Melissa Quimby
Melissa Quimby teaches fourth grade in Massachusetts. She is passionate about helping young writers improve their craft, and her to-be-read list is always stacked with middle grade fiction. Melissa shares her love of children’s literature on Teachers Books Readers. You can connect with her at her website, QUIMBYnotRamona, or follow her on Twitter @QUIMBYnotRamona.
Latest Content
One Size Does Not Fit All: Flexibility in Tool Creation
Sometimes, we ask students to conform to tools that we’ve already created or have found success with when working with former groups of students. However, one size does not fit all. Melissa Quimby shows us how we can be inspired by moments of productive struggle and consider how to help a tool fit our students rather than the other way around.
Leading with Empathy in the Classroom
Melissa Quimby offers profound advice for what to do when we notice inattention, excessive questioning, frozen learners, or disruptive behaviors. She recommends letting empathy lead our next steps.
Patterns of Prompting
We spend our days prompting whole groups, small groups, and individual learners. We’ve all been in situations where we may not have known what to say. Melissa Quimby offers advice on how to be educators who use language brimming with curiosity and encouragement.
Bit by Bit: Lifting the Level of Storytelling
Melissa Quimby shifts the way she helps students approach narrative writing by focusing on the conflict and encouraging students to unfold it bit by bit. This small shift lifts the level of the stories students write—you can try it, too!
An Invitation to Elevate Readers’ Thinking Through Conversation
Melissa Quimby offers structures to help elevate readers’ thinking through book club conversations. You’ll love putting these practical ideas into play in your own classroom—and be awed by the depth of your readers’ understandings.
Building Bridges (and Confidence): Planning Solid Essays
Melissa Quimby offers time and intentional planning to build students’ confidence and capacity as essay writers.
Eavesdrop on Your Students
Melissa Quimby suggests listening in on students’ conversations to find out their interests. These tidbits will help you in building connections, recommending books, and encouraging writing topics.
Informal Conversations Give Insight for Instruction
Melissa Quimby encourages informal conversations with students to get insight into their personalities and lives.
QuickTake: Leave Space for Personalization
Melissa Quimby advises leaving space for students to personalize the classroom when they arrive to start the new school year.
Befriending Characters in Times of Grief (Booklist)
Melissa Quimby shares a booklist that offers comforting characters to befriend in times of grief. This is a staple for all classrooms.
A Collection of Treasured Life Lessons
Melissa Quimby leads her students in rich thinking about life lessons and encourages them to treasure the wisdom from books.
Celebrating Reading Identities in the Elementary Classroom
Melissa Quimby offers a creative and practical idea to get to know students’ reading identities.
The Seasons of Classroom Libraries
Melissa Quimby shifts her classroom library throughout the year so that as her students grow as readers, her library will continue to nourish them.
Nurturing Lifelong Readers
In this beautiful personal essay, Melissa Quimby reminds us to nurture readers through passion conferences, classroom libraries, read-aloud, and independent reading time.
What Are You Celebrating Today?
Melissa Quimby leans in and asks her students to define their celebrations as writers. Rather than always naming the celebration for students, Melissa helps students gain ownership of the writing process by learning to celebrate every stage.
Online Routines to Create Energetic Reading Communities
Melissa Quimby shares online routines to strengthen the class reading community.
Meet Someone New Monday: Using Picture Book Biographies to Bring Marginalized Voices into the Classroom
Melissa Quimby creates “Meet Someone New Monday” to inspire students with picture book biographies of little-known artists, activists, and citizens who accomplish remarkable feats.
The Shades of Sadness: Character Feelings and Traits
Melissa Quimby is disappointed with the way her students expressed depth of character traits and feelings. By building on their strengths, Melissa creates a tool for students to use and adapt as they learn to be more specific and intentional about describing characters.
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