New Releases by Gretchen Owocki

The practices you will find in this book have been used effectively by many teachers. Here they are altered and redesigned with special attention to the CCSS-in a way that maintains the potential for teacher control and decision making in the best interest of learners. -Gretchen Owocki Whether it''s developing arguments, writing informational texts, or pulling evidence from literary and informational texts to support their claims, the Common Core asks students to do the hard work of higher-level writing across the content areas. To help with the hard work of teaching, The Common Core Writing Book, 6-8 presents a comprehensive framework of strategies and lessons for enhancing or building a middle school writing curriculum. Within each section, you will find a set of instructional practices-demonstrations, collaborative engagements, and independent applications- that allow students to gradually take control of complex thinking and activity. Gretchen Owocki covers not only the English Language Arts standards, but all the writing standards for literacy in social studies, science, and technical subjects. She identifies those lessons that work best in content-area classrooms, offers suggestions for cross-disciplinary collaboration, and provides common language for teachers across the disciplines. She shares resources and supports such as: decision trees that help you differentiate by matching students to lessons assessment tools to determine writers'' needs instructional strategies, including minilessons dozens of reproducibles, including mentor texts, graphic organizers, and planning templates for writers. "Effective teaching," writes Gretchen, "is about taking note of learners'' knowledge, engagement, and responses to instruction-and shaping instruction around what is observed." With her Common Core Writing Book, 6-8 you''ll have a robust set of meaningful, authentic lessons and tools for not only teaching well but creating and sustaining engagement so that your writers continue to improve across the year.

"Working effectively with the standards requires the critical understanding that the teacher-not the standard or the program-is the most important variable affecting adolescents'' achievement." -Gretchen Owocki The Common Core Reading Book, 6-8 makes the reading goals of the standards doable for teachers in every content area. It also keeps the focus on instruction that''s meaningful to adolescents and that supports deep engagement with literacy and your subject-area content. "I wanted to honor the intent of the standards," writes author Gretchen Owocki, "and at the same time respect the fact that students are eleven, twelve, and thirteen years old only once in their lives." Gretchen has matched sensible, step-by-step teaching strategies to the 10 reading anchor standards, giving you instructional choices that you can match to your students'' needs, your goals for their development as readers, and your content-area''s key texts. Whether you are a skilled teacher of reading or new to it, Gretchen pays special attention to the needs of literacy teachers and subject-area teachers alike with tools you''ll use every day: a precise description of what each standard asks from adolescents instructional decision trees that simplify lesson planning clearly presented instructional strategies that release responsibility to students "students who..."suggestions for tailoring support to meet kids'' individual needs. For close reading, citing textual evidence, evaluating arguments, analyzing visual media, or anything the Common Core reading standards ask for, rely on The Common Core Reading Book, 6-8. You''ll find a framework sturdy enough to teach with, flexible enough to plan from, and so respectful of you and your students that it will soon become core to your teaching. Begin reading now with our sample chapter.

As she did for reading in the bestselling "Common Core Lesson Book, " Owocki empowers teachers with information and proven practices. She breaks the writing anchor standards into manageable chunks, emphasizing differentiation, engagement, and writing for authentic purposes.

The quality of instruction is the most important factor in helping students meet the Common Core Standards. That''s why Owocki''s "Common Core Lesson Book" empowers teachers with a comprehensive framework for implementation that enhances existing curriculum and extends it to meet Common Core goals.

The RTI Daily Planning Book makes exemplary RTI possible in every classroom. Gretchen Owocki gives specific tools for collecting & assessing reading data and targeted follow-up instruction that are sensible and developmentally sensitive. Her research-based assessment framework shows what to assess, while rubrics, charts, and checklists support ongoing assessment of readers'' progress. For intervention, she offers streamlined strategies linked to assessments by an if-then chart as well as ideas for grouping that increase instructional flexibility and avoid interruptions.

Gretchen Owocki''s Literate Days: Reading and Writing with Preschool and Primary Children is a multimedia curriculum resource for preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade teachers looking to enrich and broaden their literacy-related instructional practices. Framed by research notes and kidwatching forms, lessons present ideas for enhancing existing teaching practices (such as whole-group read-aloud and circle time) and for extending the quality of students'' literacy experiences in times that are not typically considered "instructional" (such as independent reading and play). Ample research evidence shows that when teachers accomplish the types of teaching described in this resource, children''s achievement soars - and their lives as literate individuals flourish Components A jump-in-and-get-started Teacher''s Guide outlines the thinking behind Literate Days 33 lessons are organized into three lesson books. - Book 1: Grounding Children in Routines and Procedures for Meaningful Learning - Book 2: Building, Energizing, and Re-envisioning the Literacy - Book 3: Deepening the Scholarship in the Classroom Community Framed by research notes and kidwatching forms, lessons provide that provide detailed plans, teaching tools, and reproducibles for children. The Lessons from Literate Days DVD models effective literacy instruction with two hours of live-from-the-classroom video footage.

