Books for Educators
Read, Assess, Evaluate, Teach
I’ve written fifteen best-selling professional books and resources for K-8 literacy educators worldwide.
Each offers high-leverage strategies that increase student achievement in reading, writing, and beyond.
My books focus on a wide range of literacy topics, always include links to research, and offer educators practical solutions for assessment-driven practice and differentiating instruction. Some of my books have been translated into Spanish, French, and Chinese.
Whether you’re a current teacher looking to refine your practice, an administrator seeking to inspire your staff, or a university educator searching for a solid foundation to support student teaching or graduate-level studies, my research-aligned publications will support your work.
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Teaching students to read well across disciplines and genres relies on teachers who know how best to develop and support student learning. To help students master the complex web of skills, vocabulary, and knowledge required to become proficient readers, teachers need effective, predictable, research-based structures for explicit and engaging teaching.
In Teaching Reading Across the Day, literacy expert Jennifer Serravallo provides nine research-based lesson structures that help busy teachers save planning time and focus their teaching—and student attention—on content rather than procedures. Each of the nine lesson structures (read aloud, phonics and spelling, vocabulary, focus, shared reading, close reading, guided inquiry, reader’s theater, and conversation) has its own chapter which starts with an annotated teaching vignette, lesson explanation and research notes before moving to tips for planning, structure and timing, and tips for responsive teaching. The detailed planning templates and accompanying online videos (23 videos covering over 3 hours of classroom footage) let you see the lessons in action in K-6 ELA, Science, and Social Studies classes. For each, Jennifer shares her reflections, key look-fors, and ideas for next steps. The nine lesson structures can be used with any curriculum or core program, text.
Jen incorporates a wide range of compelling research about how best to teach reading to every student in your class and translates the research (or the science of teaching reading) into high-leverage moves you can count on to deliver powerful lessons again and again. She also honors the art of teaching reading, helping teachers tap into their experience and hone their expertise to make quick, effective classroom decisions that take student learning to the next level.
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The Companion Charts are invaluable for educators of all experience levels. A complement to The Reading Strategies Book 2.0, the interactive and enlarged charts are perfect for small-group, conferring, or whole-class lessons.
Using Jennifer Serravallo's research-aligned resources together, you'll be able to:
** save valuable planning and preparation time
** make demonstrations and explanations of strategies easier
** provide students with visual anchors to reference as they practice their reading skills
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Leverage your instructional time and address the needs of every writer in your classroom, with purposeful and powerful small group writing instruction.
Get strategies for intentionally grouping your writers, then learn about seven different types of differentiated small group writing instruction - shared writing, strategy lessons, inquiry groups, and more.
With twelve videos modeling lessons with writers from Kindergarten to seventh grade and downloadable skill progression forms to identify needs and monitor progress, you can feel confident transferring knowledge and strategies of small group writing instruction to meet the needs of every writer in your classroom.
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Support the achievement of every reader in your class with this new and improved The Reading Strategies Book, 2.0—a go-to resource for every K-8 teacher looking to connect critical research and powerful practice, no matter your curriculum, subject area, or instructional approach.
This newly revised edition synthesizes over 700 research studies to help you implement practical, goal-based reading instruction in whatever structure fits your needs: whole group lessons, small group teaching, intervention planning, or content area instruction.
Find over 300 explicit strategy lessons (almost 100 new, and the others heavily revised from the first edition), learning progressions, lesson language, mentor texts, and 200 new classroom-ready charts - all to help you streamline the process of planning, progress monitoring, and delivering targeted reading instruction.
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Keep research and practicality at your fingertips, as you confidently guide the development of every writer in your classroom, regardless of your curriculum, content area focus, or approach to writing instruction.
Discover 300 of the most effective strategies that writers use, organized within 10 overarching goals, to use with any format of writing instruction - whole class, small group, or one-on-one.
Simplify the process of developing student writing goals, planning scaffolded lessons, monitoring progress, and teaching high-quality writing instruction.
Get specific lesson language, teaching tips for differentiating instruction, connected mentor texts, and authentic student samples and anchor charts, so you can optimize your time and personalize student writing development.
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Connect assessment, evaluation, and teaching of reading comprehension.
These assessment-to-teaching resources are organized into two different kits - fiction and non-fiction - to address the characteristics and challenges of each category of text, as they become increasingly sophisticated.
Identify students’ specific skills and needs in reading comprehension using high-quality trade books and open-ended prompts, along with suggestions for optimizing your time spent administering assessments.
