Look closely. Look very closely. Is it ... flakes of oatmeal? A moldy orange? Give up? Just turn the page and, lo and behold, it's a spotted toadstool! See what looks like gummy candy revealed as a millipede, a woolly scarf as frost on leaves, and many more surprises when you look closely through the forest. The Looking Closely series takes children on a journey of discovery through four environments -- the forest, the shore, the desert and the garden. Frank Serafini's camera lens enlarges each world through the magic of close-up photography. Young eyes will rediscover our planet as a place of beauty, mystery and delight. Readers are first challenged to guess the identity of each closeup photograph. The next page reveals the entire photograph of the plant, animal or natural object accompanied by a simple but detailed description of the habitat. By inspiring children to ask questions and use their imaginations, these books help build problem-solving skills. They also encourage curiosity about environments that, examined this closely, are full of unexpected wonders....

Serafini shows how you can help students learn to read so they want to....

Frank Serafini has written extensively on the reading workshop, and in talks around the country, he's answered the tough questions about teaching through this powerful medium. Now in Around the Reading Workshop in 180 Days, his most practical book to date, Serafini answers your most frequently asked questions and shows you the daily ins and outs of the workshop.

Picking up where his bestselling titles The Reading Workshop and Lessons in Comprehension left off, Serafini gives you month-by-month strategies for running a reading workshop across an entire school year. He provides everything you need to change the way intermediate and middle level students think and talk about reading, including:

• instructional strategies
• how-tos for organizing
• ideas for lessons
• ways to connect reading and writing instruction
• assessment and evaluation techniques
• tips for helping students choose books
• lists of recommended children's literature for your students and recommended professional resources for you.

In addition, classroom teacher Suzette Serafini-Youngs illustrates Serafini's ideas with "Windows on the Workshop," classroom vignettes that bridge theory to practice and demonstrate with precision the teacher's role in workshop-based reading instruction.

Whether you're a thirty-year veteran or a novice teacher, go Around the Reading Workshop in 180 Days with Frank Serafini and take your students on a memorable journey into literacy.

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One of the hallmarks of an effective reading program is the energetic conversation that surrounds a text students are engaged in reading. Teachers can determine their students' comprehension of the text based on the kinds of questions students ask and the connections they build across text and to their own life stories. In this resource, Frank Serafini shares the strategies that he uses to maximize the effectiveness of these conversations. You'll find teacher think-alouds for modeling comprehension strategies, questioning prompts, grouping tips, and interactive discussion techniques. For use with Grades K–8....

Plumbing his file drawers for 64 of the most effective comprehension minilessons from his distinguished teaching career, Serafini has created a teaching treasure trove that contains nearly a year's worth of comprehension instruction plus an extensive list of children's literature that he has successfully woven into his own reading workshop. Lessons in Comprehension introduces and reinforces meaning-making concepts through eight broad thematic strands that scaffold understanding and responsibility for novice readers:

• Inviting Children into the World of Reading and Literature
• Exploring the Structures and Components of Literature
• Navigating Text
• Promoting Invested Literature Discussions
• Developing Comprehension Practices
• Investigating Informational Texts
• Extending Response to Literature
• Examining Critical Perspectives.

Within each strand, eight lessons take students deep into key comprehension strategies like visualization, journaling, and previewing texts. Tried, proven, and grounded in the latest scientific-based research, each substantial lesson offers a complete framework to take you and your students from theory through guided practice and beyond. And, unique among books on the reading workshop, each lesson also features Serafini's own classroom-honed language-the perfect model to adapt for explicit instruction in any reading classroom. These lessons fit seamlessly together and provide the instructional backbone for learners of every level and ability.

"Effective teachers teach," writes Serafini, and in effective reading workshops explicit instruction provides an important link between the written word and an emerging reader's ability to both interact with texts and understand them. Read Lessons in Comprehension, trust Serafini, and help your students learn the strategies they need to comprehend a variety of texts.

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Look closely. Look very closely. Is it...a stained-glass window? A jigsaw puzzle? Give up? Just turn the page and, lo and behold, it's a monarch butterfly. See what looks like a pair of chopsticks revealed as a mormon cricket, a sponge as a strawberry, and many more surprises when you look closely into the garden. The Looking Closely series takes children on a journey of discovery through four environments - the forest, the shore, the desert and the garden. Frank Serafini's camera lens enlarges each world through the magic of close-up photography. Young eyes will rediscover our planet as a place of beauty, mystery and delight. Readers are first challenged to guess the identity of each closeup photograph. The next page reveals the entire photograph of the plant, animal or natural object accompanied by a simple but detailed description of the habitat. By inspiring children to ask questions and use their imaginations, these books help build problem-solving skills. They also encourage curiosity about environments that, examined this closely, are full of unexpected wonders....

 

• develop layered, personal interpretations of texts and visual images
• discuss and negotiate their interpretations within a community of readers
• read more deeply across genres and sustain interpretations across longer texts
• think critically about their reading and analyze texts from a variety of theoretical perspectives.

• plan instruction with longer-term comprehension goals in mind
• keep teaching relevant to students' real-life needs
• make sure that everything readers do moves them toward deeper comprehension.

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Look closely. Look very closely. Is it...a pincushion? Monster's skin? Give up? Just turn the page and, lo and behold, it's a prickly pear cactus. See what looks like cornsilk revealed as sandstone, a birthday candle as a saguaro cactus flower, and many more surprises when you look closely across the desert. The Looking Closely series takes children on a journey of discovery through four environments the forest, the shore, the desert and the garden. Frank Serafini s camera lens enlarges each world through the magic of close-up photography. Young eyes will rediscover our planet as a place of beauty, mystery and delight. Readers are first challenged to guess the identity of each closeup photograph. The next page reveals the entire photograph of the plant, animal or natural object accompanied by a simple but detailed description of the habitat. By inspiring children to ask questions and use their imaginations, these books help build problem-solving skills. They also encourage curiosity about environments that, examined this closely, are full of unexpected wonders....