingly and involuntarily. They cross these boundaries with versatile linguistic backgrounds that allow them to effectively navigate new school and life worlds. Many students who cross boundaries are students of color…

This article presents a case study of a dual-language learner (DLL) preschooler in three classroom conversations: whole group, small DLL group, and a teacher-child dyadic conversation. By comparing the student's interactions across three contexts, the authors show how dyadic conversations between teachers and students can foster the oral language…

This article addresses a growing call for the use of more culturally relevant texts and pedagogy in classrooms. We present how a teacher sharing power with emergent bilingual (EB) students during read-aloud discussions with culturally relevant texts supports EB students' literacy opportunities. These opportunities include (1) initiating new topics…