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Fourth Grade Writing Workshop Minilesson on Focusing

Franki Sibberson shares some tips and strategies with her fourth graders from the web for focusing and organizing their writing.

Building from Strengths: Conferring with Mia

Sean Moore confers with second grader Mia, gently encouraging her to work from her strengths by writing about what she knows well.

Notebooks, Goals, and Writing About Characters in First Grade

Katie DiCesare confers with a group of first graders about their writing notebooks, goals, and drafts about the characters they are studying during reading workshop.

Transition Tool: “Come On Over”

This video is a quick take from Katie DiCesare’s first-grade classroom, showing how she uses the tune “Come On Over” as a transition tool.

First Grade Read Aloud: Sergio Saves the Game

Katie DiCesare reads aloud Sergio Saves the Day to her first graders as part of a unit on understanding literary characters.

Whole Group Writing Share

Franki Sibberson’s fourth graders use the whole-class writing share time to discuss writing series they are working on (including blog interviews and book reviews), with an eye toward collaborating with classmates.

Adding to a Word Wall in Kindergarten

Mandy Robek introduces a new word to her kindergartners for their word wall.

Conferring with Ben

Franki Sibberson confers with Ben, a fourth-grade writer trying to figure out the best audience for his writing when technology presents many options.

Decoding and Meaning: Conferring in 4th Grade

Tony Keefer confers with Amanda, a fourth grader who comprehends texts well, but struggles at times with fluency, decoding, and book selection.

Conferring with Pierce

Franki Sibberson demonstrates how much ground can be covered in a three-minute conference with a student. She helps fourth grader Pierce think through the audience for his writing, how to add visuals to blog posts, and enlists him to teach others new skills as he acquires them.

First Grade Conference: Beginnings and Endings in Nonfiction

Katie DiCesare helps first grader Ava craft beginnings and endings for her nonfiction writing.

Teaching Syllable Breaks in Kindergarten

In kindergarten, table groups are a natural and informal way to help groups of students learn new skills through eavesdropping. In this short video from Mandy Robek's kindergarten class, Mandy targets the same skill of defining syllables during individual conferences at the table so that the learning is reinforced for all.

Nonfiction Reading Group in First Grade

Katie DiCesare brings together a group of her first-grade students who are reading nonfiction, helping them to expand the ways they share what they are learning with classmates.

Assessment to Grouping: Fifth-Grade Group on Character Traits

Karen Terlecky meets with two fifth graders who both share the same need identified on a recent formative assessment, inferring character traits.

Rehearsing Informational Writing: Conferring with Jocelyn

Stella Villalba confers with first grader Jocelyn about the information text she is writing about bunnies. Jocelyn is an English language learner, and this conference demonstrates the value of oral rehearsal for young ELL writers.

Exploring Rick Riordan Books in an 8th Grade Conference

In this video from Katie Baydo-Reed’s 8th grade classroom, Katie confers a student about his favorite Rick Riordan books and his plans for future reading.

The Lunch Lady and Gender in Reading

Franki Sibberson has her students read a blog post about books written for boys and girls, which begins a fascinating discussion with the class about gender in reading choices.

Guidance and Choice in a Fifth-Grade Conference

Karen Terlecky confers with fifth grader Jillian the day after she has selected two books Jillian might enjoy reading during workshop.

Kindergarten I-Pick Minilesson

It’s never too early to help students learn to make wise choices for independent reading. Mandy Robek reviews the I-Pick strategy for choosing appropriate books with her kindergarten students.

Every Picture Tells a Story

Max Brand describes how he uses images to build reading and writing skills among his kindergartners.

Teacher-as-Writing-Model Minilesson in Fourth Grade

Beth Lawson models her process as a writer for her fourth-grade students, describing her emotions as well as creating a draft.

Poetry and Fluency Minilesson in Second Grade

Sean Moore uses the poem “The Busy Ant” for partner work and discussion of fluency and vocabulary with his second graders.

Science Challenge

Franki Sibberson’s fourth-grade students share results from the weekly science challenge.

Getting More from Wonderopolis

Franki Sibberson uses Wonderopolis with her 4th grade students, helping them learn to research and dig more deeply at the site.

Letter Practice Transition in Kindergarten

Mandy Robek “warms up” her kindergartners brains for literacy work with a simple one-minute alphabet activity.

Transitioning to an E-Book Reader in Eighth Grade

Katie Baydo-Reed works with Mike, an eighth grader who is using an ebook reader for the first time.

Shared Reading to Explore Writer’s Craft in First Grade

Katie DiCesare’s first graders reread a favorite text in pairs to work on noticing the details of writer’s craft.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Reading and Community in Kindergarten

Mandy Robek leads her kindergartners in a shared reading and performance of the classic tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Introducing Annotation in Eighth Grade

Katie Baydo-Reed introduces the concept of annotating text to her eighth-grade students.

Shared Reading and Annotation in 6th Grade

Gretchen Taylor explains how she uses that old chestnut The Outsiders with her sixth graders for shared reading and to build skills in annotating text. The article includes a video example of a small group.

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