Library
Choice Literacy Articles & Videos
The Choice Literacy library contains over 3,000 articles and 900 videos from 150+ contributors. Classic Classroom and Literacy Leadership subscribers have access to the entire library. Content is updated continuously, with five to six new features published each week.
Latest Content
The Bed and Breakfast Model: An Analogy for Schools
Have you ever struggled as a literacy leader to explain the balance between creativity and common standards in teaching; between shared expectations and individuality? Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan present an analogy that might help.
Inspiration from Author Visits: Tips and Web Resources
Jennifer Jones reflects on the power of a local author visit in her school, and also provides some quick tips and weblinks for planning a visit.
Fairy Tales for Middle Grade Readers (BOOKLIST)
This booklist is on fairytales, and there are a range of reading levels and styles to support readers of different ability levels.
Models, Coaches, Shepherds, or Rock Stars? Our Reading Roles in the First Few Weeks of School
Cheerleader? Shepherd? Rock Star? Coach? Andrea Smith considers her changing reading “roles” early in the school year as she tries to build a classroom community that shares her passion for literacy.
A Tornado of Books
By upending the classroom library and asking students to sort and reorganize it, Karen Terlecky gets insight every year into the ways students categorize texts, as well as their emerging understanding of genre.
Why and Watch Me: Making the Abstract Concrete for Readers
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan present some teacher question and reflection prompts for helping struggling readers understand why and how reading is a meaning-making process.
Books to Get Us Ready for Summer Vacation
Franki Sibberson finds preparing students for summer reading is a little different this year, now that she has moved from classroom teaching to work in the school library. Here are some terrific books to get students excited about summer.
Aligning Curriculum with Struggling Readers in Mind
This is a terrific article for a team considering struggling learners to read together and discuss. Franki Sibberson asks some critical questions, including how many transitions and different adults some children work with each day in the name of getting all the support they need.
On Not Fretting
Kelly Petrin’s meditation phrase for the day—Do not fret; it only leads to evil—guides her through a home visit with a parent who worries about her daughter’s literacy skills. This is a terrific short read for thinking through how to make encounters with parents less stressful.
Talking with Parents about Text Difficulty
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan write about how to share the research base and goal of producing lifelong readers with families in understandable terms. The article includes a handout to share at parent meetings.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Recommending Yourself
Suzy Kaback asks her students to write letters of recommendations for themselves, and finds that the activity ripples across the school mentoring community. This exercise is a terrific catalyst for creating personal improvement plans.
Going from the Known to the Unknown: Vacation Reflections on Fluency
Jennifer Jones uses her experience as a tourist in a Spanish-speaking country to consider how fluency and meaning are (and aren't) connected, and what that means for teaching students.
Back to the Classroom
Shari Frost reflects on what went wrong (or right) when a literacy coach decides to return to the classroom, and in doing so considers the kind of support literacy coaches need to thrive.
Knitting, Independence, and Small Group Routines for Intermediate Readers
Franki Sibberson uses a knitting analogy to reflect upon alternatives to guided reading in the intermediate grades that promote more student independence.
Build Fluency with Books That Are Fun for Kids to Read Aloud Over and Over and Over Again
Here’s a booklist of delightful titles that will build fluency skills for students — both as read alouds, and during independent reading.
Selecting Texts for Strategy Teaching with English Language Learners in Mind
Text selection for English language learners poses special challenges. Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain how the criteria for “just-right books” are different for ELLs, and provide practical examples of how teachers use these principles of book selection in their classrooms.
Literacy Coach Confidential: My Colleague Talks Too Much!
Yakity yak won't bring 'em back to study groups when someone talks far too much. Here is advice from Choice Literacy contributors on how to deal with those "overtalkers" with tact and grace.
Reflections on Our Year of Read Alouds (BOOKLIST)
if you're moving from thinking about read alouds for the first days of school, to plotting out a plan for read alouds all year long, you might want to read Franki Sibberson's booklist of read-alouds used for the entire year with her 3rd and 4th grade students.
Lessons from My Summer Vacation
Erin Ocon finds it's hard to let go of her planning and perfectionism as she rewrites her goals for the summer. In "Lessons from My Summer Vacation," she discovers the process of changing her summer plans makes her rethink her classroom goals.
How Can School and Classroom Libraries Support Struggling Readers?
Franki Sibberson tries to imagine what school and classroom libraries look like to struggling readers who are gazing at scores of books beyond their reading levels.
What Reading is Like: Sports Analogies to Use with Parents
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan provide some sports analogies to share with families when talking about reading growth. The article includes a handout of prompts parents can use to spark discussions about books with their children.
A Reason to Learn
Jennifer Allen reflects on why and how literacy leaders need to make their professional development offerings more relevant and rigorous for teachers.
Conversation Turns: Recordkeeping and Analysis Tool
Suzy Kaback provides a template for helping students note and reflect upon their talk.
What Happens Next
"What Happens Next" from Shirl McPhillips is a poem celebrating the renewal that comes when spring finally arrives – a perfect metaphor for the different seasons of the school year.
Rethinking Reading at Home
What’s the value of reading at home? Mandy Robek ponders the home/school connection. Download a copy of a rubric to assess the home reading log.
Literacy Builds Community: The Jackdaw Project
"School is not summer camp" – this quote reminds Mandy Robek that there are many challenges to building a strong classroom community in the midst of demands for achievement and accountability early in the year. Her "literacy jackdaw" project is a terrific vehicle for classmates to learn about each other, and hone their listening, speaking, and writing skills in the process.
Student Independence and Ownership in the Library
The “status of the class” form is a tool used by many teachers in reading and writing workshops to chart student plans daily. As Franki Sibberson tests out a status form in the school library, she discovers it has more value than she realized.
Community First: Using Read Alouds to Strengthen Classroom Connections
Mary Lee Hahn plans her read alouds for double duty, using them to build the community and a love of reading.
Letters in the Middle School Classroom
First-year teacher Erin Ocon finds an old-fashioned way to build rapport with some of her struggling middle school students – she writes letters to them. This brief article would be a good reading for a middle school team meeting or new teacher group.
Read Our Walls: Bridging Professional Development and Student Achievement
Jennifer Allen and her colleagues knew test scores weren’t the only way of defining their students’ achievements and the value of their professional development program. “Read Our Walls” is an easy but powerful way to celebrate writing from the entire school community.
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