Next, use easy-to-use evaluation rubrics to analyze your students’ responses and identify individualized goals. Then, choose from more than 100 different reading comprehension strategies per kit to provide goal-focused follow-up instruction.
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Confidently guide every unique reader in your classroom as they work to understand and enjoy increasingly more complex texts.
With Understanding Texts & Readers, you can deepen your knowledge of fiction and non-fiction text characteristics, sharpen your skills at detecting the nuances of these texts at various reading levels, and intentionally select books for every unique and growing reader in your classroom.
From comprehension of characters, themes, and vocabulary, to making sense of main idea and non-fiction text features, you can use this instructional resource to clarify your understanding of texts at all levels as well as the readers working to comprehend them.
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Connect assessment, evaluation, and teaching of reading comprehension.
These assessment-to-teaching resources are organized into two different kits - fiction and non-fiction - to address the characteristics and challenges of each category of text, as they become increasingly sophisticated.
Identify students’ specific skills and needs in reading comprehension using high-quality trade books and open-ended prompts, along with suggestions for optimizing your time spent administering assessments.
Next, use easy-to-use evaluation rubrics to analyze your students’ responses and identify individualized goals. Then, choose from more than 100 different reading comprehension strategies per kit to provide goal-focused follow-up instruction.
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Maximize precious minutes you spend one-on-one and in small groups with your individual readers— the “aha moments” and the joy—with this how-to-guide for reading conferences.
Discover six different types of impactful reading conferences, practical solutions for fitting them into your literacy block, suggested scaffolds and considerations for emergent bilingual learners, and efficient strategies for identifying needs and moving readers towards independence.
Online resources include thirteen conference note-taking forms, nine videos (and their transcripts) demonstrating applications in K-8 classrooms, and nine table tents to remember conference structures as you teach.
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This Spanish “transadaptation” is more than just a translation of its English counterpart, the New York Times Best Seller, The Reading Strategies Book. This resource compiles over 300 precise strategies that every skilled reader needs, including reading strategies specific to the Spanish language and mentor texts originally published in Spanish.
Find specific instructional language, examples of anchor charts, and suggestions on lesson progressions - all to support you in developing proficient and joyful readers.
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This Spanish “transadaptation”of the best selling English counterpart includes writing strategies specific for the Spanish language and mentor texts originally published in Spanish.
Discover 300 of the most effective strategies that writers use, organized within 10 overarching goals, to use with any format of writing instruction - whole class, small group, or one-on-one.
Simplify the process of developing student writing goals, planning scaffolded lessons, monitoring progress, and teaching high-quality writing instruction.
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“This one does not disappoint! A quick read with practical, easy-to-envision steps and application. The book itself is, in many ways, a model of exactly what it’s teaching for small group writing instruction in terms of setting a goal (improving my small group teaching) and presenting strategies (step by step for 7 different types of group meetings). I will be returning to this one again and again.”
Reader review for Teaching Writing in Small Groups, Goodreads
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“LOVE this book! Jennifer has done it again! Teachers: it’s a fantastic resource!! I’ve taught writing to students for 25 years & am enthralled with the strategies & organization & practical ideas offered within its user friendly format… It’s a treasure trove! I’ve already shared ideas with K-12 teachers & adapted strategies across curriculum for my topic du jour. Thx Jen!”
Reader review for The Writing Strategies Book, Goodreads
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"Comprehension" can feel like such an elusive, slippery goal. Jennifer Serravallo's new book erases all of the fuzziness. What's even more important is that now I can erase that fuzziness for students, too. The clear explanation of readers' development across text levels is just astounding. There are so many elements to this resource that make comprehension make sense- student work, level by level guides, ways to match readers to the right books, skill progressions, and more. I feel empowered to help every reader in the room. If you have the Reading Strategies Book, this is the needed companion. And if you just want to help readers, this is the resource. I'm so energized to use this in my work with readers, only wishing I had this years ago!"
Amazon Review, Understanding Texts & Readers
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"Jennifer is such a clearheaded thinker, researcher, and writer! I love how clearly she explains what to do and why as well as how. She always looks at being practical so you can count on what she’s teaching you to be easy to implement. Thank you, Jennifer!"
Amazon review, A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences
Get Your Own Copy
You can look for my resources at any online bookseller, or invite your school or district leader to purchase for you.
To save on bulk orders for schools or districts, you can order through Heinemann.com.
