Vivian Chen offers useful tips for seasoned and new teachers when it comes to helping students engage in a turn-and-talk.
Patty McGee pays attention to how students work as writers to find the teaching points for how to learn to work as writing partners.
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills share a process for empowering students to be teachers in partnerships and small-group instruction.
Mallory Messenger shares ways Choral Counting provides an opportunity for students to share ideas orally, process language and numbers, and bring out vocabulary within the context of looking for patterns.
Heather Fisher considers the research behind gamified experiences and applies it to a lengthy first-grade phonics assessment. Heather challenges us to gamify assessments to maintain the integrity of the assessment while increasing student engagement.
Dana Murphy comes to a lesson about asking questions in a curriculum resource and realizes it is not what her students need. She has designed a lesson to make asking questions more meaningful and useful for her students.
Mallory Messenger shares the intentional moves needed to help students build independence in problem solving.
Leigh Anne Eck was named the Indiana Rural Teacher of the Year and shares the way she rethought her library through the lens of reflecting her students’ rural identity or revealing rural stereotypes. This middle-grade booklist is an excellent place for us all to begin expanding our classroom libraries.
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills share a practical process for using an informational mentor text to support students as readers and writers. Download a note sheet to support students in noticing text structure.
Dana Murphy shares a whole class conversation about identifying the climax of the plot. She reminds us that defining story elements is not always clear-cut.
Jodie Bailey provides a structure to give students more time to think through ideas and problems. By using this practice, students gain ownership for their learning.
Dana Murphy reminds us of the power of an anchor chart in a digital world.
Mallory Messenger shares a routine for hearing student conjectures (in math and other subjects) and a process for giving time for the class to prove or disprove the claims. Download a Conjecture—Prove or Disprove Recording Sheet to collect student conjectures in your classroom.
David Pittman offers practical ways to place student voices first in classrooms in order for their passions, interests, and identities to influence our teaching.
Gretchen Schroeder finds ways to increase the energy students have for doing work in her classroom. Her practical tips are useful for all students.
Jodie Bailey shares a powerful practice of math debates for students to explore a problem with discussion and evidence to discover the correct solution.
Dana Murphy shares ways to make reading intervention a high-interest time for students.
Tammy Mulligan leads us through the process of giving primary students the reins for building and organizing the classroom library . . . and offers tips for navigating the tricky parts.
Dana Murphy shares ways to nourish a sense of belonging in all students.
Mandy Robek reflects on the importance of knowing genres and empowering students to be part of the organization process of the classroom library.
Lisa Mazinas reminds us of the importance of independent reading and how to set it in motion.
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills remind us of the important opportunities offered during book shopping. Giving yourself permission to slow down and see the opportunities that the routines invite for collaboration and reflection will likely make it feel like you’re maximizing your minutes even more.
Bitsy Parks shares the inspiration and practical ways she celebrates and honors holidays from many cultures in her classroom.
Dana Murphy shares that by asking “What matters most?” she can make decisions that allow her literacy instruction to be student-centered and authentic.
Mandy Robek outlines the process for creating a class Emotional Intelligence Charter. She includes a booklist to help students expand their vocabulary of different emotions.
Melissa Quimby shares a booklist that offers comforting characters to befriend in times of grief. This is a staple for all classrooms.
Cathy Mere offers a booklist in response to a teacher’s response to “Bring me something funny.” These books are sure to fill your classroom with lighthearted laughter.
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills share three ways using The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad empowers and strengthens readers in all grades.
Dana Murphy leads us in a step-by-step process to take tried-and-true reading strategies to a more sophisticated level to support students as they grow in interpretation.
Stephanie Affinito guides us to carefully curate text sets so that not only are they suited to students’ interests, but students are guided through the sequence of reading them. There’s no better way to launch students’ curiosity and reading motivation!
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