Minilessons
Keeping it short, relevant, and meaningful is the challenge when it comes to designing lessons. Here is where you'll find practical advice and dozens of video examples of master teachers in action.
Latest Content
Ways into Personal Narratives
Katherine Sokolowski describes some Ways into Personal Narratives that use visual tools to build the home/school connection and stronger prewriting skills.
Understanding Fiction and Nonfiction in First Grade
This is a demonstration lesson in a first-grade classroom on understanding the difference between fiction and nonfiction led by Erin Quealy. It is the first video in a three-part series.
Choices for Paragraphs
Melanie Meehan finds third grade is a good age for helping students develop paragraphing skills.
Second-Grade Minilesson on Paragraphs
Ruth Ayres uses a student text to demonstrate the importance of paragraph breaks in this second-grade minilesson.
Big Idea: First-Grade Lesson
Bitsy Parks introduces her first graders to the concept of theme.
Shared Writing in Kindergarten
Mandy Robek leads a shared writing session in kindergarten.
Giving Students a Notebook Tour
Melanie Meehan finds a notebooks tour is a terrific minilesson for helping students expand the ways they use notebooks.
Organizing Craft Minilessons
Mary Helen Gensch concludes her series on crafting your own minilessons with tips on organizing and storing your plans.
Integrating Short Videos into Minilessons
Katherine Sokolowski gives advice on how to add video to your literacy minilessons.
How to Notice: Mining Children’s Books for Craft Minilessons
This is the second installment in our new series on creating your own writer’s craft minilessons.
Finding Craft Minilessons in the Children’s Books You Love
Mary Helen Gensch explains how to find craft lessons in beloved children’s books. She uses a mentor text with an engaging main character to describe the process. This is the first installment in a three-part series.
Making Space: Entering Lessons Mindfully
Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris explain how to slow down and enter lessons more mindfully. This is the first installment in a three-part series on mindfulness in classrooms.
Introducing Onomatopoeia Minilesson
Christi Overman teaches her second graders about onomatopoeia in a brief minilesson.
Understanding Study: Noticing Pictures
Katie DiCesare’s favorite beginning unit with first graders focuses on illustration.
Endings Minilesson with Second Graders
Cathy Laker uses her own writing as a mentor text with her second-grade students to demonstrate options for endings.
Manipulating Time: Fourth-Grade Writing Minilesson
Tony Keefer uses his writing as a mentor text in this fourth-grade minilesson on manipulating time in personal narratives.
Owl Research Word Study
Andrea Smith leads a whole-class discussion of recording new content vocabulary in reading notebooks.
Expanding the Literacy Classroom with Flipped Minilessons
Katharine Hale tries some flipped minilessons in her fifth-grade classroom and explains how technology is providing new opportunities for student learning.
Word Observations
Max Brand describes how word observations can work as powerful minilessons in elementary classrooms.
Bridge to Comprehension Minilesson
Deb Gaby uses a bridge metaphor in a comprehension minilesson for second graders.
“Article of the Week” Activity in Fourth Grade
Tony Keefer finds that the article-of-the-week activity (adapted from Kelly Gallagher's work) is a good way to integrate short shared texts into his fourth-grade literacy workshop.
Rereading and Retelling to Inferring: Part 2
Linda Karamatic uses texts her second graders already know to build their inferring skills as they construct a chart together.
Exploring Inferring with Second Graders: Part 1
Linda Karamatic uses a read aloud to launch a group activity to build understanding of inferring.
Words Chart Minilesson
Ruth Ayres develops a words chart in this brief minilesson with second graders.
Modeling Annotation in 8th Grade
This video from Katie Baydo-Reed’s eighth-grade classroom is the second part of a series on teaching annotation skills in middle school. A catch-up link to the first video in the series is provided.
Second-Grade Minilesson on Capital Letters
Ruth Ayres presents a minilesson on capital letters to a second-grade class.
Finding Topics in Writer’s Notebooks Minilesson
Sean Moore shares the importance of using a writer’s notebook to discover topics in this minilesson with his second-grade students from early in the year.
Thinking About Theme
Karen Terlecky explains how she designs instruction and uses mentor texts to teach theme, and includes a video example of a minilesson.
Two Lessons for Teaching Theme
Franki Sibberson writes about how she chooses books for theme instruction and shares two lessons.
The Art of the Book Talk
If you want to match students to books, you’ll need to master the art of the book talk. Katherine Sokolowski has practical tips for honing your skills.
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