Thematic Educator Guide: Teaching Civic Engagement

The return to school after a long summer can be challenging for students both emotionally and academically.  The books in the Teacher’s Pet Collection are a great way to help students build socio-emotional skills with lovable characters and stories that give them the means to tackle the complexities of life in and out of school.

Every time you listen to an audio book and you’re loving it, someone is reading aloud to you. And all the time you’re listening, your imagination creates pictures of settings, characters, and people. Often, you’ll find yourself stepping into a beloved character’s shoes and living life in the past, present or future. Read alouds capture

As the COVID crisis continues to affect our daily lives, teachers, students and families have all had to be flexible and innovative when it comes to education. Whether you’re using a blended learning strategy or are fully remote, this school year has brought both challenges and opportunities. One thing is for sure, students need our

Dear Educator, Elementary school teachers often organize reading instruction around guided reading groups, and groups read books that meet the instructional needs of members. However, like most of you in middle and high school, I have used one novel, biography, or informational text for an entire class. And, in doing so, I soon realized that

Reluctant readers in your classroom? If your classroom is anything like mine you’ll have students reading at various levels. I’ve come to realize that whether students struggle with reading or not, kids love to have a choice in what they read! It seems almost cruel to force a student to read a book that they

Dear Parents and Teachers, When you extend the reading of poems and fairy tales beyond those in this blog, you increase the amount of listening and reading children do. It’s easy. For the Mother Goose Group, put into a search engine Ba Ba Black Sheep, One Two Buckle My Shoe, Jack and Jill, and Hot

Building students’ social-emotional capacity through reading and discussing books enhances their ability to experience successful relationships in school and more importantly now the interactions they have at home and in their neighborhoods. By inviting students to read and then have meaningful conversations about books, you offer models for building trusting relationships with peers and adults

Dear Teacher, A favorite genre of students, realistic fiction opens a window into their world and their hopes and dreams, and often validates their life experiences. Bonding to realistic stories can happen quickly as students connect with characters that experience a similar range of emotions, relationships, problems, and wonderings. When students relate to realistic plots,