Shaped

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

Latest Posts

This Spring, Celebrate Student Growth

Noelle Morris
Senior Director Community Engagement, HMH; Host of HMH Learning Moments: Teachers in America Podcast

HMH Honors Six Outstanding Educators

Caitlin Henault
Senior Communications Associate, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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

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

Meet the Winners of HMH's Word UP Challenge

Jordan Friedman
Former Shaped Editor

Congratulations to Our Two Texas Art & Literacy Contest Winners

Jordan Friedman
Former Shaped Editor

Getting at the Heart of Conferring: Empowering Readers and Writers

Kristen Painter
Vice President of Professional Services, ICLE

Efficient Eye Tracking: A Learned Fine Motor Skill Essential to Reading

Dr. Alexandra Talaber
OD, FCOVD, FAAO

Dr. Danielle Leong
OD, PhD

What the Academy Awards Taught Me About Speaking Instruction: Part 1

Erik Palmer
Program Consultant, Into Reading and Into Literature

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

The Bad Habits of Good Readers

Carol Jago, HMH author and program consultant, makes the case for the seemingly bad habits avid readers possess.

Carol Jago
HMH Author and Associate Director, California Reading & Literature Project at UCLA

Reading Is More Than Fundamental

HMH’s Kristi James shares what ideal literacy engagement in an early childhood classroom would look like and how teachers can realize this goal and promote it outside of their classrooms as well.

Dr. Kristi James

Can We Nudge Students To Be Better Learners?

Education thought leader, researcher, and practitioner Dr. David Dockterman gets us thinking about ways to motivate student performance using the types of cues we encounter in daily life. Read his thoughts on four educational nudges.

Dr. David Dockterman
Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Getting Formative Assessment to Work

Thought leader Sheila Valencia continues our popular Lead the Way to Literacy series with some insight on formative assessment. Can it help close the achievement gap? Find out here.

Dr. Sheila W. Valencia
Professor, Language, Literacy, and Culture, University of Washington; Journeys Program Consultant

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

Navigating the Every Student Succeeds Act: Well-Rounded Curriculum—It’s More Than Math and Literacy

Our series on navigating ESSA continues with Dr. Lissa Pijanowski’s advice on how to develop a well-rounded curriculum.

Dr. Lissa Pijanowski
HMH Contributor

Use Reading Data to Encourage Students’ Independent Reading

As you assess students’ reading levels at the start of the school year, here are some strategies for supporting students in taking risks, expanding their reading choices, building skills—and becoming engaged independent readers.

Shaped Staff

How to Instill a Love of Reading with a Student-Friendly Environment

Back to school is a good time to think about optimizing your library to motivate independent reading. Taking it further, here are some strategies and interactions teachers can use to spark an interest in reading.

Shaped Staff

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

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