Visualizing during reading. Choosing just-right books. Using a table of contents. Peer editing. What do these strategies have in common? They're all tools of skilled readers and writers. And there's no better way to teach them than through minilessons. Minilessons provide strategic, focused instruction that children can put to immediate use. They capture interest without risking boredom.

Linda Hoyt, author of the popular Revisit, Reflect, Retell, returns with the definitive guide to conducting minilessons across the literacy spectrum. Linda covers oral reading, guided reading, independent reading, and writing, providing more than 170 of her best minilessons for understanding individual words and whole texts, fiction and nonfiction.

For each "Snapshot," Linda guides you through a process for gradually handing over responsibility to your students:

• Demonstration: It's important to communicate the goal of the lesson to your students. Then, using one of the book's many reproducibles or your own text, model what you want them to do, explaining how you arrive at decisions. Make your thinking as transparent as possible so students will understand how to apply the strategy.
• Guided and Independent Practice: Give students the chance to try the strategy, perhaps in pairs, small groups, or teams-with you as coach. From there, allow them to apply the strategy in their personal work as you assess them for what they're doing well and where they need support.
• Reflection: Students must think about the strategy, to promote its long-term use. What did we learn? How did the strategy work for us? How else might we use it? Linda includes "Key Questions" within each Snapshot to get you and your students started.

When Linda Hoyt is asked what people should know about her professional career, she is often heard to say, "I'm a teacher. That will always be the heart of my professional work." Though she spent many years as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, curriculum developer, staff developer, and Title I District Coordinator, Linda's passion will always center around vigorous and engaging classrooms where teachers and children learn together. This passion for vigorous and engaged learning has led Linda to create twenty-four professional books and video programs, plus numerous instructional resources for children. A few titles from her multidimensional list of Heinemann publications include Revisit, Reflect, Retell; Make It Real; Interactive Read-Alouds; Solutions for Reading Comprehension; and her newest resources, Explorations in Nonfiction Writing and Crafting Nonfiction. Three of her popular Heinemann video programs include Nonfiction Writing (one for primary and one for intermediate) and Navigating Informational Texts. Linda is a full-time author, consultant, and highly requested speaker at conferences throughout the United States, in Canada, and in Australia. Linda and her husband, Steve, live in the mountains of central Oregon where they enjoy outdoor activities and the high-desert climate. Read more from Linda's most recent blogs here: - Just Do It! Informational Writing in the Primary Grades - Guided Writing, Part 1 - Guided Writing, Part 2 - Reading For Life by Laura Robb - Strategies for Teaching Nonfiction Writing (Grades K - 2 3 - 5) Listen to an interview with Linda Hoyt on Education Talk Radio - 11/09/2011 (35:58) Writing - Explorations in Nonfiction Writing - Crafting Nonfiction - Primary and Intermediate - Nonfiction writing DVDs, K-2, 3-5 - "plus pack" at each grade level Reading - Interactive Read Alouds - K-1, 2-3, 4-5 Professional Books: - Make it Real - Revisit, Reflect, Retell