Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

02.03.13 Theme, defined. At last! At least almost.

Theme, I’ve always thought, is one of the most important concepts we (English and reading  teachers, I mean) teach and also one that almost no one can really define.  This should probably suggest that we don’t understand it very well either.  And this is cause for concern. We all talk about theme… but can we define…


12.07.12 Rainforests, Euthanasia and Embedding Non-fiction

Those of you who have been to our reading workshops are up-to-date on “Embedded Non-fiction”—the idea of teaching non-fiction by combining it with a novel.  Rather than reading de-contextualized articles to practice reading non-fiction—the Civil War today; the naked mole rat tomorrow—you’d choose topics that develop and add depth to topics raised by the novel you’re…