Without meaningful connections, it’s difficult to determine where your students are and what they need to be able to move forward. And now, with remote learning, it is more challenging—yet more important—than ever to make those connections. But not impossible.
Gravity Goldberg and Renée Houser believe that, with the right tools and preparation, teachers can make those meaningful connections during one-on-one reading conferences, whether you’re teaching in person, remotely, or a combination of the two. So they created the Teacher's Toolkit for Independent Reading to do exactly that.
Find out what folks had to say about this wonderful resource.
"Teachers will love this tool."
"It is practical, insightful, and artfully balances the needs of students and the needs of teachers. The videos are warm and informative glimpses into the work with students in action and the wisdom of the women behind the resource. Gravity and Renée encourage teachers to begin wherever they are, but also provide a rich and accessible path forward to deeper, more focused, and intentional conferring. This toolkit will certainly raise the level of both joy and responsive teaching in the classrooms that it touches." — Kari Yates is the author of Simple Starts, and co-author of To Know and Nurture a Reader
"Renée Houser and Gravity Goldberg combine their experience and talents to develop a resource that teachers will turn to again and again!"
"Their Teacher’s Toolkit for Independent Reading: Grades 3, 4, and 5 includes materials on how to support independent readers, conferring guidelines, teaching texts in units, and a reader’s notebook for teachers! Both educators recognize the importance of independent reading as the practice students need to improve and become proficient and advanced readers! Renée’s and Gravity’s approach shows deep respect for the choices teachers and their students want and need. They highlight their respect for teachers and children by inviting you to think about examples and suggestions, then tap into your experience to make decisions and find ways to fit this important part of reading into your schedule. “Depth” is a word that describes how they present diverse topics. You’ll learn about setting up, organizing a class library and how to help students choose books. together they explore multiple aspects of each topic, and that’s what makes this resource so important for new teachers! In addition, experienced teachers will find so much to learn here—how to set up a teacher’s reading notebook, using your notebook in conferences and completing entries to support student’s thinking. Each set of tools nudges us to review what we know and reflect on new ideas—all with the goal of developing skilled teachers and joyful independent readers! This is a resource that can help you help your students fall in love with independent reading!" — Laura Robb is co-author with her son, Evan Robb of TeamMakers, Burgess Publishing, 2019 and Schools Full of Readers, Benchmark Education, 2019.
" . . . Gravity Goldberg and Renée Houser have crafted the resource we have all been waiting for on independent reading."
"With the belief that teachers should trust their intuition, but with recognition that tools can make us all better and save precious instructional time, Gravity Goldberg and Renée Houser have crafted the resource we have all been waiting for on independent reading. Their decades of experience pulling up alongside students and their research on the value and purpose of independent reading will help your conferences to be more responsive, joyful, conversation-driven, and memorable. Their easy-to-follow, question-answer format and useful continuums of what to look and listen for will help you. But, more importantly, this toolkit will help your students. If you want your students to become more confident, capable, voluminous readers turn to the Teacher’s Toolkit for Independent Reading.
Each page is pure reading teacher magic!" — Katie Egan Cunningham, author of Start with Joy: Designing Literacy Learning for Student Happiness
"Teacher’s Toolkit for Independent Reading is a gift to teachers committed to developing lifelong readers!"
"Independent Reading is an essential part of classroom literacy instruction; however, many teachers feel unsure about what they should be doing during this integral time with students. Gravity and Renée have developed resources that empower teachers as decision makers and help them to be
intentional and responsive to what each student needs in the moment. The Teacher’s Toolkit for Independent Reading is a gift to teachers committed to developing lifelong readers!" — Dr. Kristin N. Rainville, Associate Professor and Director of The Center for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching, Sacred Heart University
"To have all of these answers in one place is a bounty for any teacher . . ."
"Renée and Gravity have taken their decades of experience listening to teachers across the country and have created a distilled, practical, comprehensive series of clear answers to common questions about Readers Workshop. This book acts like a personal guide to help you set up, sustain, and deepen the reading work in your classroom. To have all of these answers in one place is a bounty for any teacher—the first year starting out or the veteran teacher looking for ways to make the work go better." — Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts, authors of DIY Literacy: Teaching Tools for Differentiation, Rigor, and Independence
"When students choose books they want to read, books become tools to help readers explore, discover, and think about a world of possibility."
"The Teacher’s Toolkit for Independent Reading is a great resource to help teachers demystify graphic novels, which I often hear are not “real” books, and to show the literary merits of a format that is so popular with young readers. When students choose books they want to read, books become tools to help readers explore, discover, and think about a world of possibility." — Victoria Jamieson is the author of award winning and best seller, Roller Girl
About the Authors
Gravity Goldberg is an international educational consultant and author of five books on teaching. She holds a B.A. and M.Ed. from Boston College and a doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She serves as a coach for Seth Godin's altMBA and is the founding director of Gravity Goldberg, LLC, a team that provides side-by-side coaching for teachers.
Renée Houser is a literacy consultant and co-author of the What Do I Teach Readers Tomorrow series of teacher resource books. She holds master’s degrees from both Old Dominion University and Fordham University and is currently studying the Reggio Emila approach to early childhood through the University of California Los Angeles.
