August 2023

Back to School for Readers, Writers, and Explorers!

In this issue: Back to School Resources / Especially for Parents / Children’s Books & Authors / Research, Events & News

In Focus: Back to School

How can I create a literacy-rich classroom? Optimize reading and writing instruction throughout the school day? Make my classroom more welcoming and inclusive? And engage parents as partners?

Browse the resources below to help jumpstart a great school year!

Back to School Guide

Back to school time can be a challenging transition for everyone. We've got some helpful tips for parents on connecting with your child’s school and supporting your child’s learning, articles for teachers on creating a welcoming, literacy-rich classroom, and resources for first-year teachers. You’ll also find some of our favorite picture books to ease back-to-school jitters.

New (School) Year’s Resolutions

Literacy coach and Reading Rockets blogger Margaret Goldberg shares her thoughts on setting attainable and measurable resolutions for the new school year.

Explore more posts from Margaret:

• Differentiation Done Right: How “Walk to Read” Works
• What Can I Do With All These Predictable Books?

Choosing and Using Classroom Texts

Find guidance on determining text readability, the importance of using grade-level texts, scaffolding complex texts, and when to use predictable, decodable, and controlled vocabulary texts. You'll also get tips on how to set up a diverse, welcoming classroom library to support independent reading and learning.

Instructional Routines, Grouping, and the ELA Block

Whole class? Small group? Or one-on-one instruction? How much time for each component of reading? Get the basics on effective grouping for reading instruction and a flexible example of an ELA block.

How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment for ELLs

On a daily basis, ELLs are adjusting to new ways of saying and doing things. As their teacher, you are an important bridge to this unknown culture and school system. There are a number of things you can do to help make ELLs’ transitions as smooth as possible.

From our sister site Colorín Colorado, browse this booklist: A Welcoming Place: Stories for Kids.

Inclusive Classrooms: Getting Started

Learn the basics about inclusion, characteristics of inclusive classrooms that work, and things you can do to implement inclusion principles right away — including setting up your classroom, creating effective learning groups, and adapting your curriculum.

Parents as Partners

Kids do best in school when teachers and parents are working together. Here are some Reading Rockets resources that can help to connect families and schools:

• Connecting with ELL Families
• Bright Ideas for Back-to-School Night … and Beyond
• Growing Readers Parent Tips (available in English and Spanish)

New look, new resources for a refreshed Reading Rockets!

You may notice that Reading Rockets looks a bit different this month! In addition to giving the site a fresh new design, we’ve added lots of new content for educators and families — all designed to help launch young readers and writers. Browse the resources featured in this newsletter and visit the site to explore more. We hope you’ll find the new site welcoming, more mobile-friendly, and easier to navigate and search.

We welcome your feedback — just send us an email at info@readingrockets.org. Thank you for being a loyal friend of Reading Rockets!

Especially for Parents

Connecting with Your Child’s School

Strong home-to-school connections are one of the best ways to support your child's academic, social, and emotional growth. Get some tips on how to build and maintain meaningful communication and involvement with your child's school.

A few highlights from this section:

• Who’s Who in Your Child’s School
• Listen and Look at Back to School Night
• 8 Back-to-School Tips for Parents of Kids with Special Needs
• Homework Tips for Parents

Reading with Your Child

Discover the many reasons why reading aloud with your child has such a big impact on their literacy development and social-emotional growth. And get tips on how to read aloud (make it fun and interactive), plus links to finding great read-aloud books.

Reading 101: A Guide for Parents

It’s not an easy thing, learning to read and write. In this section you’ll get the basics on how children learn to read — and discover lots of easy literacy-building activities to do with your child at home. (Created in partnership with the National Education Association)

Start with a Book: Read. Explore. Learn!

Do you know children who are fascinated by dinosaurs, planes, bugs, birds, animals, the moon and stars, art, thunder and lightning? Are there any young detectives, explorers, or superheroes at home? Do your kids love reading poetry, myths, or tall tales?

At our companion site, Start with a Book, you can browse 24 kid-friendly topics — each paired with fiction and nonfiction books, hands-on-activities, writing ideas, podcasts, and more resources for building knowledge about our world. When you start with a book, you open up a world of discovery and learning!

Children’s Books & Authors

A Wish in the Dark: Our Video Interview with Christina Soontornvat

Meet Christina Soontornvat, the award-winning author of picture books and chapter books, including To Change a Planet, the Diary of an Ice Princess chapter book series, the bestselling graphic novel The Tryout, the high seas adventure The Last Mapmaker, and A Wish in the Dark, a Thai-inspired fantasy inspired by Les Misérables. Christina talks about growing up in a small town in north Texas where she felt surrounded by and connected through stories, world-building in her books, creating strong and authentic characters that reflect our diversity, and much more.

One World: Nature as Our Ally by Nicola Davies

Children’s author Nicola Davies visits Book Life to talk about her newest picture book, One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth from Candlewick Press. The story begins at midnight, a time of magic and transformation in all stories. The children visit wild locations on land and in the ocean, at dawn, midday, dusk, and night, experiencing different time zones and a variety of different habitats. In her post, Nicola gives us creative ideas for thinking and talking about our beautiful planet and how we can be better stewards of the land, air, and oceans.

Cool Green: An Interview with Lulu Delacre

Lulu Delacre’s newest book, Cool Green from Candlewick Press takes readers on a trip around the world, led by a grandfather with his granddaughter, introducing readers to a range of trees in lyrical text punctuated by fascinating information accompanied by richly colored and informative illustrations. Lulu stopped by Page by Page to answer some questions about her gorgeous new book. The book is also available in Spanish: Verde Fresco.

Our Big Summer Booklist … It’s Not Too Late to Dive In!

It’s never the wrong season to dip into our big list of recommended books for young readers. Through these stories, you can visit an underwater ecosystem, travel with a turtle on a 25,000-mile journey, visit Paris, stop in a Chicago airport, explore ancient cave art, learn about wind and whales, follow the trail of 400 beastly facts, go outside at night to see stars, and so much more. We hope you’ll have fun exploring!

Research, Events & News

Teacher Vocabulary Use and Student Language and Literacy Achievement (2023)
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research

Reading Reform Across America: A Survey of State Legislation (2023)
Albert Shanker Institute

Kindergarten through Grade 3 Outcomes Associated with Participation in High-Quality Early Care and Education: A RCT Follow-Up Study (2022)
Education Sciences

International Dyslexia Association Annual Conference
October 12-14, 2023 | Columbus, OH

NCTE Annual Conference
November 16-19, 2023 | Columbus, OH

The Reading League Virtual Lecture Series
Watch on demand (free)

Is social-emotional learning effective? New meta-analysis adds to evidence, but debate persists
KQED Mindshift

Starting School in Infancy Can Help Low-Income Children Keep Up With Peers in Elementary School
Education Week

Cursive handwriting can offer literacy, note-taking benefits
K-12 Dive

Expanding Your School’s Nonfiction Collection
Edutopia

Setting Up Libraries to Be the Best Space in School
Edutopia

Watch Jason Reynolds on THE VIEW
School Library Journal

What’s the Purpose of Standards in Education? An Explainer
Education Week

10 Ways to Nurture and Nourish Nonfiction Readers
School Library Journal

Elementary School Kids Get Just 18 Minutes of Science a Day. That Has to Change
The 74