When April rolls around, one of my favorite Earth Day activities is making Junk Art with all kinds of small recycled items.

In spite of what most students think, certain very common study practices are not very effective.

 At first his choice for independent reading surprised me—the incongruity was truly shocking, and very few sixth-graders made this choice. The more I thought about it, however, I drew a few conclusions.

But I have kept these particular reading engagement questions under my desk blotter for many, many years—so many that I don’t even know who did the research, but I do know these questions are effective at improving reading motivation, in the person who responds, AND in those who listen to those responses, as in, my students, in my classes.