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.

  • Teaching Target Language Vocabulary With Micro Field Trips

    For both English learners and world language students, getting out of the classroom can make learning new words more engaging.
    Laurel Schwartz

  • Co-Teaching in Distance Learning

    A middle school English and special education teacher share how they meet the needs of all of their students—and the new practices they’ll bring back to the classroom.
    Sarah Kesty, Joshua Dye

  • Using Comics to Teach the 4 Cs

    When students read comics or create their own, they have an opportunity to develop their creativity, critical thinking, and communication and collaboration skills.
    David Seelow

  • Mo Willems on the Lost Art of Being Silly

    The author of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive The Bus! chats with us about creativity, drawing as empathy, and letting kids “do 51 percent of the work.”
    Emily Kaplan

  • Why Reading Aloud to Middle School Students Works

    The benefits of reading aloud aren’t limited to elementary students. One middle school teacher explains how “read-alongs” improve comprehension and boost engagement.
    Laura Lee

  • 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

  • If We Want Bookworms, We Need to Get Beyond Leveled Reading

    When it comes to nurturing kids’ love of reading, research suggests variety, choice—and encouragement to stretch—can make a difference.
    Sarah Gonser

  • 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

  • Using Children’s Books to Teach Literary Theory in High School

    Literary theory can be a tough topic for high school students—a simple story may be just the scaffold they need to start figuring it out.
    Crystalee Calderwood

  • 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

  • 22 YA Novels to Help Students Process the Pandemic (or Forget It for a Bit)

    A former school librarian shares recent young adult novels to boost kids’ resilience or give them some laughs. A few dystopian picks may provide a new perspective on the current situation.
    Terri Grief

  • 3 Alternatives to Reading Logs

    Teacher-tested ideas to keep reading homework from feeling like a chore.

  • Supporting Students With Dysgraphia

    While there's not a lot of research on dysgraphia yet, there are a few signs you should look out for, and some evidence-based tactics to help kids with the writing condition.

  • A Handy Strategy for Teaching Theme

    Analyzing the themes in a literary work can be tricky for students, but a simple formula can scaffold the process.
    Zach Wright

  • Borrowing a Literacy Strategy From Band Class

    A band teacher explains how a process he uses to train budding musicians’ inner voice can be used to help struggling readers improve.
    Brian Campbell