Our readers and writers must “do the doing” if they are to succeed. In The Big Book of Literacy Tasks, Nancy Akhavan offers an instructional plan designed to yield independent effort and engagement. 75 tasks in beautiful full-color two-pagers ensure gradual release by moving more swiftly from the “I do” teacher phase to the “you do,” when students benefit from the healthy amount of struggle that is the hallmark of learning. (And spoiler alert: you kick the habit of hovering, over-explaining, and rescuing!) Backed by research and thoughtfully arranged to make day-to-day planning easier, this g roundbreaking book provides: Reading and writing tasks organized into 3 sections—everyday skills, weekly practices, and sometime engagements requiring greater complexity; Mini-lessons that are essential— whether you use a reading program, a workshop approach, or are just transitioning to Balanced Literacy. Colorful teaching charts allowing you to quickly grasp the high points of each lesson; A clear task structure for introducing and managing the stages as you move students toward independent practice. Mid-task “Watch Fors” and “Work Arounds” showing how to coach without risking helicopter teaching. Amazing scaffolding tips for meeting the needs of a range of learners Sample student work that offers valuable insights on how to use the tasks as formative assessments Practical and engaging, The Big Book of Literacy Tasks gives you a clear framework for “working the minds” of your students, helping them forge their own path to becoming better readers and writers.

Introduction: Section One: Everyday Tasks for Reading, Writing, and Thinking -- 1. A New Spin on Who, What, Why, When and Where -- 2. Making Predictions to Help Comprehension -- 3. Journal Writing After Reading -- 4. Make a Connection to the World when Reading a Text Independently 5. Quoting an Important Idea in a Nonfiction Text -- 6. Name Character Motives and Actions -- 7. Name Rising Plot -- 8. Name Plot Resolution -- 9. Tell the Text -- 10. Dig Deeper Into the Text -- 11. Guided Comprehension Talks -- 12. Elaborate and Clarify Meaning -- 13. Setting Routines for Independent Reading -- 14. Fixing Up When Attention Wanders -- 15. Communicating Your Heads-Up Ball Approach -- 16. Answering a Text-Dependent Question -- 17. Tell why (you think, believe, remember, know) with Why Messages --18. Make a Bold Statement about a Text -- 19. Extend thinking When Discussing a Text -- 20. One liners for nonfiction texts -- 21. Crystal ball predictions -- 22. Yesterday’s news -- 23. Annotate text -- 24. Sentence strip statements -- 25. Write questions about reading -- 26. Super Cool Three Steps to Describe an Experience -- 27. Getting Kids to Write: Wonderfully Concentrating Minds Generating Ideas -- 28. Sketch to Write -- 29. Getting Help from Another Writer: Write dialogue in narratives and quotes in reports -- 30. Getting Help from Another Writer: Write a Hook -- 31. The Right Amount of Details, The Right Amount of Clarity -- 32. Thinking Small to Write Well -- 33. Writing a jot about what was read -- 34. Works too long, and never gets any writing done 35. Dialogue Journals -- Section Two: Weekly Tasks for Reading, Writing and Thinking -- 36. Analyze a Text for Author’s Purpose With a Text That is a Little Too Hard For Students to Read on Their Own -- 37. Create a Structured Outline of a Text -- 38. Collecting Research and Organizing Research Notes for Writing -- 39. Plot Summary Snapshots -- 40. Writing Information in a New Format -- 41. Stay on point in writing -- 42. Productive Use of the Author’s Chair -- 43. Write a Short Research Report -- 44. Write an All About Text -- 45. Your Students Have Voice- Writing an Opinion Text -- 46. Arguing the solution to a problematic situation -- 47. Writing the Recipe for Success û How-to Texts -- 48. Writing Explanations, Be like an Encyclopedia -- 49. Inquiry for Smart Minds -- 50. Responding to Literature with Some Kick to It -- Section Three: Sometime Tasks for Reading, Writing, and -- 51. Identify Theme in a Complex Text -- 52. Posing Questions for Easier Inquiry -- 53. Writing a Fable or Myth -- 54. Writing a Fairy Tale -- 55. Justifying an Answer With a Claim and Evidence -- 56. Use Known Concepts to Help Others Learn New Information -- 57. Connect the dots, or ideas between texts -- 58. Identifying real facts from made up facts û fallacious reasoning -- 59. Brainstorming multiple valid answers/responses -- 60. Concept Mapping Between Big Ideas -- 61. Make Me Ponder û Questions that Get the Thinking Juices Flowing -- 62. Writing Compare and Contrast Response to Literature 63. Peer to Peer Analysis and Response -- 64. Critique a complex or functional text -- 65. Visible and Visual: Use Known Concepts & Vocabulary to Understand a Text -- 66. Summarize a text that is a little too hard for students to read on their own -- 67. Student think alouds -- 68. Separate central idea from big ideas -- 69. Writing in Different Genres or Multimedia to Engage and Persuad -- 70. Creative Debate -- 71. I Am a Reader -- 72. I Am a Writer -- 73. Look Up -- 74. Good bye, Perfect Teacher -- 75. Teacher and Learner.