Teaching Unscripted

This week on  Beyond the Letters , Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts speak with shea martin about the big impact that small moves can make when it comes to supporting LGBTQ+ students, what it means to be an ally, and more! shea is a lit teacher, consultant, and researcher whose work is rooted in antiracist pedagogy, intersectional feminism, and creating liberatory learning structur...

On this episode of The Heinemann Podcast, we’re excited to bring you Beyond the Letters. Beyond the Letters is a new series hosted by authors Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie-Roberts. In each episode, they interview LGBTQ+ educators about their stories, strategies and practical advice for what it means to truly create inclusive educational spaces for queer youth and educators, alike. In t...

Managing book clubs can be hard, but authors Sonja Cherry-Paul and Dana Johansen say that when they work, they create a culture of reading unlike anything else, and have the power to bring out the very best in our students. With their newest book, Breathing New Life into Book Clubs: A Practical Guide for Teachers , Sonja and Dana provide dozens of mini sessions that address common roadblocks and s...

What do you do when you’ve tried book clubs, and they just didn’t work? Today on the Heinemann Podcast we’re joined by Sonja Cherry-Paul and Dana Johansen, co-authors of “ Breathing New Life into Book Clubs .” In a  recent article  on the Heinemann Medium blog, Sonja and Dana wrote about some of the common roadblocks that teachers encounter when leading book clubs. They say that “organiz...

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re joined by author Andrea Honigsfeld. Andrea’s new book, Growing Language and Literacy: Strategies for English Learners, offers a multi-faceted approach to language instruction. It is based around the five levels of language acquisition identified in the TESOL framework, and emphasizes instructional practices that honor students’ strengths. Filled with student v...

Today on this special edition of the Heinemann Podcast, we’re celebrating the start of Teacher Appreciation Week. We recently asked educators from across the country to share stories of how they found teaching, what inspired them to enter the field, and what continues to motivate them every day. We wanted to share some of those stories with you to celebrate the wide range of experiences teach...

It is never too late to lead a non-reader to reading. This week on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re joined by Penny Kittle, author of  Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers . Book Love is fueled by a passion for reading and the belief that every student deserves to live a rich literary life.   Today, we’re talking about the groundwork behind&n...

This week on the Heinemann Podcast we’re learning about affective learning and personal identity work in education. To understand this work better, and its impact on teachers, we’re handing this week’s podcast over to Heinemann Fellow, Minjung Pai. Min teaches fifth and sixth grade in Los Angeles, California. She is committed to equity, inclusion, and progressive education. Min believes that colla...

What is at the core of inquiry based learning? How do you get started? Today on the Heinemann Podcast we’re discussing Inquiry Illuminated: Researcher’s Workshop Across the Curriculum, the new book from Anne Goudvis, Stephanie Harvey, and Brad Buhrow. Anne and Steph, along with the book’s contributor Karen Halverson, join us to provide a structure for inquiry that's predictable, proven, and—most i...

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re excited to bring you a special read aloud episode with author Kate Roberts. In her latest book, A Novel Approach: Whole-Class Novels, Student-Centered Teaching, and Choice, Kate takes a close look at both whole-class novels and independent reading and offers us a new balanced approach that leverages the advantages of both. Kate’s interest in the teaching...

These days, it feels like information overload. So how do we find the right tools for our students' needs? In her new book, The Right Tools: A Guide to Selecting, Evaluating, and Implementing Classroom Resources and Practices, author Towanda Harris lays out a path that teachers and administrators can use to make informed decisions abut what resources and practices they need for...

Think back to the last good book you read. Did you visit a new place? Meet new people? Learn a new language?  Today on the podcast Lester Laminack and Katie Kelly want students and teachers to learn the ways that reading can change lives. In their new book Reading to Make a Difference, Lester and Katie build a framework for diverse and inclusive literature practices that encourage studen...