In a recent survey, 80% of K-3 teachers considered outstanding in literacy instruction reported using literacy centers in their classrooms. Surprised? Gretchen Owocki isn''t. She knows that literacy centers are an ideal tool for teachers who seek out opportunities to differentiate their instruction, and in Time for Literacy Centers, she shows you every aspect of using centers successfully. Owocki has thought of everything you need to know to make learning centers happen, from planning to assessment to ensuring that centers help all students meet content and skills standards. Grounded in solid research, yet lively and practical enough to keep on the corner of your desk, Time for Literacy Centers offers explicit, helpful advice on teaching with literacy centers, including: smart suggestions for on-the-spot and preplanned differentiation through centers-including tips for working with special-needs students and English-language learners specific learning and teaching principles that guide and enhance center-based instruction literacy goals for centers that are developmentally appropriate for your students, yet flexible enough to work in grades K-3 ideas for organizing the physical space in your classroom for one or many centers strategies for managing center-based instruction that help even the busiest classrooms run smoothly plans for more than 50 literacy centers with activities and reproducibles that are ready to roll out right away. If you''re trying literacy centers for the first time, Time for Literacy Centers gives you plenty of start-to-finish help in getting your centers up and running-and running well. If you''re a center veteran, you''ll uncover some nitty-gritty details that will help you provide the best individual support for your students as they develop their literacy capabilities.

Foster children''s passion for literature early on. Sustain that passion with strategies that ensure listening and reading comprehension. Find out how in this essential guidebook for primary grade teachers. An expert in the ways young children develop literacy, Gretchen Owocki offers primary teachers just what they need for effective reading comprehension instruction-research-based strategies that enable children to meaningfully connect with text. Owocki bases her book on comprehension strategies that are known to be used by proficient readers: predicting inferring purpose setting retelling questioning monitoring visualizing connecting deciding what is important evaluating. She then puts the strategies into context by providing a framework for comprehension instruction that has proven to be successful in a range of instructional settings. Here you will find practical ideas for supporting comprehension through whole-class and small-group instruction, literature circles, partner reading, and independent reading. For further help, Owocki includes graphic organizers, evaluation tools, instructional charts, and plentiful examples of the kinds of language that effective teachers use to engage students in talk about books. Read Owocki and feel freshly equipped to provide thoughtful comprehension instruction. And see how these practices greatly enrich not only children''s literacy learning but also their experiences in and outside school.

This smart, practical guidebook shows preschool, kindergarten, and primary teachers how to refine their literacy evaluation practices through careful kidwatching. By observing and recording children''s literacy development, teachers also develop new understandings of the ways children think and learn. Ultimately, through kidwatching, teachers plan curriculum and instruction that are tailored to individual strengths and needs. Gretchen Owocki and Yetta Goodman are the perfect pair to guide teachers through the kidwatching process. Yetta coined the term in her seminal article in 1978 and has spearheaded the use of miscue analysis as a window into the reading process. Gretchen, Yetta''s former graduate student, is an outstanding educator and published author on the ways young children develop literacy. Together, they have written a book that will serve as a professional development tool as well as a kidwatching handbook. In each chapter, they provide a clear description of how kidwatching enhances teaching and learning specific guidelines and suggestions for kidwatching practical tools and resources to be used in documentation and analysis empowerment for children--a chance to evaluate and revalue themselves by partnering with teachers to document and reflect on their knowledge. Kidwatching provides a framework for engaging in systematic, yet very personalized, data collection in all areas of literacy. High-quality kidwatching gives teachers the information they need to teach effectively and to share detailed, factual information with families and administrators. Kidwatching can also be used to strengthen school reform, to develop a common set of principles and practices that are in tune with local needs and interests. Learn to watch kids and see how effective you can be on these fronts.

In this book, Owocki offers effective guidelines for creating a classroom community that supports children''s developing literacies.

Literacy Through Play is a resource for preschool and primary teachers who are looking for proven methods for preparing young children to become confident and flexible readers and writers.