Katherine Sokolowski discovers a seven-day Mock Caldecott unit is a fun way to build a reading community by predicting the winners, and Skyping with another class to share results.
With the Common Core emphasis on nonfiction, teachers are striving to integrate more nonfiction texts throughout their literacy workshops. Franki Sibberson shares her favorite nonfiction texts that can be read cover to cover.
As Heather Rader works with teachers and teams on opinion/argumentative writing, she’s considering the anatomy of an argument and engaging ways to teach it.
Aimee Buckner finds that teaching the rule of three to young writers adds variety to student texts.
Melissa Styger invites colleagues and family members into the classroom to share their writing process with students.
Franki Sibberson previews a read aloud with her grades 3 and 4 students.
Amanda Adrian continues her series on how teachers can scaffold and model peer conferring. In this installment, Amanda uses the fishbowl technique with students.
Ann Williams shares how she builds a love of poetry in her fourth-grade classroom all year long.
Personal narratives are an important part of the Common Core in 4th grade. Franki Sibberson shares a booklist of some of her favorite mentor texts for teaching narratives in the intermediate grades.
Amanda Adrian provides a framework, sample model lesson, and peer conferring guide for students to use as they learn how to respond to their classmates.
Heather Rader gives examples of convention conferences in this final installment of the conventions series.
Heather Rader works with a team of intermediate teachers as they connect their plans for conventions instruction and the Common Core.
Teachers are always on the hunt for something new, even as we cherish what works well year after year. Franki Sibberson lists the activities that have stood the test of time in her classroom.
Heather Rader works with a team of intermediate teachers as they pore over student work together and analyze which conventions should be taught.
Franki Sibberson's latest Common Core booklist includes texts to help students master chronology in nonfiction.
Are your book displays enticing to the boys in your classroom? Tony Keefer has suggestions for making classroom libraries more appealing.
Shari Frost explains how interactive read alouds are the “kickboards” of reading instruction, especially for struggling readers. She explains how one teacher used them to support a struggling reader in 3rd grade.
Second grade? Third grade? Aimee Buckner breaks down what behaviors to look for if you’re trying to determine when students are ready to move from draft pages or booklets to writers’ notebooks.
Writers’ Notebooks are an important tool for writers. Ruth Ayres designed a field experience to showcase how elementary teachers use notebooks with young writers.
Compassion and understanding are as important to workshop instruction as strategies and routines. Ruth Ayres compiled a field experience to highlight the way understanding the social-emotional needs of students (and ourselves) allows for safe learning environments.
This field experience invites us to consider a handful of craft moves to teach young writers in minilessons, conferences and share sessions.
Spend time noticing the details that reflect beliefs and influence instruction. Ruth Ayres set up room tours for a field experience focused on more than trendy spaces.
Small group reading instruction is an important part of elementary literacy. This field experience is a sampling of a variety of examples.
The value of picture books with older students is often questioned. Ruth Ayres assembled this field experience to allow insight into the depth and power of picture books for older students.
This field experience invites us to consider the routines of opening the day, workshop norms, meeting areas and transitions to make workshop run smoothly.
Tony Keefer considers some of those awkward early conferences with male readers in his classroom, and shares advice on how to get the year off to a comfortable start with minilesson and conferring suggestions.
Knock knock. Who’s there? A boy who loves sports and has no motivation for reading. Barclay Marcell discovers an unlikely source of engaging text for a child who just doesn’t enjoy books.
Franki Sibberson is on a quest to find the perfect first read aloud of the year, and the search helps her consider the goals and purpose of read alouds during the first days of school.
Franki Sibberson finds a new classroom, the Common Core, and tech considerations are changing the ways she organizes the nonfiction sections of her classroom library.
Beth Lawson explains how she sets up book clubs in her 3rd grade classroom.
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