This is one I highly recommend that you get. It is great. I refer to it every August!

A First-Year Teacher's Guidebook, 2nd Ed.

This book tells how to teach your students to think while reading (through think-alouds) and gives many minilessons for teaching comprehension. This book is divided into three parts: Part 1, THE FOUNDATIONS OF MEANING, explains how research based comprehension strategies support and enhance student learning; Part 2, STRATEGY LESSONS AND MORE, focuses on strategy lessons, response options, and assessment practices; Part 3, RESOURCES THAT SUPPORT STRATEGY INSTRUCTION, numerous resources listing picture books to use for teaching each of the seven comprehension strategies. Throughout the book, the author's talk about "anchor lessons" and the importance of using the first lessons as a way for students to remember a specific strategy and apply it. The idea of anchor lessons really assist the student in learning and applying the strategies taught! This book teaches us that we want our students to come to realize how important their thinking is when they read. A must have for reading teachers!

I first read, Mosaic of Thought in a Literature Circle and I was impressed with the book and began using the terms with my students. Mosaic stresses that we need to teach children what good readers do when they read. Good readers make connections with the text. They make text to text connections, text to self connections, and text to world connections. Teachers need to model the connections they make while they read and encourage their students to do the same. This book really made me think about how I read and what I DO while I read. After reading Mosaic, I suggest you read Strategies That Work.

This is one of those books I use over and over again with my K-3 reading groups. The kids love the activities and I am happy with what they are learning. To be good readers, children need to be able to hear the sounds that make words, change sounds in words to make new words, and see the relationship between sounds. This book supplies you with over 60 exciting lessons for just that. The lessons are easy to do and many you can do without any materials. The book does supply you with the needed reproducible manipulatives, picture cards, and word lists

One of my favorite and easy activities in the book is called Rhyme Away. You draw the given picture on the board and erase parts of the picture as you read clues to the class. The students have to finish a rhyme phrase and then erase that picture on the board. That is a Level 1 activity in the book. The activities range in Levels from 1 to 5. There are activities for rhyming, blending, syllable counting, sound matching, phoneme isolation, phoneme counting, phoneme substitution, phoneme deletion, and more!

This book gets my full approval and I am so happy to have found it.

Word Building was introduced to me about three years ago. I have been teaching for two years now and have used word building as a part of my reading program. I am pleased with the progress that my 2-3 graders make with this program. They understand how spelling and reading are related. Also it teaches them that two or three letters when put together make one sound. I purchased this book in September. I have been very happy with it. If you are unfamiliar with this method, this book is all you need. At the start of the book it shows you step by step how to set up word building in your classroom. Pictures are included. You will find over 150 word building lessons. Letter tiles for you to copy, cut, and laminate are included. I now feel that word building should be a part of every k-3 reading program.

If you are teaching reading to K-1 readers, or if you teach struggling K-4 readers, you must have this book... I REPEAT - MUST!!!! I just started using this book this year as a component of my reading program. I am amazed at all my K-1 students are learning. They are students with learning disabilities and they are reading at an average or an above average reading level. Also, this has been very helpful to my 2-3 students who are struggling with reading. I highly recommend this book for you to read and suggest to your parents. I have been very pleased with the hands-on lessons contained in the book. You will be happy with the price too!

Grades 1-4 -Make data collection fun for your students with clothespin and bottle graphs, child-size Venn diagrams, and umbrella and lunchbox glyphs! This book is jam-packed with practical tips for introducing and teaching concepts (including actual teacher-student exchanges) and hundreds of activity ideas that connect math to reading, social studies, science, and other subjects. - 120 pages