Teaching grammar can be overwhelming and is often an overlooked part of effective instruction, especially for young learners. The Early Elementary Grammar Toolkit to the rescue! This comprehensive guide makes grammar instruction in the K–2 classroom fun and meaningful. You will learn how to: Teach grammar in a practical and applicable way by presenting each grammar rule as a useful writing tool for students. Use mentor texts—excerpts from great literature—to help students understand grammar in action. Promote metacognition along the way so that students become responsible for their own learning. Implement innovative instructional strategies and tools aligned with national and state standards. Throughout the book, you’ll find step-by-step recommendations for teaching grammatical concepts to young learners, including the use of punctuation, capitalization, parts of speech, and more. With standards-based resources and activities for grades K–2, the book includes tips addressing teaching for each of these grades, classroom snapshots that show you the tools in action, flowcharts, infographics, and specific instructional recommendations to engage students.

Teaching grammar can be overwhelming and is often an overlooked part of effective instruction. The Elementary School Grammar Toolkit to the rescue! Now in its second edition, this comprehensive guide makes grammar instruction fun and meaningful. You will learn how to... * Teach grammar in a practical way to help students grow as readers and writers by presenting each grammar rule as a useful writing tool. * Use mentor texts--excerpts from great literature--to help students understand grammar in action. * Promote metacognition along the way, so that students become responsible for their own learning. * Implement innovative instructional strategies and tools aligned with Common Core and other state standards. Throughout the book, you'll find step-by-step recommendations for teaching each of the grammar tools to help students meet the Common Core State Standards and other state language standards for grades 3--5, plus classroom snapshots that show you the tools in action, handy templates that you can use in the classroom, and new tips for extra support at the end of every chapter. New! The second edition features revised classroom snapshots and exemplars to showcase successful practices, new visuals, more free charts and activities, and new "Bonus Tips for Support" in each chapter, with extra practices and strategies to use with students who need extra support. The expanded, free annotated bibliography is updated to include contemporary, high-quality children's and young adult literature and gives examples of key grammatical concepts found in each work. These resources are available as Supplemental Downloads on our website.

In this book, grammar expert Sean Ruday shows you how to apply the principles of inquiry-based learning to improve your grammar instruction. Grammar often gets relegated to worksheets or rote tasks, but with this volume you’ll find a wealth of strategies and tools for making grammar instruction engaging and meaningful. Designed for middle- and high-school ELA teachers, this book covers all aspects of grammar instruction through an asset-based approach and includes many methods, ideas, and takeaways for instruction. Featuring real-world examples of student work and a sample lesson plan, this is an essential resource for teachers who wish to enliven instruction and teach grammar effectively.

Many literacy experts believe close reading has the power to create strong, independent readers, but what does that really mean, and how does it work in the classroom? This book is your must-have guide to getting started! It provides step-by-step strategies and scaffolds for teaching close reading and improving students’ comprehension of complex texts. You will learn how to teach close reading based on text type, how to accelerate learning through increasingly challenging texts in both print and digital media, how to use close reading as a springboard for close talks and close writes, and how to support your students to move forward confidently with a repertoire of tools to employ as they navigate complex text in their daily lives. Special Features: A clear explanation of what text complexity really means and how it varies by student An easy-to-use framework for creating a close reading lesson that builds student reading stamina Scaffolds to help students at all ability levels to do a close reading Close reading strategies for a variety of literary and informational genres Ideas for strengthening reading through targeting comprehension skills, including analyzing text structure and evaluating arguments Suggestions for helping students read with increasing levels of rigor Techniques for how to lessen student technology distractions and dig deeper into digital text Guidelines and procedures for close talks – purposeful, focused discussions about text Procedures for close writes that vary based on genre and student ability level Recommendations to ensure students have the close reading skills to be effective readers in and out of the classroom In addition, each chapter includes study guide questions to help you apply the ideas in the book to your own classroom. With this practical book, you will have all the tools you need to make close reading a reality!