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Let’s Begin
Gwen Blumberg reflects on the community developed at a writing retreat and encourages teachers to consider the community of learners they will intentionally nourish this school year.
Responding to Dysregulated Behaviors: “What’s a Book?”
When a new student joins Becca Burk’s kindergarten classroom and asks, “What’s a book?” Becca realizes some behaviors are new to even the most veteran teachers. This is the first installment of a four-part series chronicling the responses when a student with dysregulated behaviors joins Becca Burk’s kindergarten class mid-year.
Do I Belong?
Tammy Mulligan considers ways to help students feel and know that they belong in the classroom community. The more we broaden our knowledge of others, and discover more about who we are and what we care about, the more our sense of belonging can grow.
Kindergarten Celebration of Writing
Molly James encourages us to consider ways to make a writing celebration meaningful. You’ll be inspired by her kindergarten writing celebration.
Revisiting: Getting to Know My Students
Mandy Robek decided that despite the increasing pressures and time-consuming expectations, she will nourish healthy relationships with students. Here are some tried-and-true practices that she wants to maintain.
Fostering Reading Lives in the Library
Gigi McAllister fosters engaged reading lives through goal-setting in the library. She shares ways we can encourage all readers to have robust reading lives.
Story Walks
Christy Rush-Levine invites students into a story walk. While many of our school activities require students to sit still and be quiet, story walks with wordless books are a simple way to invite students to move and talk, with powerful outcomes.
Early Writing Opportunities in the Library
Gigi McAllister shares informal writing opportunities for students in the school library. Informal and engaging writing activities where students have lots of choice and encouragement make them feel empowered as writers, help them generalize the writing skills they are learning in the classroom, and create joyful writing experiences.
Tips for Interactive Word Study
Lisa Mazinas offers tips for building fluency in elementary readers.
Eight Tips to Make Virtual Learning Equitable and Accessible for All Students
Lisa Mazinas reminds us of ways to make virtual learning equitable and accessible.
Responding to Appeals for Help
Dana Murphy outlines three options to respond to a student who is stuck when reading and looking to the teacher for the answer. By being mindful when students appeal for help, we can make intentional, on-the-spot decisions to empower students to become better readers.
The Power of Story
Becca Burk reminds us of the power of story and community when she uses a social story to help a kindergartner overcome the fear and anxiety from being forgotten on the bus. Becca shows us how to use a social story to develop confidence to overcome difficulties.
Fostering a Love of Reading in All Students
Lisa Mazinas reminds us of the importance of fostering a love of reading in all students. She offers specific ways to reconnect students with the enjoyment of reading.
Let’s Do It Again, Together
Heather Fisher revisits a whole-school vocabulary routine that she set in motion. In this update, she shares the ways she adjusted to work together as a team rather than fly solo. This might be just the school-wide vocabulary routine you’ve been craving.
Writing About Reading
Mandy Robek is on a quest to make writing about reading feel natural with her elementary students. She shares practical ways to help students change the way they approach writing about reading to lift the level of comprehension and conversation.
Morning Message 5 — Meaning and Content Connections
In this installment of the morning message series, Ruth Metcalfe unlocks a wide range of opportunities to support learning in any content area.
Morning Message 4: Application and Differentiation
The possibilities for differentiation during morning message are almost endless. Ruth Metcalfe highlights ways to meet a wide variety of needs via the morning message.
Morning Message 3: Word Study and Conventions
There is much debate in today’s educational landscape around what and how to teach young readers about print. No matter what your classroom realities are around teaching how sounds, words, and language work, Ruth Metcalfe attests that using a morning message is an engaging way to support word study and conventions.
Morning Message 2: Routine and Community
Ruth Metcalfe reminds us of the power of routines and shows how over the course of time, morning message is an anchor in her first-grade classroom community.
Step Into Poetry: Building a Poetry-Conscious Classroom
Joanne Emery has curated a fabulous list of resources and ideas to build a poetry-conscious classroom community.
Morning Message Series: When and How
It’s not always easy to hold on to effective instructional routines and find ways to embrace new initiatives and mandates. In the first installment of a morning message series, Ruth Metcalfe addresses the issue of time.
When They’re Hard to Teach
Cathy Mere reminds us of the complexities of teaching readers, especially those who are in intervention. She shares the “rules” she’s put in place for herself when a rough patch is hit and little growth is gained.
Reclaiming Our Time
Vivian Chen gives four steps to adjusting a lesson from the teacher’s guide to reclaim your time and make the lesson more meaningful and engaging to students.
Bet You Didn’t Know: Chicken Eggs and Research
Mandy Robek encourages young writers to collect information about a topic. She provides whole-class and individual structures for students to learn that their understanding can change, as well as to be able to access information when they are ready to draft. Don’t miss Mrs. Robek’s digital class book.
Poetry Friday Stretches Into Poetry Slam
Mandy Robek shares an update to her Poetry Friday routine inspired by the professional book Artfully Teaching the Science of Reading by Chase Young, David Page, and Timothy V. Rasinski. You, too, will want to incorporate this poetry routine into your week.
Fostering Math Identities with Picture Books
Mandy Robek uses picture books to help her students build their identities as mathematicians. Mandy shares the process and a booklist.
Developing and Listening to Your Inner Voice During Minilessons
Katie Linder reminds us of the importance of listening to (or ignoring) our own inner voices when delivering whole-group instruction. Katie guides us in using our inner voices to make in-the-moment decisions that sharpen lessons.
The Art of Noticing: Have Your Students Played with Language Today?
Stella Villalba noticed her students were so busy writing quickly, they were not paying attention to crafting language. A student, Gabriela, turns to a book and asks for help to make her writing sound like the book. Stella uses this moment to slow down the class and create space to be inspired to write in beautiful ways.
Leveraging AI in Elementary Literacy
David Pittman offers practical and time-saving tips for using AI to help make instructional plans. Need a rubric or discussion questions? David shows how using AI offers a springboard for creating tools for elementary literacy instruction.
Writing Will Help
Becca Burk’s kindergartners had a tough recess. As they were discussing what they could do differently, one student proclaimed, “Mrs. Burk, writing, writing will help!” Becca shares what unfolded as students made a plan and created signage to post around the playground as reminders for self-control.
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