While reading Debbie Miller's book, Reading with meaning, or viewing her Happy reading! video series, one wonders at Debbie's ability to orchestrate a buzzing classroom full of first-graders into a cooperative literacy community. The Joy of Conferring lets us focus in with Debbie and see what happens at the individual level as she conducts reading conferences with her students. About the author: Debbie Miller taught and learned from children in the...

Guided reading has long been recognized as a dynamic process that supports children's skills as readers in all genres, yet fiction accounts for over ninety percent of the texts we select for these small-group encounters. If children are to be empowered, life-long readers, who read for many different purposes, they need concentrated, small-group encounters with informational texts. In this series, Tony Stead works with third-grade teacher Lisa Elias...

Stepping up with literacy stations provides teachers in third grade and up a way to tap into the energy and excitement of this innovative management and learning system. This video takes viewers into diverse third and fifth grade classrooms, where Debbie Diller coaches and guides children and their teachers through the process of designing and implementing stations. While many of the components and topics of the intermediate literacy stations are...

Small groups are a crucial element of every teacher's reading program, and their importance only grows as teachers work with more diverse learners. Spotlight on small groups gives viewers an in-depth look at two reading groups led by master teacher and author Debbie Diller. Debbie leads the groups through a structured routine (introduction, guided practice, conferring, check-in, and more practice), demonstrating how to balance whole-group and differentiated...

In A day of words, fifth-grade teacher Max Brand demonstrates how he helps students search for, study, and celebrate words. Taped over the course of one day, we see distinct word instruction segments that Max has planned, along with many spontaneous teaching moments that occur for word work. Students learn more than just spelling skills or vocabulary knowledge; they become more naturally accomplished in their understanding and use of words in all...

Mentoring has been proven to be one of the most effective means of keeping new teachers in the profession. In this two-part video series, you'll see demonstrations of and discussions about the effective components of a good mentoring program. Donna Niday and Jean Boreen expand on and illustrate the concepts found in their books, mentoring beginning teachers and mentoring across boundaries. Each video takes you to schools and classrooms in Flagstaff,...

First-grade teacher Debbie Miller chronicles her work teaching reading comprehension in her popular book Reading with Meaning. In this series, Debbie takes you beyond comprehension instruction, and shows how she sustains a thoughtful primary reading program that challenges and supports readers of all abilities and needs. How does Debbie create a learning environment that fosters such sophisticated talk around texts? How is comprehension instruction...

Powerful tools for mathematics instruction can make a good lesson great. Math tools in action: manipulatives make mathematics visible; they allow students to see math. Manipulatives also enrich mathematics discussions and make learning accessible and understandable for students at all levels. In this video, Chris and a year three class learn about comparative size by exploring the dimensions of a variety of insects, animals and birds using tape measures,...

The blues is a seven-part documentary film series exploring the evolution of the blues, featuring rare archival performance footage of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon ... et al., also including over 100 newly-filmed performances by contemporary artists such as B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Beck ... et al. singing classic blues songs.

Literacy attendance is an alternative to the traditional attendance roll at the start of the day. Students have the option of sharing reading or writing activities from home when their name is called, and teachers gain insight into students' literacy behaviors in the home environment. The daily activity is scheduled for no more than ten minutes, and provides teachers with a wealth of insight into literacy learning beyond the classroom. About the author:...