George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

Literacy

Find and share strategies for helping students read for knowledge, write coherently, and think critically about the written word.

  • Build Empathy and Understanding by Pairing Comics With Novels

    Teaching with comics facilitates improved comprehension and social-emotional competencies.
    Ryan Chapman

  • How to Stock Your Classroom Library

    Tips for bringing high-interest, culturally relevant books into your classroom on a modest budget.
    Rebecca Alber

  • The Reading Wars: Choice vs. Canon

    English teachers are wrestling with how to navigate the increasingly contentious terrain between student choice and assigning the classics.
    Holly Korbey

  • How to Teach Handwriting—and Why It Matters

    Teaching young students how to write by hand before moving on to keyboarding can help improve their reading fluency as well.
    Brooke MacKenzie

  • Reading Aloud to Middle School Students

    Hearing books read aloud benefits older students, enhancing language arts instruction and building a community of readers.
    Kasey Short

  • 60-Second Strategy: 3-Read Protocol

    Demystify math word problems with this simple technique that helps kids see the story beyond the numbers.

  • What Doesn’t Work: Literacy Practices We Should Abandon

    The number one concern that I hear from educators is lack of time, particularly lack of instructional time with students. Although we can't entirely solve the time problem, we can mitigate it by carefully analyzing our use of class time.
    Nell K. Duke

  • Building a Better Word Wall

    Transferring ownership of the class word wall to the students can increase their engagement and learning.
    Justine Bruyère

  • Teaching Students to Read Metacognitively

    A mini-lesson and anchor chart for showing early elementary students how to monitor their comprehension as they read.
    Brooke MacKenzie

  • Art as Text: Bridging Literacy and the Arts

    Young students can apply language skills to learn to 'read art,' including their own work.

  • The Benefits of Memorizing Poetry

    When high school students spend time memorizing and reciting a poem, they develop confidence by engaging deeply with language.
    Erin Medeiros

  • 22 Diverse Book Choices for All Grade Levels

    Suggestions from teachers who are working to offer students at every grade level book choices that represent their lives.
    Tom Berger

  • How a Literacy-First Program Revived a School

    A Title I school in the Bronx is dramatically improving student outcomes—one book at a time.
    Carly Berwick

  • Driving Deep Reading Comprehension in K–5

    This five-phase reading strategy exposes every student to challenging texts—and has dramatically improved reading comprehension at a school in the Bronx.
    Emelina Minero

  • 6 Techniques for Building Reading Skills—in Any Subject

    Students need good reading skills not just in English but in all classes. Here are some ways you can help them develop those skills.
    Susan Barber