Shaped

A community-driven blog supporting educators, building lifelong learners, and shaping the future of education.* 

 

OVER 10 MILLION READS

Latest Posts

April Read180 2

How to Help Striving Readers Succeed: 20 Years of READ 180

HMH's Francie Alexander explores strategies that can be used to improve literacy among English learners, students with disabilities, and others.

Francie Alexander
Senior Vice President, Efficacy & Consulting Research

Writing Student

You Can’t Write What You Can’t Say!

It's time to rethink the traditional writing instruction we offer English learners and struggling readers.

Dr. Kate Kinsella
Author, English 3D; Co-Author, Read 180®; Teacher Educator, Researcher; CEO, Dr. Kate Kinsella & Associates

Leadto Literacy

4 Takeaways From Our Leadership Talks Every Teacher Should Know

How can we effectively lead students to reading and writing proficiency? We had four experts weigh in.

Shaped Staff

Fblivestill2

Facebook Live Recaps: Diversifying Reading Materials and Practices

It’s powerful and necessary for children to see themselves represented in literature.

Julia Roch

Warford3

If Your Culture Is Broken, You Can’t Fix Anything Else

Jim Warford
Senior Advisor and Keynote Speaker, International Center for Leadership in Education

Elena B

Impacting Tomorrow's Classrooms: Elena Izquierdo—Thought Leader, Educator, and Tireless Advocate

Rebecca Beck
Director of Product Marketing, Language Acquisition, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

WF1569306 Shaped 2022 Blog Post What Is Scaffold Learning hero 230119 180213

Welcoming English Learners with a Mindset for Success

Patricia Starek, ​M.S.Ed.​
Development Director, Intervention Solutions Group, HMH

Three pillars of support for middle school english learners

Three Pillars of Support for Middle School English Learners

Keeping English learners engaged in academic content while they experience profound personal challenges makes our role as educators even more complex and crucial.

Dr. Elena Izquierdo
Author, Escalate English; Author ¡Arriba la Lectura!; Associate Professor, Dual Language Education / Biliteracy / ELL Education, University of Texas, El Paso

What is translanguaging

What Is Translanguaging in the Classroom?

What is Translanguaging? Learn the definition of translanguaging and strategies for translanguaging in the bilingual classroom.

Drs. Yvonne and David Freeman
Authors, On Our Way to English, Professors Emeriti, University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley

Management Tips for Delivering Intensive Linguistic Support for Long Term English Learners in Grades 45 thumb

Management Tips for Delivering Intensive Linguistic Support for Long-Term English Learners in Grades 4–5

Dr. Elena Izquierdo, HMH program consultant, provides post-ILA 2017 classroom-management tips for meeting the diverse needs of the long-term English learner.

Dr. Elena Izquierdo
Author, Escalate English; Author ¡Arriba la Lectura!; Associate Professor, Dual Language Education / Biliteracy / ELL Education, University of Texas, El Paso

CODIE 2017 winner white

What It Means to Win a CODiE Award

HMH was honored on July 26 with a CODiE Award—presented by SIIA to software, information, and education technology developers—for our online English learner program, Escalate English.

Shaped Staff

Introducing the Teachers of Beastie Hall Meet Mrs Wordy thumb

Introducing the Teachers of Beastie Hall: Meet Mrs. Wordy

Our tour of iRead’s Beastie Hall continues with Mrs. Wordy’s Word Play Classroom. See how children learn to build bigger words by understanding word parts.

Shaped Staff

Next stop mr seemores sight words classroom thumb

Introducing the Teachers of Beastie Hall: Next Stop, Mr. Seemore’s Sight Words Classroom

Our tour of iRead’s Beastie Hall online classrooms continues with a visit to the Sight Words Classroom of Mr. Seemore, who helps children learn high-frequency words.

Shaped Staff

Top takeaways from our literacy experts thumb

Top Takeaways from Our Literacy Experts

HMH’s spring Lead the Way to Literacy Leadership Talks have wrapped up, and we’d like to leave you with some collected wisdom from our experts.

Shaped Staff

Ensuring literacy and language gains for long term english learners thumb

Ensuring Literacy and Language Gains for Long-Term English Learners: Shifting Policy and Practices

To meet new standards and shifting policies, Dr. Elena Izquierdo offers strategies for supporting long-term English learners in academic language proficiency and accessing grade-level texts.

Dr. Elena Izquierdo
Author, Escalate English; Author ¡Arriba la Lectura!; Associate Professor, Dual Language Education / Biliteracy / ELL Education, University of Texas, El Paso

A language quest with lifelong impact thumb

A Language Quest with Lifelong Impact, Part II

What’s the best way to advance your long-term English learners in their acquisition of academic language? Read our strategies for making active language learning a regular classroom practice.

Shaped Staff

My Discussion on Multicultural Capital at TESOL thumb

My Discussion on Multicultural Capital at TESOL

Author and and English learner expert Sylvia Acevedo shared with a TESOL audience how having a multicultural background offers a competitive advantage in school, in career opportunities, and in life.

Sylvia Acevedo
HMH Author and CEO, Girl Scouts of America

Academic Language Preparation Is Key to College Readiness thumb

Academic Language Preparation Is Key to College Readiness

Helping students distinguish between academic language and everyday English is vital to helping them meet the demands of college readiness coursework, says literacy expert Kate Kinsella.

Dr. Kate Kinsella
Author, English 3D; Co-Author, Read 180®; Teacher Educator, Researcher; CEO, Dr. Kate Kinsella & Associates

*The views expressed in our blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.