Samples from Promote Reading Gains with Differentiated Instruction

Hi everyone,

My thanks to you who visited Amazon yesterday to look over my book with TIM RASINSKI and LAURA ROBB — Promote Reading Gains with Differentiated Instruction. If you reviewed the book or plan to, thank you!! Your attention makes a huge difference!

One of the unique features of the readings, both poems and 500-word texts, is that in every case I wrote a set of three: one at grade level, one above it, and one below it. They all offer subjects and writing of interest but they differ in subtle ways to make them suitable for readers no matter where they are on their journey toward proficiency. I’ll give you three examples for third graders.

Visualizing 
3rd Grade, At Level

     Hummingbird

Darts past
windowsill.
Whir of hurry.
Seldom still.

Color flash.
Blurred zoom.
Feathered streak.
Bright bloom.

Quick pause.
Stolen sip.
Wing hum.
Gone, zip. 

Here, there.
Hardly heard.
Dipping, diving.
Hummingbird.

Visualizing 
3rd Grade, Above Level

	Octopus

Octopus, octopus,
escape-artist octopus,
ink-squirting octopus,
magician of the sea.

Octopus, octopus,
color-changing octopus,
shape-changing octopus,
jetting through the sea.

Octopus, octopus,
coral-creeping octopus,
squeeze-in-cracks octopus,
hide and seek at sea.

Octopus, octopus,
eight-limbed octopus,
blue-blooded octopus, 
slyest in the sea.

Octopus, octopus,
nine-hearted octopus,
three-brained octopus,
genius of the sea.

Visualizing 
3rd Grade, Below Level

	Blue Whale
Down
where
there is no light
and the water is cold,
the great
blue
whale
minds its own business.

It
sings,
and its voice rumbles
in the gloom, the
loudest
noise
of any living thing.

Nothing
else –
not an elephant
or a dinosaur –
has ever
been
bigger,
on land or air or sea.

For
food,
it eats tiny things like shrimp.
Its
babies
are bigger than a car.

Comes
up
for air and goes
back
down.
All the Blue Whale wants is
to
mind
its own business.

Pssst. Wanna review a good book?

Hi everyone,

I have a Zoom meeting soon among my fellow-authors, LAURA ROBB and TIM RASINSKI of the book Promote Reading Gains with Differentiated Instruction, and our marketing team for the book at Shell Education, to explore ways to promote the title. I know we’ll talk about articles, videos, podcasts, and such, but I think the best way to promote any book is for it to get reviewed.

Reviews on Amazon so far are excellent. “…wonderful resource that aligns with the Science of Reading: visualizing, inferring, drawing conclusions, and comparing and contrasting.” “Thank you Robb, Harrison, and Rasinski for creating this valuable resource for teachers and students. Your book provides teachers with all the tools needed to teach a whole group, small group, and intervention lessons using high quality engaging activities.” “My students love the poems for two and three voices as well as the word ladders. I will be using the compare and contrast lessons as we begin preparing for state assessments. Districts need to invest in this book and get it in teachers’ hands ASAP!” “What a masterful achievement. The three authors, brought together for this extraordinary resource, share the same passion: kids must read!” “The shared wisdom and combined experience of Robb, Rasinski, and Harrison shines through on every page. They know what they are talking about. Their ideas really work.”

The problem is, we need a lot more reviews and busy teachers rarely find time to post reviews of books, even ones they are using. The marketing team says we need at least 50 good ratings to boost awareness of the book. Really? Thus the upcoming meeting.

First review is in

Hi everyone,

Library Bookwatch, Midwest Book Review calls our new book “unreservedly recommended” and goes on to say, “Promote Reading Gains” provides teachers with 36 lessons that support differentiated instruction in grades 3, 4, and 5. The lessons focus on four advanced reading skills: visualize, infer, draw conclusions, and compare/contrast. Written by literacy experts Laura Robb and Tim Rasinski and award-winning children’s author David L. Harrison, “Promote Reading Gains” offers useful lessons and reading strategies that meet students’ diverse reading needs.”

It’s always a pleasure to work with Laura and Tim. So glad to see this first review come in!

Something from the new book

Hi everyone,

Getting a new book off and running is always a challenge so forgive me if I focus fairly often on the new one with LAURA ROBB and TIM RASINSKI, Promote Reading Gains with Differentiated Instruction, just out from Shell Education.

Here’s another sample from the book, one of two dozen poems I wrote to provide the basis for lessons and word ladders to support various aspects of the differentiated instruction. I loved writing with such a wide range of subjects. Most trade books these days require a specific theme. Here I got to choose different subjects for every sort of lesson. It was quite a challenge.

A Mosquito

A mosquito is a whisper behind your ear,
a slender silhouette on your leg in the dark under the table,
a vampire’s light touch assessing your cheek. 

A mosquito is a fiery itch on your elbow,
an unreachable welt in the center of your back,
a knuckle you can’t stop scratching.

A mosquito is stagnant green water,
the reason you flee indoors on a windless night,
why you can’t sleep if one’s in the house.

A mosquito is evil smelling spray,
adores your blood, detests the person’s beside you.
A mosquito is why you hate mosquitoes. 

(c) David L Harrison, from Promote Reading Gains with Differentiated Instruction, Shell Education, 2023, with permission of the poet. 

Kathy Temean features our new book

Hi everyone,

Thanks to KATHY TEMEAN for featuring our new book (LAURA ROBB, TIM RASINSKI, and DAVID L HARRISON) on her site today. Here’s the link. https://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2023/10/01/book-giveaway-promote-reading-gains-with-differentiated-instruction-by-laura-robb/

Here are the instructions from Kathy if you want to get registered to win a copy of the book.

They have agreed to send a copy to the one lucky winner in the US. Just leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Let me know other things you did to share the good news, so I can put the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, or reblogging really helps spread the word about a new book. So, thanks for helping Laura, David, and Tim.

If you have signed up to follow my blog and it is delivered to you every day, please let me know when you leave a comment and I will give you an extra ticket. If you want to make sure you don’t miss seeing that you won, please click the “Notify Me of Follow-Up Comments by Email” box. I will leave a comment in reply if you win the book. Thanks! Kathy