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«Back to all edWebinarsNonfiction Read Alouds to Build Knowledge and Vocabulary: Powerful Practices for Grades 3–8
Monday, December 1, 2025 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST
Presented by Katy Wischow, Former Teacher, Current Staff Developer, The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower
Sponsored by The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower
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Read alouds aren’t just for the primary grades—they’re one of the most powerful tools upper elementary and middle school teachers have to nurture comprehension, language, and content knowledge. In this engaging edWebinar, Katy Wischow of The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower will share practical, research-aligned ways to make nonfiction read alouds central to your literacy and content instruction.
Attendees will explore how purposeful text selection and intentional discussion can spark curiosity, deepen understanding, and expand students’ vocabulary across subjects. Katy will demonstrate strategies for choosing complex, high-interest texts that align with your curriculum, and for using talk, writing, and vocabulary routines to support knowledge building. You’ll learn how to balance the joy of shared reading with deliberate teaching moves that strengthen students’ background knowledge and word consciousness.
Join us to discover how a few minutes a day of powerful shared reading can build not only better readers—but more curious, knowledgeable learners. Whether you’re a grade 3-8 classroom teacher, coach, or literacy leader, you’ll leave with practical tools and a fresh vision for how read alouds can transform your students’ engagement and achievement.
About the Presenter
Katy Wischow is a Staff Developer with The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower. She began her career as a classroom teacher before joining the Project, and earned her master’s degree in literacy from Teachers College, Columbia University. Katy is the co-author of Unlocking the Power of Classroom Talk, a co-writer of several Units of Study in Reading and Writing, and the author of decodable texts in both the Jump Rope Readers and Moonlit Mountain Readers series. She is deeply interested in vocabulary, grammar, professional writing, nurturing teachers’ own writing lives, and fostering strong, joyful learning cultures in schools and classrooms.
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
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The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower was created out of the pioneering work that Lucy Calkins began over 40 years ago. Inspired by her research, she developed innovative curricula and methods that transformed the way children learned to write. For decades since, she has worked with educators to help students become what she always knew them to be: proficient and enthusiastic writers, readers, and thinkers.
Today, RWP-M remains deeply rooted in this experience, while also holding true to this a spirit of innovation and continuous learning. Lucy Calkins and her team author the Units of Study in Reading, Writing, and Phonics and several series of engaging decodable texts. More than authors of curricula, at its core, RWP-M is a community of practice, a think tank, and a professional development organization dedicated to transforming the way students learn to read, write, and think.
