What We’re Talking about at HIP

I was once asked to judge a public speaking contest (remember those?) in which a middle grade student spoke about the author R.L. Stine. “Goosebumps was the first book I ever read all the [...]

Poor old Emmett Betts is getting a pretty bad rap these days. Betts was the guy who introduced us to independent, instructional and frustration reading levels almost 70 years ago. Betts [...]

The “Think-Pair-Share” model was developed over 30 years ago to help students clarify and articulate their thinking. Its power has been documented in many research studies, and for good reason. [...]

“An effective teacher manages. An ineffective teacher disciplines.” So says classroom management expert Harry Wong, who attests that discipline shouldn’t be necessary in [...]

Did you know that messy handwriting can adversely affect academic performance?  Writing expert Steve Graham suggests that bad penmanship can tank test scores from the 50th to the 16th percentile [...]

I recently came across an article called “Your Child’s Dyslexia Diagnosis is B.S.”  by Julian Elliot, a professor of Education at Durham University in the UK.  According to Elliot, dyslexia is [...]

Part of me believes that kids should be able to read whatever they want during SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) Time, whether it’s magazines, manuals or comic books – as long as they’re reading [...]

My granddaughter recently informed me that she’s reading the Nancy Drew series. Seriously? Nancy Drew books are still around? Believe it or not, the original series ran from 1930 until 2003! (Who [...]

Confession: I am a recovering test developer.  But those two years I spent as the lead consultant on a large-scale reading test taught me a lot about the assessment/evaluation process. And my [...]

I always welcome the return to school in January as an opportunity for a “mid-year correction,” a time to rethink classroom practices that aren’t working as well as I’d [...]

I used to be able to sit with my nose buried in a book for hours on end. These days, I can hardly go for 15 minutes without becoming interrupted or distracted. I blame the internet. I get my news [...]

Teacher “workshops” have been getting a bad rap lately. After all, we know that sustained professional development is more effective and longer-lasting than the [...]

Wait Time refers to the period of silence between the time a question is asked and the time when the question is answered.  Research tells us that, on average, we teachers give students less than [...]

…and other lessons learned about getting students to think more deeply. My grandson has just returned from his first week at Kindergarten and he tells me that one of the most important [...]

I often tend to use the words “struggling” and “reluctant” readers in one breath.  But the reality is that not all of our reluctant readers are struggling. And, as one ELL [...]

Believe it or not, the lowly comprehension question ranks high on Steve Graham and Michael Hebert’s (2011) list of effective “writing to read” activities. It’s important, however, that teachers [...]

Conventional wisdom suggests that the best way to teach reading is to focus on the strategies readers use to make sense of text.  In fact, I’ve called comprehension strategies the [...]

Actually literally speaking, I’m sort of intrigued by teaching with metaphors and analogies these days. Rick Wormeli calls metaphors “power tools that can electrify learning in every [...]

Let’s face it, reading mysteries requires many of the strategies struggling readers lack:  ability to hold a number of details in the reader’s head, to discern the relevant from the [...]

Wow! There’s a lot of interest in our HIP TIP on SUMMARIZING.  It’s considered one of Marzano’s nine high-yield strategies across grade levels and curriculum areas.  For more [...]

Writing about Reading is a bit like eating broccoli. Our struggling readers might not like it very much, but it’s really good for them! Check out our teacher resources page for ideas for [...]

Not long ago, I presented a workshop on Supporting Struggling Readers. I was expounding on the importance of finding texts at appropriate levels when someone interrupted me to say, “But our [...]

We at High Interest Publishing are bursting our buttons over our new website.  Same url – completely new look! Please visit often to browse books, take advantage of web-only specials and [...]