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How to Intensify an Intervention
What happens when students’ reading data takes a downward trend? Dana Murphy encourages us to be confident and intensify a reading intervention with three practical moves.
Got Criteria? How to Help Students Engage with Success Criteria
Heather Fisher offers four tips for engaging our youngest students with daily criteria for success.
Welcome, Everyone!
When Gigi McAllister says the library is a place for everyone, she means everyone! As a child Gigi did not like reading, so she is passionate about creating a space where everyone feels like they belong in the library.
Whole-School Animal Research
Gigi McAllister shares an annual school-wide research project she leads in the library. You’ll be inspired by the way a focus on research can bring joy and belonging to all students in all grades.
Shared Writing with Older Readers and Writers
Mandy Robek explored using shared writing experiences in her third-grade classroom and discovered it offered many rich literacy learning opportunities.
Now What? We Went on a Field Trip
Mandy Robek thoughtfully connects a field trip to multiple literacy experiences in her second-grade classroom. If you’re looking to leverage the field trip experience for reading and writing, you’ll love Mandy’s process.
Uplifting Independent Reading in the Living Room
Gwen Blumberg offers ways to make the library a welcoming space for readers to settle in with their choice of books. Classroom teachers can consider creating a living room, too.
Mentor Texts Elevate Readers and Writers
Bitsy Parks uses mentor texts to elevate her students as writers. Although mentor texts are included in many curriculum programs, Bitsy offers more opportunities for students to use mentor texts to strengthen their reading and writing lives.
Expecting Joy in the Classroom Library
Bitsy Parks shares the joy you can expect from the classroom library.
Sketchnoting in the Library
Gigi McAllister shares how she helped her students get started with sketchnoting during read aloud time. Perhaps like Gigi you aren’t a natural at this format, but you’ll be inspired by the value and ease of introducing this powerful note-taking technique.
Meaning Makers
Josie Stewart and Hannah Tills push against the adage that “early readers are focused solely on learning to decode, while later readers are making meaning.” Instead they remind us of the beautiful way all readers are meaning makers.
I’m an Everything Person!
Bitsy Parks writes about the connection between identity and engagement, offering small steps to help all students believe in themselves as learners.
Unleashing Writers
Mandy Robek chronicles the way choice and independence allowed students to have more energy and joy while writing.
Reframing Writers
Julie Johnson encourages educators to take a more in-depth view when assessing student writers. Checklists don’t necessarily grow writers, but focusing on what students are doing well and nudging them forward will.
Navigating the Election Season Booklist
Mandy Robek shares a booklist inspired to give students background about U.S. presidential elections.
Vertical Whiteboards
Tammy Mulligan shares how vertical whiteboards are a powerful tool to support collaboration and make student thinking visible.
Indoor Walks
Gigi McAlister discovered that using indoor walks is a way to help students engage in their learning and strengthen their learning community through conversations.
Pick One: How to Establish a Community of Readers
“Pick one!” These are the words that begin to grow a community of readers. When students say, “I’m done,” Becca Burk points toward the classroom library and encourages them to pick a book and begin growing strong roots as a reader.
Reclaiming Space: Weeding to Grow a Healthy Library
Books, like gardens, need to be tended to regularly for the whole library to thrive. Gigi McAllister gives tips for anyone in the weeding process for their school or classroom library.
You Know How to Show Them
Becca Burk tackles the issues associated with distraction when it comes to helping students engage with a book rather than a device.
Morning Hike
Gwen Blumberg helps us consider and create space for a variety of personalities and learning needs. Inspired by a morning hike, she takes her observations and applies them to give space for all students to learn.
Responding to Dysregulated Behaviors: What about the other kids?
Becca Burk reflects on the other kids in the classroom who witness dysregulated behaviors from a classmate. She reminds us of the way grace and acceptance are prominent when we look for the silver linings in difficult situations. This is the third installment of a four-part series chronicling the responses when a student with dysregulated behaviors joins Becca Burk’s kindergarten class mid-year.
Responding to Dysregulated Behaviors: A Symptom of What?
When a new student spirals into anxiety and becomes aggressive, Becca Burk finds herself with a dislocated knee and advocating for the student to return to the classroom. This is the second installment of a four-part series chronicling the responses when a student with dysregulated behaviors joins Becca Burk’s kindergarten class mid-year.
Let’s Begin
Gwen Blumberg reflects on the community developed at a writing retreat and encourages teachers to consider the community of learners they will intentionally nourish this school year.
Responding to Dysregulated Behaviors: “What’s a Book?”
When a new student joins Becca Burk’s kindergarten classroom and asks, “What’s a book?” Becca realizes some behaviors are new to even the most veteran teachers. This is the first installment of a four-part series chronicling the responses when a student with dysregulated behaviors joins Becca Burk’s kindergarten class mid-year.
Do I Belong?
Tammy Mulligan considers ways to help students feel and know that they belong in the classroom community. The more we broaden our knowledge of others, and discover more about who we are and what we care about, the more our sense of belonging can grow.
Kindergarten Celebration of Writing
Molly James encourages us to consider ways to make a writing celebration meaningful. You’ll be inspired by her kindergarten writing celebration.
Revisiting: Getting to Know My Students
Mandy Robek decided that despite the increasing pressures and time-consuming expectations, she will nourish healthy relationships with students. Here are some tried-and-true practices that she wants to maintain.
Fostering Reading Lives in the Library
Gigi McAllister fosters engaged reading lives through goal-setting in the library. She shares ways we can encourage all readers to have robust reading lives.
Story Walks
Christy Rush-Levine invites students into a story walk. While many of our school activities require students to sit still and be quiet, story walks with wordless books are a simple way to invite students to move and talk, with powerful outcomes.
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