Most Popular Books by Ruth Shagoury

The Art of Classroom Inquiry shows teachers how they can carefully and systematically pursue their wonderings through research.

Teacher research is an extension of good teaching, observing students closely, analyzing their needs, and adjusting the curriculum to fit the needs of all. In this completely updated second edition of their definitive work, Ruth Shagoury and Brenda Miller Power present a framework for teacher research along with an extensive collection of narratives from teachers engaged in the process of designing and carrying out research projects to inform their instruction. This edition includes a greater variety of short contributions from a wide range of teacher-researchers -- novices and veterans from all backgrounds and parts of the country -- who speak to the growing diversity in today'' s classrooms. Threaded throughout the chapters and narratives is a discussion of the emergence of digital tools and their effect on both teaching and the research process, along with an expanded number of research designs. The book has three primary components: 1.Chapters written by the authors explaining key elements of the research process: finding questions, designing projects, data collection and analysis, and more 2.Research activities that enable readers to try out the featured strategies and techniques 3.Teacher-researcher essays in which teachers share details of completed projects and discuss the impact they have had in their classrooms. Living the Questions, Second Edition: A Guide for Teacher-Researchers will take you step-by-step through the process of designing, implementing, and publishing your research. Along the way, it will introduce you to dozens of kindred spirits who are finding new passion for teaching by living the questions every day in their classrooms. You will be reminded of why you became a teacher yourself.

It is never too early to start comprehension instruction. In fact, reading begins with meaning making. Andie Cunningham and Ruth Shagoury designed a reading program for five- and six-year-olds based on this premise. Most of the students in Andie''s Portland, Oregon, kindergarten class have little or no alphabet knowledge when they enter the classroom in the fall. English is a second--or third--language for many of the children in this low-income neighborhood. Through research-based principles, carefully structured routines, and innovative activities, even the youngest learners can develop comprehension skills from their first days in school. The children in Starting with Comprehension are grappling with school culture for the first time and learning to work with classmates who speak a variety of different languages. These emergent readers learn to present their understanding of what they read through writing, talk, movement, and art. Kindergartners and preschoolers are different from readers who know how to decode texts. Andie and Ruth show how comprehension skills can be nurtured and strengthened even before decoding begins. In this classroom, meaning making becomes part of community building as children link reading, thinking, and communicating.

Creativity is not simply a force that nourishes the arts: it is a way of thinking, a way of making use of the curriculum content taught in every classroom. In A Workshop of the Possible, Ruth Hubbard documents what children can do and how teachers can create classroom environments that promote children''s many strengths. She describes ways to develop children''s creativity in classrooms that respect their amazing abilities. This book is especially valuable for those teachers who want to integrate a child-centered curriculum beyond reading and writing; while grounded in holistic and constructivist literacy theory, it goes beyond language arts into math and science, into children conducting research and problem solving. What makes this book so valuable to teachers is its emphasis on application, with such features as: interviews with children in the midst of the creative process; detailed teaching strategies for fostering creativity; samples of students'' work in science, math, social studies, and art to show the development of their thinking; a portfolio of color photos that shows what an innovative classroom can look like. Teachers will appreciate the numerous examples from inside classrooms, stressing issues that teachers and students confront and problems that arise and must be solved, even such nuts-and-bolts matters as classroom layouts and schedules.

A guide for creating the kind of home atmosphere and stance toward reading that will help families build reading into their lives.

Hubbard explores the symbol systems that children create and the ways these systems are integrated into their developing literacy.

With the guidance of children''s writing enthusiast Ruth Shagoury, teachers will learn to listen to all their students and look at their written work with a new and appreciative lens--one that also helps them anticipate and encourage students in developing new skills appropriately. Drawing on her many years of primary classroom teaching and research, Ruth offers primary teachers, early childhood specialists, and caregivers strategies to nurture connections between oral and writing skills at every stage of children''s development for today''s multicultural classroom. Ruth''s thorough exploration of how young children learn written language presents teachers with the necessary tools to understand the growth and development of written language in a literate culture. Filled with a wealth of resources for extending learning beyond the classroom, Raising Writers: Understanding and Nurturing Young Children''s Writing Development includes interviews with the author and book study questions making this a perfect book for book club study groups. Help your students make the transition from oral to written language! Explores the written language development of pre-school through primary school age children. Addresses important topics such as the role of the culture of literacy, how drawing and writing go hand-in hand, and the developmental path of spelling and conventions. Identifies the parallels between oral and written language development with the use of a developmental continuum chart. In addition, the book includes an annotated guide with research foundation for the continuum. Includes numerous samples of children''s work and photos to bring the information in the book to life. Offers book recommendations for spelling programs and additional writing instruction resources, as well as picture book suggestions for multicultural classrooms. Includes a book club study guide at the end of the book.

This accompanying resource guide to Literacy in Process offers the instructor, regardless of experience, a variety of ways to use the book to the greatest advantage.