Category Benchmark Publishing

Apr 16 2024

Closing the reading gap

Hi everyone,

I look forward to a good morning of work today. At 1:00 I’m scheduled for a forty-five minute Zoom Q/A session with an editor from Benchmark Education. This is for an upcoming blog post they’ll use to help promote the book I’m finishing with TIM RASINSKI and LYNNE KULICH. The book is called The Fluency Development Lesson, Closing the Reading Gap. It’s my first title with Benchmark, a large publisher with nearly 13,000 employees in the United States. I’m impressed by their careful, thorough approach to moving the book forward. We’re at the printers now in time for a fall release. I’ll show you a cover when I’m told I can.

Jan 13 2024

Quick update

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we (LYNNE KULICH, TIMOTHY RASINSKI, and I) got a look at the cover for The Fluency Development Lesson, Closing the Reading Gap, which will be published later this year by Benchmark. I’m not at liberty to show it off yet but first sight of a new cover is always a thrill.

I also received an advance copy of an interview by PAUL CECCHINI that will appear soon in an issue of Missouri Life magazine. I’ll let you know when the time comes.

For now we’re hunkered indoors with plans to watch the Chiefs game tonight and hoping that no young athletes are sacrificed in the name of sport.

Jul 21 2023

Who are we writing for?

Hi everyone,

This is one of 50 poems I wrote for an upcoming book with LYNNE KULICH and TIM RASINSKI. It’s called Teaching the Fluency Development Lesson, Grades 1-5 and will come out with Benchmark Press next year. I offer this as food for thought for all of us who would write for children. The difference between a 5th grader and a 2nd grader is vast. We are constantly reminded that our audience changes from year to year and we run the risk of writing down to them or missing our target entirely if we fail to understand that. For this book I wrote 10 poems each for grades 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. This is one of the group for 5th graders.

36 Months Ago

Second graders walk in line
behind their teacher down the hall.
They’re not supposed to talk or shove
or run their hands along the wall.
They need to learn to take it slow,
like I did thirty-six months ago.

Second graders look so young,
behind their teacher in the hall,
two years out of kindergarten,
still so innocent and small.
There’s so much for them to know, 
like I was thirty-six months ago.

I remember second grade,
learning to follow down the hall,
This year I’m taking science, math,
social studies, basketball.
Seems like every month I grow
from me thirty-six months ago.

(c) David L Harrison, from Teaching the Fluency Development Lesson, Grades 1-5, Benchmark Publishing

Jun 20 2023

Next two titles about ready

Hi everyone,

I’m happy to say that the two education books I’ve been working on are all but done now. I’ll finish proofing my poems in Teaching the Fluency Development Lessons today. Benchmark Publishing is publishing it and it’s co-written with LYNNE KULICH and TIM RASINSKI. I don’t have a cover or pub date yet but should have both soon. The original manuscript ran so long that our editor decided to divide it into two parts. Part One will be printed and Part Two will be available online to those who purchase the first part. First time I’ve been involved in this arrangement, but publishing a 600+ page book would be much too long.

The book with Shell Education, co-authored with LAURA ROBB and TIM RASINSKI, is due out in September. I showed you the cover the other day but here it is again. The title of that one is Promote Reading Gains with Differentiated Instruction.

I’ve been plugging away at the new collection of lake poems. Ten in final draft so far. I’ll probably finish with twenty or so. I’m loving the work.

May 12 2023

Starting a new poem

Hi everyone,

Yesterday the podcast interview with JOE PIZZO went well. We did both segments back to back so it took us from 2:30 until after 5:00 to get it all done. Part One will be posted next week. I’ll let you know when I have the official date and link.

Today I hope to add poem #7 to a manuscript that has been growing slowly over the last sixteen months. It has no home yet so I’ve used the project to fill time when I have a little gap between other things. I plan to do a total of fourteen poems in this collection so I’m about to reach the halfway mark. It’s one of those “gap” times. I’ve finished the interview. The Byron Biggers recording is being polished. My part of an education book with Benchmark is finished. The same with an education book with Teacher Created Materials. I need something to do today and am glad to have my little side project to keep me busy.