Literacy

A college student finds connection through a love of reading while mentoring a New York City elementary school student with the Read Ahead literacy program.

Physical books that play narration can increase students' reading confidence. Parents also like the format as an alternative to digital devices.

As reading instruction swings toward phonics, librarians need to stay in the game with decodables. These suggestions, plus a sampling of publishers' offerings, will help.

Suggestions for curation, displays, word study activities, and more. 

Suggestions for teaching strategies, prompt-writing skills, and tools, plus an overview of those ethical questions. 

Readers had their say about "Dictionaries on the Chopping Block," the latest Scales on Censorship column, and more.

These books nurture literacy, empathy, and understanding.

Walnut Grove Elementary School librarian Holly Whitt and third grade classroom teacher Lori Alexander created their own professional development program to meet their students needs. The pair financed the program through a grant from Fund for Teachers.

We need more than ever inclusive ways to socialize with family, friends, and neighbors. In this list, two dozen books about kindness offer a recalibration or supplement to manners to account for the many ways our cultures, families, and differences manifest practices of getting along with one another.