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
State Assessment Tests: Warm-Ups for Wandering Minds
Student distraction is a critical issue during assessments. Jennifer Jones provides a series of quick activities to help students focus before state examinations.
Team Sharing of Writing Curriculum Innovations (TEMPLATE)
Ruth Shagoury finds some of the best learning in her study groups comes when participants share the new things they are trying in their classrooms. She develops a nifty one-page notetaking form to help everyone keep track of ideas they want to test out with students.
Helping Classroom Volunteers Become Better Listeners
Helping volunteers understand the importance of listening to young learners is one of Andie Cunningham’s goals. Here she gives tips for preparing volunteers to confer with children.
An Assessment Notebook That Works for Me
After lots of trial and error, Franki Sibberson finally has a format for her assessment notebook that works well.
Cartwheels, Backward Rolls, and Literacy Coaching
Jennifer Allen observes the scaffolds her daughter's gymnastics teacher uses and gradually abandons over time. These observations make her think about how she is gradually releasing new teachers from different kinds of support as they enter their second, third, and fourth years of teaching.
Picture Books About Books: Young Learners and Reading Identity
Katie DiCesare gathers picture books to talk with her first graders about everything from reading identity to the proper care of books in the classroom library.
Helping Aaron Find His Voice as a Writer…and Mine as a Teacher
Erin Ocon tries a new strategy for dealing with a resistant student in her middle school classroom.
Fitness Boot Camp Helps Me Understand Struggling Readers
Franki Sibberson finishes 29th out of 30 participants in her fitness bootcamp mile run. In the process, she learns many lessons about herself and the needs of struggling learners in her classroom.
Discussion Quote Collection
These quotes give you something to talk about if you’re pondering speaking and listening.
Recipe for a Literary Tea
Ruth Shagoury has a recipe for you – a soothing “literary tea” with connections to favorite authors. You can start from her recipe to concoct your own author-themed tea, and we also include links to resources on the web for purchasing the loose tea ingredients.
Rethinking Writing Centers – Winter Follow-Up
Shari Frost questioned the amount of writing going on in many elementary writing centers. She decided to work with a team of literacy coaches and teachers to explore ways to increase writing in classrooms – through better use of centers, or alternative programs. In this follow-up article, Shari presents two different solutions that are working well – one involves introducing writing tools in a more systematic way in centers, and the other is an implementation of a different program entirely for independent work.
Fostering More Curricular Collaboration in Teams: The Meeting Notes Form (TEMPLATE)
Katie Doherty faces daunting challenges as a grade-level team leader in her middle school. A simple notetaking form works wonders in elevating the conversations and collaboration.
Sales Clerks and Literacy Leaders
Franki Sibberson reflects on what makes a perfect salesperson . . .and literacy coach.
Assessing Spelling in Writing Workshops Part 1: Thinking Through the Assessment
Katie DiCesare takes on the challenge of developing a one-page assessment tool to analyze the spelling needs and abilities of each of her 1st graders. This is the first in a series, as Katie takes us through the use of the tool in her workshop.
Nonfiction Books for Independent Reading: Moving Beyond Content Connections (BOOKLIST)
Franki Sibberson explains how she boosted the amount of nonfiction texts her grades 4 and 5 students were choosing for independent reading by focusing more on interest than on content connections.
Warm It Up: Lighting a Classroom for Literacy (PHOTO ESSAY)
Here are a few suggestions and quick tips for a lighting redesign from The Sisters (Joan Moser and Gail Boushey).
Beyond Matt Christopher (BOOKLIST)
Franki Sibberson finds many boys who are reluctant readers love the sports novels of Matt Christopher. So what is the logical next author or genre for these boys to keep them reading voraciously?
Literary Nonfiction: Models for Writing
Literary nonfiction is emerging as a popular genre. In this booklist, Franki Sibberson shares mentor texts for writing literary nonfiction.
Whatever Happened to Mrs. Wishy Washy?
