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.

  • How to Use Dictation in Spelling Instruction

    Though it’s sometimes seen as old-fashioned, dictation can be useful in teaching early elementary students to spell.
    Joanna Marsh

  • Research Zeroes In on a Barrier to Reading (Plus, Tips for Teachers)

    How much background knowledge is needed to understand a piece of text? New research discovers the tipping point.
    Youki Terada

  • Teaching Students to Give Peer Feedback

    Giving their classmates feedback on writing is a complex skill for students to master, but it can be taught with scaffolded modeling.
    Mark Gardner

  • Debunking the IQ-Dyslexia Myth

    Children with dyslexia who struggle to read often conclude they're not smart enough to master the materials—but the research says that's wrong.

  • 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

  • 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

  • 6 Elementary Reading Strategies That Really Work

    Strategies like choral reading and ear reading improve students’ reading fluency, expand their vocabulary, and increase their confidence.
    Emelina Minero

  • The Power of Short Writing Assignments

    Brief writing prompts and responses help students in any discipline.
    Benjamin Barbour

  • 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

  • 60-Second Strategy: 3-Read Protocol

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

  • 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

  • 6 Ways to Make the Most of Classroom Movies

    A Twitter thread on how to elicit real learning from movies draws over 150 teachers—and produces some fantastic ideas.
    Stephen Merrill

  • 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

  • 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