As a GABAergic compound, Taurine can inhibit the neurological processes that result in anxiety or stress. It has also been observed to lower cortisol levels. This might also explain why Taurine is so often consumed with caffeine, so as to offset some of the negative side effects like nervousness and restlessness.
Students can gain as much as 20 minutes of extra reading in class each day when teachers designate reading as the only activity for any class time not used for instruction and practice. Having time to read in class motivates my students to read more at home, too.
While ReadWorks offers a huge array of reading comprehension resources for educators, two particularly promising features are its paired passages and text sets for grades K-12. The former consist of two passages with similar topics and/or themes, while the text sets are comprised of three or more passages that share a topic or theme. Both resources can be used to build vocabulary and background knowledge in order to strengthen student reading comprehension and content knowledge. Paired Passages