Turn and Talk, in which children are partnered up to take turns listening and speaking with one another, is a common classroom practice with many benefits.  It allows all children to share their thinking with one another, it helps children develop their oral language skills and the pragmatics, or social conventions, of discourse.  Turn and Talk also provides teachers with …

As teachers of young children, we all have encountered learning scenarios in which a child makes up a word. How do we effectively handle these teachable moments? We need to find a way to validate the child’s offering, without muddling the difference between words that are real and words that are not real in their impressionable minds. We may be …

Lesson study is a valuable tool for schools as they continue to look for ways to improve teaching and learning. Lesson study is a form of long-term professional development in which teams of teachers collaboratively plan, research, and study their lesson instruction as a way to determine how students learn best.  Teachers focus on understanding the content of the lesson, …

Imagine this, an unexpected visitor peeks into your classroom. What words do you want the visitor to use when describing how your classroom looks and feels? How do you want your students to describe their classroom to that visitor? Safe? Hard working? Joyful? Welcoming? Supportive? Collaborative? Empowering? When we first take the time to consider how we want our classroom …

The Word Wall is the place in your classroom where high-frequency words are housed after you have taught them (other important words such as vocabulary or theme words should be posted elsewhere). The Word Wall serves as a visual reminder and reference tool for your students that they can use whenever they read or write. A Word Wall makes it …