It's one of the big paradoxes of literacy instruction - students best learn how to read and write independently when they have a strong community of support in classrooms. How teachers build those thoughtful, kind, and challenging classroom communities is explained in these resources.
Stella Villalba outlines three ways to cultivate a community for students beyond the classroom walls. There is comfort for teachers and students in knowing that a larger community is rooting for them.
Cathy Mere presses to help children take the first steps in growing a sustainable reading life that carries beyond the classroom walls. She offers ways to build bridges to the school and public libraries as an essential step.
Shari Frost shares ways teachers can show that they “see” and appreciate each student every single day.
Julie Johnson reflects on how to help students know they belong and are valued in a classroom community.
Stella Villalba widens our perspective by sharing the link between art and literacy with suggested picture books to help build the bridge.
Bitsy Parks offers key end-of-the year activities that allow students to reflect and notice their identities, growth, and community as readers and writers.
Melanie Quinn shares a fun activity to help current students share advice for next year’s class.
Dana Murphy outlines the teaching practices that she learned from remote teaching and plans to carry with her upon returning to a physical classroom.
Mandy Robek adjusts her mindset of preparing her classroom according to COVID guidelines and discovers an open heart and mind as she prepares a “minimalist classroom.”
Shari Frost shares her favorite graphic novel adaptations for the middle grades.
Bitsy Parks shares the ways in which class books help students work as readers and writers, as well as build a community.
Christy Rush-Levine faces the challenge of helping her students see summary writing not as drudgery, but as a way to build more sophisticated thinking around texts.
Matt Renwick explores ways in which whole-class conversations around one text can build a strong community as understanding is co-constructed.
Melissa Quimby shares online routines to strengthen the class reading community.
Suzy Kaback thinks deeply about the concept of belonging as an essential part of building a school community.
Christy Rush-Levine considers how to communicate to all students that their presence and their identities are valued and appreciated.
Gretchen Schroeder’s high school students build community by creating a shared text of things they love.
Matt Renwick shares creative ways teachers in his school celebrate authors.
Mark Levine finds humor is the “secret sauce” in engaging middle school students and including introverts in the classroom community.
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills share everything from useful prompts to the best tech tools for moving interactive read alouds to digital platforms during remote instruction.
Shari Frost finds that the issues students may be dealing with in some children’s books can be overwhelming. She shares some of her favorite books for grappling with one troubling topic at a time.
What makes choice authentic in literacy workshops? Christy Rush-Levine grapples with this tough question that leads to changes in her instruction.
Bitsy Parks shares how she and her first-grade students used photography to bridge the distance between home and school this spring, learning lessons she is using this fall in remote learning contexts.
Christy Rush-Levine discovers that a move to digital feedback reveals many important truths about her middle school students, including insights about the effect of grades on how learners view response to their work.
Suzy Kaback works with students to create a “fact or fiction” class book to explore the boundaries between truth and fantasy.
Bitsy Parks finds even the dreariest days in her first-grade classroom are infinitely more enjoyable because she’s built in routines for expressing gratitude.
Christy Rush-Levine lowers the tension level in her class over management issues by moving from irritation to curiosity, using her “inner chimpanzee” voice.
Suzy Kaback reminds us that the language we use to talk about challenging students shapes our perceptions of them. That’s why she has moved to calling students “small teachers.”
Bitsy Parks shares how she builds a learning community with displays and traditions that celebrate families.
Get full access to all Choice Literacy article content
Get full access to all Choice Literacy video content
Access Choice Literacy course curriculum and training