Franki Sibberson has worked for over 30 years as a teacher at different grade levels, school librarian, and literacy coach. Her writing and video work as a lead contributor for Choice Literacy keeps us updated on the latest and greatest books as well as practical “how-tos” on assessment, comprehension, word work, technology and more. Franki is the co-author of many books and videos on teaching reading in the intermediate grades, including Beyond Leveled Books, Still Learning to Read, Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop, and Digital Reading: What’s Essential in Grades 3-8. You can keep up with Franki on the popular blog she writes with Mary Lee Hahn, A Year of Reading. Franki is currently the president of NCTE.
Franki Sibberson shares how she integrates student choice and collaboration into reading response during daily read alouds.
Fifth-grade writers in Franki Sibberson’s classroom encourage each other and suggest revisions to their opinion writing drafts in partner teams.
Franki Sibberson initiates student-led minilessons, and finds the process takes her literacy workshops to a new level of independence and energy.
Franki Sibberson helps Lucas plan his minilesson for his fifth-grade classmates on how to connect words and facts from two different sources.
Lucas leads a minilesson in Franki Sibberson’s fifth-grade class on connecting facts from different sources.
Franki Sibberson finds teaching students to annotate while reading is one of the best ways to promote ongoing reflective response in her fifth-grade classroom. She shares how she starts teaching annotation skills early in the year.
Franki Sibberson explains how she watches students closely and adjusts her library based on what she sees all year long.
It’s not an invitation if students are required to accept it. Franki Sibberson explains how engagement depends upon true choice and lots of options in her fifth-grade classroom.
Fifth-grader Orion uses sticky notes to make questions and predictions at the end of each chapter.
Reagan, a fifth grader in Franki Sibberson's class, explains how she uses sticky notes to flag examples of writer's craft she could use in her own writing.
We continue our video series from Franki Sibberson's class of fifth graders explaining how they take notes while reading. Sarah marks important elements early in the mystery she is reading, so she can easily refer to them later.
Tre uses lots of sticky notes to sort through and keep track of characters in a book with a whole classroom full of personalities.
What do student notes from independent reading look like when students have free choice? In this video series, fifth graders from Franki Sibberson's class explain their notetaking strategies. We start with Ally, who tries out two different strategies to figure out which one will help her the most.
This fifth-grade minilesson from Franki Sibberson is a lovely mix of mentor texts, Franki's own writing, and honesty about the writing process.
Franki Sibberson shares strategies for incorporating more nonfiction into read-aloud times throughout the day.
Franki Sibberson believes planning a unit of study should be just as much fun as planning a trip to Disney World. She explains her planning process for one of her first units of study, on narrative writing.
Franki Sibberson finds the investment of five to seven minutes a day for #bookaday with her third graders is truly time well spent.
Franki Sibberson shares a lesson progression to help students learn how to give helpful revision feedback. She uses online videos and resources to support her work.
Franki Sibberson uses a micro-progression of her own draft of a blog post to help her third graders improve their blogging skills.
Jennifer Schwanke and Franki Sibberson share four perspectives on student-led conferences — teacher, principal, student, and parent.
Franki Sibberson realizes there are some bad days in literacy workshops that hold no great life lessons for teachers and students, and that is okay.
Franki Sibberson explains why we need to move beyond our cherished definitions of quality when working with third graders in transition and embrace the books students love.
Franki Sibberson shares some of her favorite nonfiction books with more than one entry point.
Franki Sibberson explores the varied needs of young readers and writers.
Franki Sibberson explains how scheduling big events can do important work in building the reading community.
Franki Sibberson explains how longer conferences early in the year pay dividends all year long.
Franki Sibberson discovers we allow students to assess what reading matters most to them, we can learn a remarkable amount.
Franki Sibberson gives a group of boys a “lift a line” assignment to build their close reading skills.
Are you ready to ditch your reading logs? Not so fast. Franki Sibberson explains why she still uses them in her third-grade classroom.
Franki Sibberson has suggestions for moving to more digital response options with students.
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