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Book Basket Idea: Cars and Trucks

Katie DiCesare remembers books that were fought over among the boys in her 1st grade classroom, and this leads to creating a new basket for the fall on cars and trucks.  She shares a booklist of fun titles in the basket.

Challenging Advanced Young Readers: Harder Texts Aren’t Always the Answer

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan discuss the concept of “challenge” in considering what texts are the best fit for advanced young readers who might be able to decode any text but don’t yet have the experiences needed to tackle sophisticated concepts.

How Do We Talk with Parents About What It Means to Be Challenged in Reading?

Discussions with parents of precocious young readers can be tricky. Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan have some tips for these conferences.

Sarcasm Is a Useful Teaching Tool — NOT

How does sarcasm hurt students? Heather Rader counts the ways.

Getting and Giving Student Feedback

How can we help students be more reflective in our classrooms, giving us the feedback we need to make them better places for learning? Heather Rader has suggestions.

Books for Strategy Studies

Andie Cunningham has some thoughtful recommendations for books to use in strategy studies.

Countdown: Keeping Children at the Center of My Plans for the New Year

Cathy Mere reminds us that the excitement of facing new students is always tempered and enriched by the lessons from last year’s students that we carry with us.

Bilingual (English/Spanish) Books that Celebrate Language, Family and Culture

Stella Villalba shares her favorite bilingual (English/Spanish) books for helping young English language learners feel at home in new classrooms early in the year.

Accurate But Not Quite Fluent: Books for Second-Grade Readers in Transition

Many second-grade readers are in transition – they can decode almost any text and are eager to read chapter books.  Yet many don't have the stamina for reading even very short chapter books on their own. Katie DiCesare presents a booklist of her top picks of new fiction and nonfiction books that might engage and challenge her second-grade students.

Understanding Students in Intervention Programs

Using data to make wise decisions about students who are struggling is one of the most important tasks in schools. In this series, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan take you through the process of linking data to instruction plans in intervention programs.

Getting the Most Out of Picture Books

If you are a fan of Mo Willems’ picture books (and who isn’t?), you’ll enjoy Katie DiCesare’s ideas for integrating his popular stories throughout the literacy curriculum. From read-alouds to mentor texts, these books are wonderful tools for engaging students.

Just Because It’s Skinny, Doesn’t Mean It’s Easy: Matching Books to Transitional Readers in Grades 2-4

Franki Sibberson writes about her evolution in choosing books for transitional readers in grades 2-4. Franki includes a handy list of criteria for evaluating whether new short chapter books are appropriate for young readers.

Books We Love: Building a Reading Community

Katie DiCesare talks about how her first graders closed out the year with a sequence of activities analyzing their favorite books individually and as a community.

If You Like Captain Underpants: Related Books for Students (BOOKLIST)

Franki Sibberson has suggestions for sustaining the interest of kids who love silly and gross fun in this booklist.

Books for Phonics Instruction – Accomplishing More Than Just Sounding Out Words

Shari Frost finds herself appalled at some of the "books" children are reading in the name of phonics instruction, so she sets out to create a booklist of high quality children's literature that does more than just help children sound out words.

Overcoming Tears and Fears: Developing Criteria for Flexible Groups

Katie DiCesare comforts a student in tears at the end of the day, and realizes part of the problem may be that she moved the child into a guided writing group too quickly.

New Versions of Old Favorites (BOOKLIST)

Recently there has been less interest in retelling of classic tales by children’s book authors. Franki Sibberson’s booklist highlights some of the best new twists on favorite children’s stories.

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.

Wide Open Spaces: Learning from “Not-Just-Right” Books

When is it okay for a child to read a "not-just-right" book, especially one with themes that might be a bit sophisticated or of questionable taste? Andrea Smith confronts this issue as a parent, and thinks through what it might mean for her teaching.

Step by Step: Integrating Nonfiction into Primary Classroom Instruction

Nonfiction texts require different reading skills than fiction, and you can’t introduce nonfiction genres to children too early. Katie DiCesare shares how she moves between whole-class, small-group, and individual instruction to help all her first graders master the text features in nonfiction.

Characters We Love (BOOKLIST)

Nothing hooks kids on books more than a favorite character. Franki Sibberson presents some series books with intriguing characters that will delight your students.

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.

Assessing Spelling in Writing Workshop Part 2: Noticing Patterns in Individuals, Small Groups and the Whole Group

Katie DiCesare took on the challenge of developing a one-page assessment tool to analyze the spelling needs and abilities of each of her 1st graders. In the second of her three-part series, Katie shows how she translates the findings from individual students into instructional plans.

Assessing Spelling in Writing Workshop Part 3: Embedding Instruction

In the last installment of this three-part series, Katie DiCesare shows how she translates the findings from individual students into instructional plans when she uses a spelling assessment in her 1st grade classroom.

Picking a Partner: Demonstration Lesson and Debrief

In this demonstration lesson from a K-2 classroom, Joan Moser leads students through guided practice in picking a partner.

Conferring with Colin

In this reading conference with Colin, Joan Moser (of “The Sisters”) helps him set a goal of working on accuracy.

Student Reading Interview: Assessing Ana Part 2

This is the second video in a two-part series. Principal Karen Szymusiak interviewed Ana, a second grader, to learn more about her strengths and needs as a reader. In this week’s installment, Karen will share her findings with Ana’s teacher.

Organizing for Independence: From Cubbies to Social Groups

In this brief video, Joan Moser talks about how she organizes student materials in "social groups" to avoid the use of desks or cubbies in her classroom.

Big Books and Charts Organizer

In this two-minute video, Joan Moser shares a simple tool teachers can create for their classrooms to keep Big Books, charts, and laminated large materials organized.

Talking About Synthesis: Metaphors from 2nd Graders

In this remarkable discussion, Lauren Scott's second-grade students chat with their teacher and Principal Karen Szymusiak about metaphors for synthesis.

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