Ban on Junk Food in Schools
This issue of TP4K examines the use of school bans in order to teach students about health and nutrition.
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Ban on Plastic Bags
This issue of TP4K examines the costs and benefits of using plastic bags.
It’s Not Just Informational Text That Supports Knowledge Acquisition: The Critical Role of Narrative Text in the Common Core State Standards
Literature allows for examination of the influences of culture and history on individuals, not simply on our personal responses to texts. Guiding students in understanding how culture and history influences individual development and agency is part of the bigger picture.
Scaffolding Complex Text: Volume of Text Matters
What’s the difference between text for below-level readers and advanced reader? How Lexiles differentiate “difficult” and “easier” books for readers.
Syntax and Text Complexity: A Classic Text Goes from College-Career Level to First Grade
Dr. Hiebert shows how the Lexile for a text can change with a few simple edits.
Children’s literacy learning and screen time
A question that parents frequently ask these days is: Does screen time count as reading time? With such a wide variety of online reading experiences available, the short answer would be have to be, “Yes, but…”
Heavy Backpacks
Backpacks are useful for carrying school supplies. A student can fill their backpack with books, notebooks, pens, pencils, and other things a student may need at school. The question asked in this Talking Points for Kids is: Can a backpack be too full, or too heavy?
Are 21st century 5-year-olds cognitively ready to read?
TextProject founder Elfrieda (Freddy) Hiebert’s examination of assumptions in the Common Core State Standards regarding kindergarten instruction and the history of kindergarten text difficulty. Click to view the blog post at the Washington Post website in the Washington Post blog, The Answer Sheet.
Is Reading in Kindergarten the Means for Ensuring College and Career Readiness?
The inclusion of kindergarten in the CCSS about text difficulty represents an implicit assumption about beginning reading that also requires consideration—that earlier is better. Does beginning reading in kindergarten truly ensure that high school graduates are better at reading the complex texts of careers and college? In this essay, I review research on both the explicit and implicit assumptions within the CCSS regarding formal reading instruction in kindergarten: the dumbing down of kindergarten texts and the pushing down of reading instruction to kindergarten.
Living in Zoos
A day at a zoo can be quite memorable for the zoo visitors. But what about the animals that live at the zoo?