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Running records can be the assessments that teachers are looking for when searching for an efficient way to plan meaningful literacy instruction. Running records can give teachers immediate insights to guide on‐the‐fly prompting and teaching decisions to build reader independence. The authors use classroom examples to illustrate how taking and analyzing running records can save time, focus instruction, and identify patterns that might otherwise be missed during guided or independent reading. It is time to revisit and revive the purpose, remember the practice, and reinvigorate the analysis of running records for intentional, individualized instruction.

The authors describe Monster, P.I., which is an app‐based, gamified assessment that measures language skills (knowledge of morphology, vocabulary, and syntax) of students in grades 5–8 and provides teachers with interpretable score reports to drive instruction that improves vocabulary, reading, and writing ability. Specifically, the authors describe why an assessment of language is important to include, the components of language that are assessed by Monster, P.I., and how Monster, P.I., uses gamification to add enjoyment and motivation to the assessment experience. The authors then explain how to use Monster, P.I., to inform instructional decisions, specifically explaining the overall instructional framework, what each score means, and examples of instruction that link to each area assessed by the app. Links to Common Core State Standards are included. The authors conclude by sharing teachers’ feedback on the assessment and how they used it to support instruction in their classrooms.

To positively influence students’ behavior and social relationships in the school and community settings, teachers can support students during early interventions and active conversations. Conversations held during class time that use picturebooks and restorative practice activities can be an appropriate way to support student learning and engagement. Lessons and activities can be implemented through any subject and integrated into classroom discussions to support students’ relationships, personal growth, well‐being, and behaviors. Incorporating discussions surrounding picturebooks with specific messages relating to social skills or situations in the classroom or community can support a restorative justice framework. The authors present ideas and activities relating to using picturebooks while upholding a restorative environment.

Implementation of digital literacies in secondary literature study can result in increased textual engagement and explorations of identity. The author describes the results of practitioner research at a Midwestern U.S. high school in which senior AP students created short films as a way to analyze literature circle texts. The purpose of the study was to understand how video storytelling can support young adult readers’ literary analysis. The author used qualitative content analysis to analyze a focal participant's screenplay and film, as well as his transcribed commentary and interviews. Findings showed that his film reflected analyses that demonstrated engagement with literature, increased appetite for reading, and text-driven social interaction.

This forum highlights research that literacy teachers, students, and others can explore, use, or adapt as they provide literacy instruction and develop related programs and research agendas.

In this commentary, the authors suggest that a paramount job for adolescent literacy assessment is to create more equitable outcomes for all students. The authors propose that the use of learning scales and micro‐progressions fills a void and demonstrate how their use can provide better information to teachers and yield information that can improve students’ self‐efficacy.

The achievement gap has been the focus of a good deal of research, attention, and hopeful new practices, yet it has hardly decreased. Using insights from sociolinguistic and sociocultural studies of classrooms in concert with practices developed by teacher researchers in the tradition of the Brookline Teacher Researcher Seminar, the author proposes a radical reframing of the position, and of the intellectual strength, of students not successfully engaged in school by exploring reading group interactions, focusing on two of her students and her own response to what they said. Considering details from the talk of these students, the author suggests ways in which teachers often miss or misjudge the full understandings and the intellectually rich intentions of many ostensibly less successful students.

Effective teachers use assessment data to make instructional decisions. One of the most informative techniques to assess young learners’ reading progress in the primary grades is the running record. Running records provide concrete evidence of students’ skills, reading levels, strategies, and progress as readers. The data gathered help teachers identify readers’ current strengths, needs, and reading levels. Frequent consideration of assessment data allows teachers to make up‐to‐the‐minute evidence‐based instructional decisions for their students. How do preservice teachers learn to take, score, and analyze running records to inform their literacy instruction? This article describes two approaches used by teacher educators to equip preservice elementary teachers with beginning proficiency in using running records to determine next steps of reading instruction for young students. The authors also provide novice teacher educators with insight into how they might incorporate running records instruction into their assessment or methods coursework, and they suggest resources to guide follow‐up instruction.

This department focuses on literacy leaders, including school and instructional leaders, teachers, and external partners, who are working to improve outcomes for adolescent and adult learners in a wide range of education settings. Columns investigate the challenges and complexities inherent in such work and share lessons learned, impactful strategies and approaches, and promising pathways forward.

This department focuses on literacy leaders, including school and instructional leaders, teachers, and external partners, who are working to improve outcomes for adolescent and adult learners in a wide range of education settings. Columns investigate the challenges and complexities inherent in such work and share lessons learned, impactful strategies and approaches, and promising pathways forward.