Reading in the Middle: Workshop Essentials

"Reading is a high priority use of class time. My students range from dyslexics to speed readers to sophisticated literary critics. The common denominator is that they know what the reading zone feels like, and they want to be there. No matter who our students are, our job is to invite them to enter this happy state of engagement time and again." -Nancie Atwell Reading in the Middle, thirty years in the making, is a chance to observe Nancie Atwell in action as she helps students become skilled, engaged, discerning readers. Nancie's students finish, on average, more than forty books each school year. This staff development DVD shows how she does it-how she inspires and orchestrates frequent, voluminous, independent reading of books. Nancie shows us the methods that have made her book In the Middle a classic. She gives us a guided tour of her classroom, a seat in her reading workshop, and a CD full of samples of student work, plus her own reproducible forms. We see how she: organizes herself and her classroom to support and keep track of students' reading sets clear expectations and ground rules for reading workshop talks with individuals about their chosen books and teaches reading one-to-one presents lessons about critical, literary reading uses booktalks to help students make smart choices encourages habitual reading and the development of literary tastes, preferences, and opinions "I became an English teacher," writes Nancie Atwell, "because I love reading, and I wanted to share my passion for books." Now, with Reading in the Middle, we see the fruits of her teaching: students who are as passionate about books as their teacher and who excel as readers. Video Run Time: 1 Hr. 42 Min. Learn about Nancie's companion DVD Writing in the Middle. Click here to save 25% when you buy Reading in the Middle and Writing in the Middle together.

About the Author :
Nancie Atwell is one of the most respected educators in the U.S. and across the world. Winner of the Varkey Foundation's inaugural Global teacher Prize, she donated the $1 million award to the Center for Teaching and Learning, the K-8 demonstration school she founded in Edgecomb, Maine, in 1990. Nancie's classic In the Middle, now in its third edition, has inspired generations of teachers; in it she describes her teaching journey and the practices she developed that led to her nomination. Thomas Newkirk calls In the Middle "the greatest book on literacy teaching ever written in this country." Visit Heinemann.com/InTheMiddle for more about the book and Nancie. A middle school English teacher for almost forty years, Nancie is also the first classroom teacher to be awarded the NCTE David H. Russell Award and the MLA Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize, both for distinguished research in the teaching of English. She was also honored as NCTE's Outstanding Middle School English Teacher and as the River of Words Poetry Teacher of the Year. She has received honorary doctoral degrees from Middlebury College and the University of New Hampshire. Nancie's books for Heinemann include Systems to Transform Your Classroom and School, which takes teachers inside her award-winning school to learn about the innovations that make the biggest impact on achievement and community; Lessons That Change Writers, a year's worth of instruction straight from Nancie's file cabinets; and Naming the World: A Year of Poems and Lessons, which helps teachers to jumpstart their teaching of writing and literature each day by unpacking a poem with their students. Her DVDs Writing in the Middle and Reading in the Middle give teachers a seat in her workshop as she presents lessons and conducts conferences that transform her students' literacy - and their lives.