Explore every episode of the podcast Heinemann Podcasts for Educators

Lucy Calkins, senior author of the Units of Study for Reading/Writing explains how the workshop model of teaching reading and writing differs from traditional and basal approaches. Listen as Lucy provides advice to help literacy teachers adopt the workshop model without interrupting basal programs.

This introductory chapter from Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey's latest book on student vocabulary instruction and development, Learning Words Inside and Out: Grades 1-6, defines a framework for improving vocabulary instruction to make it more appealing and engaging for all students.

Lucy Calkins, founding director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University, gives an overview of the Units of Study for Teaching Reading program, which provides effective instruction on using the workshop model to better engage students in daily reading and writing lessons. www.unitsofstudy.com

An overview of the different types of minilessons and essential elements of elementary reading lessons using the reading workshop model developed by Lucy Calkins for the Units of Study for Teaching Reading series. Each lesson element is discussed in detail and tips for effective teaching are provided by an elementary reading coach. http://www.unitsofstudy.com

Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey share tips and principles of vocabulary instruction from their latest book on providing effective vocabulary instruction to boost student performance in all subjects for grades 1-6, Learning Words Inside and Out.

Literacy consultant Joyce Gordon interviews guided reading intervention experts and educational authors Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, and RtI expert Mary Howard to discuss how the Leveled Literacy Intervention elementary reading program meets requirements for Response to Intervention.

Harvey "Smokey" Daniels interviews Nancy Steineke, author of "Assessment Live! 10 Real-Time Ways for Kids to Show What They Know--and Meet the Standards" about how her book was developed to help educators use more innovative assessment methods to evaluate student knowledge and meet academic standards.

Jim Burke shares how, by organizing teaching around big questions, he's able to create curricular cohesion and avoid fragmentation by folding together skills, core content, and standards in a meaningful context that engages students of varying levels - even second-semester seniors.

Lucy Calkins, author of the Units of Study reading workshop model, explains how to strike a balance between the reading/writing workshop approach and basal reading programs that include sustained silent reading or independent reading.

Jim Burke shares how a question-driven classroom engages adolescents of the digital age inside school by tapping into the same kinds of self-motivated explorations that they conduct via digital media in their outside-school lives.

Clock Watchers authors Stevi Quate and John McDermott find out just how dramatic an effect the Six Cs of motivation and engagement can have in content-area classrooms when they interview two subject-area teachers.

"Plagiarism" author Barry Gilmore answers questions from Carol Jago (Come to Class) about his experiences in confronting academic dishonesty and how those experiences led him to more effective ways of dealing with it.

Steve Zemelman and Harry Ross (authors of 13 Steps to Teacher Empowerment) interview two teachers who got the teaching life they wanted with help from the 13 Steps.

Tom Romano, author of Crafting Authentic Voice and Zigzag, and Penny Kittle, author of the NCTE award-winning Write Beside Them, discuss the important place of voice in student writing. Learn more about what voice is and how to help students uncover what Don Murray calls "the music of the text."

Harvey "Smokey" Daniels interviews two master teachers from The Burley School in Chicago (Debbie King and Michele Timble) who use Inquiry Circles in their teaching.

Mary Howard, author of RTI from All Sides, talks with Heinemann consultant Judy Wallis about RTI and what it means for teaching. She shares 7 keys to success and emphasizes the importance of high-quality instruction, sensible assessment, professional development, and materials that support flexible implementation.

Kylene Beers and Robert Probst talk with author Chris Crutcher about how he begins writing a book.

Smokey Daniels (Literature Circles and Mini-lessons for Literature Circles) talks with Jim Vopat about what Writing Circles are, and why they represent a compelling, practical new approach to approach the workshop.

David West Brown (In Other Words) and Rebecca Wheeler (Code-Switching) clarify what code-switching is with illustrations from literature and student work. Then they discuss ways of teaching writing and responding to it that help students transition from home-speech patterns to Standard English conventions.

Tom Newkirk, author of "Holding on To Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones", talks with Nancie Atwell, author of "In the Middle", about the core principles in their teaching, the obstacles that work against them, and the ways in which their teaching values have changed over time.