4th

Power Tools

Aimee Buckner shares three essential "power tools" for writers.

Mentor Texts and Teacher Modeling: The Listing Strategy

In this video from her fourth-grade classroom, Aimee Buckner teaches the “listing” strategy, using the book This Is the Tree: A Story of the Baobab as a mentor text. Aimee talks about mentor texts, using her own writing as a model, and the needs of intermediate readers and writers during the lesson and interview.

Common Core Conversations: Increasing Argumentative Writing

Teachers continue to puzzle over and sort through the terminology in the Common Core related to opinion and persuasive writing. Amanda Adrian and Heather Rader consider terms and teaching strategies.

Whole Class Interviews: Building Community in Writing Workshop (TEMPLATE)

Interviews early in the year are a potent tool for building a class community.

Word Study is More Than Spelling

Franki Sibberson works to expand her views of spelling and word work, redefining routines in her grades 3 and 4 classroom.

A Strategy Lesson for “Drive-Thru” Readers

Who is a “drive-thru” reader? One who zips through the start of a book and discards it before finishing, moving  ever more quickly through random books.  Aimee Buckner has some minilesson suggestions for dealing with those students who can’t or won’t finish any books they start.

Gratitude Week

Gigi McAllister shares the tradition of Gratitude Week. It gives students an authentic writing experience that has a ripple effect of spreading joy and gratitude throughout the school. It also shows them the significant impact that their words can have on others. 

Leading with Empathy in the Classroom

Melissa Quimby offers profound advice for what to do when we notice inattention, excessive questioning, frozen learners, or disruptive behaviors. She recommends letting empathy lead our next steps.

Going Deeper with Math Curricular Materials

Mallory Messenger guides us in taking what our district-adopted math curriculum resources provide and planning small changes by using problem stems and student problem posing to increase the rigor and make mathematical experiences accessible for all students. 

Managing Independent Projects (SHORTS)

Tara Barnett and Kate Mills continue their series on independent projects with nuts and bolts advice on management.

Writing as an Act of Resistance and a Source of Strength

In this beautiful personal essay, Stella Villalba reminds us that writing is a source of strength, and developing a community of writers is essential in post-pandemic classrooms.

Launching a Classroom Library 

Melissa Styger slows down the launch of the classroom library to ensure it is a valuable resource all year.

Field Experience: Supporting Independent Reading, Choice and Stamina

Helping students learn to choose books and develop stamina are important to developing independent readers. Ruth Ayres designed a field experience with opportunities to see minilessons, small group instruction, team meetings and a share session that support independence in readers.

Using 9/11 Research to Build Community and Writing Process

Katherine Sokolowski gives space for students to research and share their learning about 9/11 in order to build a community of writers, as well as nourish the research and writing process.

Books That Sustain the Linguistic Lives of Multilingual Learners

We need more bilingual books! Stella Villalba explains why these books are essential and provides a booklist to help sustain the linguistic lives of multilingual learners.

Talking Through Characters

Melanie Meehan shares activities that help students talk about their characters before writing about them in a realistic fiction unit.

The Shades of Sadness: Character Feelings and Traits

Melissa Quimby is disappointed with the way her students expressed depth of character traits and feelings. By building on their strengths, Melissa creates a tool for students to use and adapt as they learn to be more specific and intentional about describing characters.

Lifting the Quality of Peer Response

Tony Keefer discovers that his fourth-grade students need focused instruction and support to strengthen their peer conferring skills. Tony shares tips and two video examples from his classroom.

Connecting with Students at Home

Julie Johnson learns some important lessons about connecting with students remotely, and few of them are about technology.

Forming Groups Using a Planner

Dana Murphy explains how her small-group planner is an essential tool for organizing groups in her fourth-grade classroom.

Discussion and Summary As a Prelude to Fiction Writing

Teaching Rereading During Class Read Alouds

Aimee Buckner teaches her 4th graders the power of rereading using the mentor text Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville.

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.

Overcoming: Helping Students Process Covid Feelings

Julie Cox reminds us that for many students, the loneliness and fear of COVID years clings like smoke, and they don’t always have the language to talk about it. While we have worked hard at helping students reclaim content knowledge, we must also help them express and process feelings they might not know how to recognize.

Quick Take: Special Library Shelves

Christy Rush-Levine shares a few special shelves in her classroom library.

Instructional Routines That Promote Agency for Multilingual Learners

Cultivating agency is a matter of building small, intentional moves that ask students to be part of the learning process. Stella Villalba offers three ways educators can support the growth of multilingual learners in all learning spaces. 

Using Skype in the Classroom

Katherine Sokolowski has suggestions for Skype use in classrooms, covering everything from student etiquette to special events.

A Just-Right Lesson for Just-Right Books

Melissa Styger finds she needs to make changes to her just-right book lesson to meet the needs of her third-grade students.

Organizing Materials to Support Literacy Learning (Classroom Design Series Part 3)

Ann Marie Corgill shares how she organizes materials for literacy learning in the third installment of her design series.

Intentional Consolidation and Closure

Mallory Messenger emphasizes the importance of providing time for students to share their learning and offers different formats for a share session. Mallory guides us in making decisions so that share time consolidates and uplifts the learning.