Finding the Magic

This book came about as a result of my many conversations with teachers of young children. Through our discussions, I began to reflect on the joy my students and I felt in our classroom, as students learned to read, write, sing, create, compose poetry, perform drama, and think critically. I began to reminisce about everything that made our language arts classroom a magical place, and I decided that a book containing everything that happened to make our classroom a warm, inviting, language rich, multicultural, inclusive community of learners, would be a helpful tool for pre-service teachers and practicing teachers alike.Finding the Magic: Emergent Readers and Writers begins by presenting literacy learning theories and stages in Chapter 1, then discusses how students learn to read and write in Chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 4 is about reading and writing in the classroom and highlights the use of phonics, word work, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Chapters 5 and 6 feature Reading and Writing Workshops, respectively. Chapter 7 focuses on literature for young readers, and Chapter 8 emphasizes the importance of a multicultural classroom. Assessment of reading and writing is the topic of Chapter 9, and Chapter 10 concludes the book by providing ideas about loving school, bringing art and music to the classroom, including and celebrating all students, and creating a community of learners.My hope is that pre-service teachers and teachers in the field will find many methods and strategies in the book that will help them create a classroom that brings joy to their students and themselves. I wish for them to find the magic my students and I found in our classroom, as my students became young readers, writers, thinkers, actors, singers, poets, and life-long learners.

Dr. Melinda Miller is a Professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas in the School of Teaching and Learning, where she has been on the faculty since 2001. She teaches literacy at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels.Melinda’s public school teaching experience includes 7 years of teaching as a Kindergarten, first, and second grade teacher, and 4 years of teaching as a Reading Recovery teacher and Reading Specialist. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin in Elementary Education with a Kindergarten Endorsement. She graduated from Sam Houston State University with her master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Reading, and she received her PhD from Texas A&M University in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Reading.In addition to Finding the Magic, Melinda co-authored Reading and Writing with English Learners: A Framework for K-5 with Valentia Gonzalez. She has been an educational consultant with Seidlitz Education since 2015, and she has published over 50 articles about literacy education and has presented world-wide. Melinda lives in Huntsville with her husband, Marsh, and 3 dogs and 2 cats.