First of all, let me just say that I love graphic novels. This year, the books of Kazu Kibuishi, Ben Hatke, Michael Rex, and Raina Telge...

    What kid doesn't love learning about animal adaptations? In this age of Wild Kratts and Nat Geo Wild , it seems as if students know...

    Why do characters do what they do?     This is a big question for intermediate readers. Sometimes, they don't even know the motiv...

    This year I've been putting lots of thought into the new text-dependent analysis tasks that students have to complete for our state ...

    Writing conclusions is tough for young writers. Actually--who am I kidding? I don't think anyone likes to write conclusions. This ma...

    Sometimes it feels as if there is negativity coming from all directions. High stakes testing, budget cuts, big classes, uncertainty abou...

T his year, I've been working with providing more time for independent research. This research has grown from the center explorations o...