Shari Frost notices a neglected tub of big books, and goes on the hunt for shared reading practices among teachers and literacy coaches.
Middle School Readers at Mid-Year (SURVEY TEMPLATE)
Katie Doherty finds surveys of student reading habits and preferences are really useful in the winter, after she knows her students and they’ve settled into a routine.
Weekend Headlines: Whole Class Share
In this final installment of a three-part video series, Katie Doherty and her sixth-grade students continue the Weekend Headlines activity. In this installment, students share their writing with the whole class and respond.
Books That Touch the Heart
Is it ever alright for a teacher to cry when reading aloud? Shari Frost and her colleagues select their favorite tearjerker read alouds, and what they’ve learned from sharing them with students.
Notetaking Series, Part IV: What Counts and Writing the Unwritable
Here are some strategies for getting out of notetaking ruts.
Memorable Moments: Two Quick-Write Closure Activities for End-of-the-Year Study Groups and Staff Meetings (TEMPLATES)
Here are two quick and reflective activities for closure at the end of the year.
Got Space?
Jennifer Allen gets creative with space for displays in her literacy coaching work.
Making Predictions and Finding Evidence in Text
In this video from a fifth-grade small group, Clare Landrigan talks with students about making predictions and finding evidence in text.
Helping Struggling Writers
How can we help students who are stuck when it comes time to write? Franki Sibberson shares a couple new strategies, including a book basket of texts selected by students themselves as useful for sparking writing topics in this photo essay.
Writers on Revision Quote Collection
Our quote collection on revision has many choice quotes for launching study group or class discussions.
Preparing Students for Summer Reading
Franki Sibberson has some great suggestions for jumpstarting students’ summer reading. These ideas work if you are in the last week or two of school, or if you are just beginning a summer enrichment reading program with kids.
Becoming More Purposeful with Writing Share
In this whole-class writing-share session from Katie DiCesare’s first-grade classroom, Katie talks about how she has become more purposeful in connecting student drafts with the minilesson from the start of the writing workshop.
Browse Content By
Type
Category
- Assessment Tools
- Big Fresh Archives
- Booklists
- Choice Numeracy
- Classroom Design
- Common Core
- Community Building
- Conferring
- Content Literacy
- Digital Literacy
- English Language Learners
- Equity
- Family Relations
- Free Samples
- Guiding Groups
- Leadership
- Literacy Coaches
- Mentor Texts
- Minilessons
- New Teacher Mentors
- Podcasts
- Poetry
- Quote Collections
- Reading Strategies
- Self Care
- Struggling and Striving Learners
- Talking and Listening
- Teacher Study Groups
- Teaching Reading
- Teaching Writing
- Word Study and Vocabulary
Author
- Melissa Quimby
- Nawal Qarooni
- Gwen Blumberg
- Julie Cox
- The Lead Learners
- Hannah Tills
- Josie Stewart
- Ruth Metcalfe
- Mallory Messenger
- Becca Burk
- Jodie Bailey
- Vivian Chen
- Mary Brower
- Tiffany Abbott Fuller
- Stephanie Affinito
- Ruth Ayres
- Leigh Anne Eck
- Heather Fisher
- Shari Frost
- Julie Johnson
- Suzy Kaback
- Gigi McAllister
- Shirl McPhillips
- Melanie Meehan
- Cathy Mere
- Debbie Miller
- Tara Barnett and Kate Mills
- Tammy Mulligan
- Dana Murphy
- Bitsy Parks
- David Pittman
- Brenda Power
- Heather Rader
- Matt Renwick
- Mandy Robek
- Christy Rush-Levine
- Gretchen Schroeder
- Jen Schwanke
- Brian Sepe
- Katherine Sokolowski
- Stella Villalba
- Jennifer Vincent
Grade Level
Choice Literacy Membership
Articles
Get full access to all Choice Literacy article content
Videos
Get full access to all Choice Literacy video content
Courses
Access Choice Literacy course curriculum and training
