Tammy Mulligan shares three ways to precisely differentiate small-group instruction. This is the third installment of a three-part series.
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.
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.
Tammy Mulligan shares the step-by-step process she uses with her fourth-grade students so that their small groups are fully managed by students and her teaching is focused on their needs as readers. This is the second installment of a three-part series.
It’s easy for students to forget to show kindness, especially in the gray days of winter. Joanne Emery shares a powerful picture book called Two Sandals, Four Feet by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed and illustrated by Doug Chayka. She includes a list of additional titles to inspire kindness in your classroom all year long. If you love discovering new books, you’ll appreciate this list!
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.
Mallory Messenger suggests three instructional moves to provide time and space for students to show their brilliance. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to position students to learn.
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.
Mandy Robek explored using shared writing experiences in her third-grade classroom and discovered it offered many rich literacy learning opportunities.
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.
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.
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.
Gigi McAllister reminds us of the special way picture books can open the doors of conversation.
Bitsy Parks writes about the connection between identity and engagement, offering small steps to help all students believe in themselves as learners.
Mandy Robek chronicles the way choice and independence allowed students to have more energy and joy while writing.
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.
Mandy Robek shares a booklist inspired to give students background about U.S. presidential elections.
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.
Tammy Mulligan shares how vertical whiteboards are a powerful tool to support collaboration and make student thinking visible.
Gigi McAlister discovered that using indoor walks is a way to help students engage in their learning and strengthen their learning community through conversations.
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.
Becca Burk tackles the issues associated with distraction when it comes to helping students engage with a book rather than a device.
Vivian Chen challenges us to replace an overly prescriptive handout that dictates the contents of a paragraph or essay with more open-ended organizers and exemplars to help students plan and write with more independence.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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