Do you ever stop to consider how meaningful your communication is or think about what we say, and why it matters? Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re joined by author Maria Nichols. In her new book “Building Bigger Ideas: A Process for Teaching Purposeful Talk,” Maria drives home the growing importance of purposeful, face-to-face communication. Maria writes that “talk has a purpose – and that pu...

Most of us write every day, but do you remember the last time you created an imaginary world? We all love stories and, as Don Graves showed us, we all have a story to tell. But in schools, the focus is increasingly put on analytical writing. When did fiction writing fall to the side? Today on the Heinemann podcast author Tom Newkirk explores the value of creating worlds through fiction writing. As...

We are, by nature, reflective. We all think back on how a conversation went or maybe how we could do something differently if even another chance, but how do we teach reflection in writing? Today on the podcast, we’re talking with Anne Whitney, Colleen McCracken, and Deana Washell, co-authors of “Teaching Writers to Reflect: Strategies for a More Thoughtful Writing Workshop.” Reflection helps...

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, author and editor Katie Wood Ray interviews Carl Anderson and Jenifer Serravallo, who both recently published two conferring books in Heinemann’s Classroom Essentials Series. Carl’s book, A Teacher’s Guide to Writing Conferences and Jen’s book A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences were both edited by Katie Wood Ray. Katie says that conferring is, without a doubt,...

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re continuing our series of conversations with author Cornelius Minor. Today Cornelius is teaching us how to make time for change, and the power of being what he calls “semi-brave.” The ability to be brave, Cornelius says, is not an inherent trait, but rather a skill that is utilized when the time is right. In his book, We Got This , Cornelius says it’s not neces...

Today on the Heinemann podcast, we’re joined by Kristin Ziemke and Katie Muhtaris to explore how we can make the most of technology with our students. Kristin and Katie are experts in using digital tools to build learning communities, and are co-authors of Amplify: Digital Teaching and Learning in the K-6 Classroom . They believe that digital literacy is necessary, and must grow from student owner...

“Conferring…” writes author Jennifer Serravallo, “is where the magic happens.” Today on the Heinemann podcast Jen talks about her latest book: A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences, which is part of Heinemann’s new Classroom Essentials series. Jen says that while conferring with readers might seem intimidating or out of reach, it is attainable -and necessary- in every classroom. In A Teacher's...

In her new book,  Leading Well , author Lucy Calkins draws on the experience she and her colleagues have shared at Teachers College Reading and Writing Project over the last thirty years. Lucy’s leadership is rooted in her practice of reading and writing workshop instruction, but where did that instruction begin and how was she called to literacy work to become the leader we know today? How h...

This week on the Heinemann Podcast we’re learning about the importance of personal identity work in education. To understand this work better, and its impact on teachers, we’re handing this week’s podcast over to Heinemann Fellow, Minjung Pai. Min teaches fifth and sixth grade in Los Angeles, California. She is committed to equity, inclusion, and progressive education. Min believes that collaborat...

“We learn lots from hero stories, but sometimes they leave out the concrete realities of change,” writes author Cornelius Minor. He goes on to write: “The ‘teacher as superhero’ story can be similarly misleading.” Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re exploring the reality of that story. In part two of this special read-aloud series, Cornelius continues reading from the introduction of his new boo...

This week on the Heinemann podcast, a conversation with author Lucy Calkins on leadership. In Leading Well: Building Schoolwide Excellence in Reading and Writing, Lucy Calkins draws on the transformative work that she and her colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project have done in partnership with school leaders over the last thirty years. While a school leader should be inspir...

Today on the podcast, we’re excited to bring you the third conversation in our Turn & Talk series, hosted by author Ellin Keene. If you missed the previous episode, you can listen to it  here. Turn & Talk is a celebration of Heinemann’s 40th anniversary, hosting conversations between authors who have written for Heinemann since its early years, and those who are newer authors, bringin...

Author Cornelius Minor says that no matter how we all got here, we all have a few things in common. For starters, we all want better, and that’s why Cornelius came to education. In a special read-aloud edition of the Heinemann podcast, Cornelius reads from the introduction of his new book; We Got This: Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be. © Heinemann Publishing 2018...