*Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #5044). Visit our home page for more details.

In The CAFE Book, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser present a practical, simple way to integrate assessment into daily reading and classroom discussion. The CAFE system, based on research into the habits of proficient readers, is an acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding vocabulary. The system includes goal-setting with students in individual conferences, posting of goals on a whole-class board, developing small-group instruction based on clusters of students with similar goals, and targeting whole-class instruction based on emerging student needs.

Gail and Joan developed the CAFE system to support teachers as they:

• organize assessment data so it truly informs instruction;
• track each child's strengths and goals, thereby maximizing time with him or her;
• create flexible groups of students, all focused on a specific reading strategy;
• and help students remember and retrieve the reading strategies they learned.

The CAFE system does not require expensive materials, complicated training, or complete changes to current classroom literacy approaches. Rather, it provides a structure for conferring with students, a language for talking about reading development, and a system for tracking growth and fostering student independence. The CAFE system's built-in flexibility allows teachers to tailor the system to reflect the needs of their students and their state's standards. And it's a perfect complement to The Daily Five, "The Sisters" influential first book, which lays out a structure for keeping all students engaged in productive literacy work for every hour of every classroom day.

*Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #5044). Visit our home page for more details.

Do you love teaching but feel exhausted from the energy you expend cajoling, disciplining, and directing students on a daily basis? If so, you'll want to meet “The Sisters”, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Based on literacy learning and motivation research, they created a structure called The Daily Five which has been practiced and refined in their own classrooms for ten years, and shared with thousands of teachers throughout the United States. The Daily Five is a series of literacy tasks (reading to self, reading with someone, writing, word work, and listening to reading) which students complete daily while the teacher meets with small groups or confers with individuals.

This book not only explains the philosophy behind the structure, but shows you how to carefully and systematically train your students to participate in each of the five components.

Explicit modeling practice, reflecting and refining take place during the launching phase, preparing the foundation for a year of meaningful content instruction tailored to meet the needs of each child.

The Daily Five is more than a management system or a curriculum framework; it is a structure that will help students develop the habits that lead to a lifetime of independent literacy.

*Self-paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #608). Visit our home page for more details. 

Why has the 6+1 TRAIT model had such a tremendous impact on writing instruction? Because it works. It allows teachers to pinpoint students' strengths and weaknesses in ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation, and, from there, plan and carry out instruction. Here Ruth Culham turns her expert eye to our youngest students. Like her groundbreaking guide for grades 3 and up, her new book contains scoring guides, sample papers with running commentary, and focus lessons for each trait, framed to address the particular needs of K-2 teachers.

*Self-paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #523). Visit our home page for more details. 

Used throughout the United States and the world, the 6+1 Traits of Writing model has become a highly respected, essential tool for evaluating student writing and planning instruction. This guide provides teachers with everything they need to teach and assess student writing.

 *Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #760). Visit our home page for more details.

*Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #766). Visit our home page for more details.

*Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #642). Visit our home page for more details.

 In an effective writing workshop, young children grow in leaps and bounds, and within just a few months, the changes in their written products can dazzle you. And after 30 years of studying her students' growth in the writing workshop, Lucy Calkins knows one of the most powerful ways to support good writers: clear, purposeful writing conferences.

*Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #5079). Visit our home page for more details.

Authored by one of the most respected writing professors in America, this resource combines the affective (the insight) for writing with writing as a learning tool in all content areas to debunk commonly believed practices about writing in middle schools and high schools–particularly the claim that writing is “boring” and “pointless.”

Prompted by the “near-total neglect of writing” in content areas outside English, Bill Strong explores and answers the question ‘why writing matters.’ At a time when more emphasis is being placed on middle and secondary students and when writing tests have been added to the new ACT and SAT assessments, Write for Insight is ideal for teachers seeking a flexible and inspiring text to increase students’ motivation and to enhance long-term learning across the middle and high school grades. Arguing that writing is a powerful learning tool in all content areas, Strong utilizes note-taking, drawing, summarizing, brainstorming, and metaphor-building to help students collect notes, plan future action, frame questions, monitor their own learning, and engage in a rich array of imaginative and cognitive tasks.

*Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #880). Visit our home page for more details.

Finally, a book about content-area reading that's just as useful to math, science, and history teachers as it is to English teachers! Lively, practical, and irreverent, Subjects Matter points the way to activities and materials that energize content and engage students across all subject areas. Harvey Daniels and Steven Zemelman, authors of a dozen influential books on literacy and cofounders of Best Practice High School, bring their trademark style—teacher friendly and kid wise—to the reality of today's middle and high schools.