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Literacy Keepsakes to Carry Home at the End of the School Year
Choice Literacy readers share their favorite gifts for students to make and take home at the end of the year.
More Literacy Keepsakes to Carry Home at the End of the School Year
Choice Literacy readers share more of their favorite end-of-year gifts for students to make and take home.
Beginning with the End in Mind: Planning Ahead for Closing Activities
Choice Literacy readers share their favorite end-of-year activities that circle back to events from the start of the school year.
Pencil Plans
The care and use of the lowly pencil in classrooms says a lot about what we value and our relationships with students.
Read Alouds for the First Day of School
Choice Literacy readers share their favorite read alouds for the start of the year.
Revising Titles Minilesson
In this minilesson from Franki Sibberson’s grades 3 and 4 classroom, Franki takes students through the process of selecting and revising titles. She uses the poem “Confessions of a Reader” by Carol Wilcox as a mentor text.
Science Writing Workshop Part 1
How can teachers connect the principles of writer’s workshop with science explorations? In this first of a three-part video series, Jennifer Morgan leads her 3rd and 4th students through the process of observing, talking, and writing in their science journals as they perform an experiment. In Part I, she presents the task to students and connects it with previous learning.
Injecting Writing into Everything: Prediction Stories
What happens between kindergarten and upper elementary grades to make students more hesitant about making predictions? Heather Rader has books and teaching suggestions for building prediction skills.
Science Writing: Small Groups
In this second video in a three-part series, Jennifer Morgan leads her grades 3 and 4 students as they work together in small groups on a science and writing task.
Book Matchmaker: New Books for Intermediate Readers
From humor to novels in verse, Franki Sibberson shares her top picks for intermediate readers in this Book Matchmaker.
Science Workshop Whole Class Debrief
In this final video in a three-part series, Jennifer Morgan discusses what was learned during a science observation and writing activity in her grades 3 and 4 classroom.
Book Matchmaker: Teaching Inferring to Intermediate Students
In this installment of Book Matchmaker, Franki Sibberson discusses the challenges of finding a range of books to teach the concept of inferring to grades 3-5 students.
Content Connections in Reading Workshop
In this four-minute video, Andrea Smith confers with a 4th grade student interested in immigration, helping her set up an independent reading and learning plan.
Book Matchmaker: Characters Across the Grades
In this installment of Book Matchmaker, Franki Sibberson provides a range of books for teaching character development in fiction for grades 3-5 students.
What Velcro Can Do: Science, Literacy and Coaching Connections
No time for science? Don’t like messes? Heather Rader works with a teacher and helps her find a way to fit science neatly into her full teaching day.
Book Matchmaker: Teaching Point of View
In this installment of Book Matchmaker, Franki Sibberson provides a range of books for teaching point of view for grades 3-5 students.
Making Connections as a Reader and a Scientist
Heather Rader finds that reading is at the heart of scientists’ work.
Parent Contributions Beyond Instructional Support
Parents want to contribute, but not all contributions are welcome or even helpful when it comes to teaching children how to read and write. Trish Prentice has suggestions for making the most of family skills and willingness to help.
Rethinking the Study of Nonfiction in the 21st Century
Franki Sibberson reflects on her nonfiction writing unit, and realizes she emphasizes research skills at the expense of the craft of nonfiction writing. She explains how she revamps the unit to help students focus more on writer's craft in nonfiction texts, including some new mentor texts and different ways of using writer's notebooks.
Quick Take: Selecting Mentor Texts for Writing Instruction
In this two-minute video, Aimee Buckner explains how she selects mentor texts for writing, as well as the importance of using writing by students and teachers in lessons.
Using Picture Books to Teach Theme in Grades 3-6
Many students in the upper elementary and middle school grades shun all picture books, yet they are an invaluable resource for teaching sophisticated literacy concepts. Franki Sibberson explains how to teach the concept of theme using picture books in this booklist.
Infographics and Lists in Science Notebooks
Science notebooks are a wonderful tool for building outdoor observation and writing skills. Andrea Smith explains how writing in the notebooks leads students to explore different nonfiction text features like infographics and lists.
Writing Do-Overs: ERPs in the Classroom
ERP. The sound can't help but make you grin. It's Heather Rader's acronym for Explicit Revision for Peers, a series of one-minute kinesthetic writing routines to help students learn how to help each other kindly during writer's workshop.
The Power of Wonder Questions
Andrea Smith writes about how she uses wonder questions in her science curiculum.
Using Student Conferences to Build Book Choice Skills
Franki Sibberson provides focus questions and a template to help choose books with students for independent reading.
New Notebook Essentials
We’ve all had the experience of reading a professional book and disagreeing with some of the ideas from the author. It’s just a little more surreal when you wrote the book! Aimee Buckner participates in her school’s study group reading of Notebook Know-How
A Sponge is a Summary
Heather Rader shares a concrete analogy that students (and teachers) love for understanding how summaries work.
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.
Character Study in Grades 3-6
A character study unit is a terrific choice early in the school year, since it taps into students' reading histories and favorites from years past. Franki Sibberson has suggestions of books and questions for use in read-alouds.
Ecstatic: When Words Shape Thinking
Carol Wilcox prepares her struggling intermediate readers for state exams, and finally experiences a breakthrough in linking vocabulary learning to authentic reading.
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