Russ on Reading

My paternal grandmother, Eleanor Cunningham Walsh, disdained the use of coarse language of any type. Whenever one of her many grandchildre...

The title of this post comes from a picture book by Eve Bunting, with illustrations by Beth Peck. Back when I was teaching elementary scho...

Did you ever wonder about the term "research-based"? We all want to make sure our instruction is research-based. But every comme...

I had the opportunity to observe a guided reading lesson in a second grade class last week. The children were reading a book called Wonder...

Like many teachers across the country, I walked into my classroom for the first time after the election with a sense of trepidation. I te...

By many accounts this is the most contentious presidential election ever. There seems to be genuine fear that our democratic system of gov...

My life outside of my home and my family is animated by three passions: teaching, writing, and acting. I have been pursuing each of these ...

Two weeks ago I posted a research-based response to literacy commentator Tim Shanahan's continuing dismissal of Independent Reading. ...

While many people expressed surprise and some even outrage over Bob Dylan’s selection as the Nobel Prize winner for literature, I must adm...

Today I am pleased to offer a guest post from Cynthia Mershon on the importance of writing teachers being writers themselves. Cynthia is a ...

Independent Reading, sometimes called SSR, DEAR or SQUIRT, is an instructional strategy where students are given time in class to read sel...