Teaching Reading
Our contributors lead reading workshops in classrooms with creative flair. Over the past 12 years, we've filled our site with loads of suggestions, tools, and tips for using engaging books throughout the curriculum to hook kids on reading. Here is where you will find many stories of successful and not-so-successful workshop days, and what we learned from them. We bring these stories to life through hundreds of video examples.
Latest Content
Decoding and Meaning: Conferring in 4th Grade
Tony Keefer confers with Amanda, a fourth grader who comprehends texts well, but struggles at times with fluency, decoding, and book selection.
Literacy in the Music Room: A Sequence of Lessons
Jennifer Schwanke describes the work of a music teacher who integrates literacy learning into her curriculum.
Recommendations for Summer Reading Fun: Classic Books for Early Readers
Meghan Rose and Ruth Shagoury have written a series of booklists for early readers, perfect for sharing with parents looking for suggestions. The first installment tackles the classic books many of us cherish from our own childhood days.
The Cure for Senioritis? Poetry!
There may be a group of students somewhere less eager to learn than a class of high school seniors during the last weeks of school, but that group would be as tough to find as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster. Gretchen Schroeder discovers a surprising cure for senioritis —modern poetry.
Staying Connected with Students All Summer Long
Cathy Mere explains how she uses technology to stay in touch with students and families over the summer.
Conferring with Pierce
Franki Sibberson demonstrates how much ground can be covered in a three-minute conference with a student. She helps fourth grader Pierce think through the audience for his writing, how to add visuals to blog posts, and enlists him to teach others new skills as he acquires them.
13 Ways to Raise Students Who Hate Research
Chris Lehman has tongue-in-cheek suggestions for helping students learn to hate the research process.
What Can Charlie Do?: The Value of Response Journals in Preschool Classrooms
Kelly Petrin shares the power of response journals with preschoolers.
Independent Reading By the Numbers Is NOT Text Complexity
How do you guide students to select books for independent summer reading? Aimee Buckner challenges teachers who are requiring middle students to pick books based solely on Lexile scores.
Death in Books: Finding Our Way After Loss
Books can help children deal with the toughest challenges in life. In a new booklist, Andie Cunningham shares her top picks for stories about characters grappling with the death of a loved one.
Grouping Struggling Students for Word Study: A Case Study
Shari Frost considers the “go-to” instructional strategy for struggling readers, word study, and explores how to make it work well in a case study of a third-grade group.
Nonfiction Reading Group in First Grade
Katie DiCesare brings together a group of her first-grade students who are reading nonfiction, helping them to expand the ways they share what they are learning with classmates.
Assessment to Grouping: Fifth-Grade Group on Character Traits
Karen Terlecky meets with two fifth graders who both share the same need identified on a recent formative assessment, inferring character traits.
Madness, the Spring Slump, and High School Readers
Are your adolescent readers present in body but not necessarily in spirit by springtime? We've featured the "book madness" bracket activity in the past for elementary students. Gretchen Schroeder finds the ranking, competition, and passionate discussion about favorite books is just what her high school students need to get their heads back in the reading game.
Our Favorite Online Reading and Writing Tools Round-Up (Part 2)
Choice Literacy contributors share favorite online tools. This is the second installment in a two-part series.
Subheading Literacy: Nothing “Sub” About It
Heather Rader discovers subheadings are a neglected but useful tool for teaching students about key topics in their writing.
They Can Sing and Define It, But Can They Use It?
Melissa Styger rethinks the way she teaches reading strategies, emphasizing putting them to use over defining them.
Exploring Rick Riordan Books in an 8th Grade Conference
In this video from Katie Baydo-Reed’s 8th grade classroom, Katie confers a student about his favorite Rick Riordan books and his plans for future reading.
Cooking Up Interest in Words with Fifth Graders
Maria Caplin continues her series on sparking vocabulary learning, this time highlighting fun activities.
The Lunch Lady and Gender in Reading
Franki Sibberson has her students read a blog post about books written for boys and girls, which begins a fascinating discussion with the class about gender in reading choices.
Three Ways to Build Purpose in a Preschool Reading Workshop
Melissa Kolb finds her three- and four-year-old students are ready for more focus during reading time.
Shared Reading in the Intermediate Grades
Shari Frost explains why shared reading is valuable for older students, with examples of the practice in the intermediate grades.
Kindergarten I-Pick Minilesson
It’s never too early to help students learn to make wise choices for independent reading. Mandy Robek reviews the I-Pick strategy for choosing appropriate books with her kindergarten students.
Assessing Learning During Student-Led Book Clubs
When middle school students have choice and independence in book clubs they lead themselves, how do you assess their learning and thinking? Katie Doherty provides a variety of question prompts she uses with groups to spark reflection on learning.
10 Principles for Planning Reading Minilessons
Franki Sibberson shares 10 principles for minilesson planning. This is an excerpt from her new book, The Joy of Planning.
Guidance and Choice in a Fifth-Grade Conference
Karen Terlecky confers with fifth grader Jillian the day after she has selected two books Jillian might enjoy reading during workshop.
Understanding the Middle East Through Children’s Literature (BOOKLIST)
Sheiks, harems, and terrorists — the stereotypes of the middle east from popular culture may not be realistic, but they sure are pervasive. Ruth Shagoury and Andie Cunningham find authentic alternative views to present to children in their new booklist.
Every Picture Tells a Story
Max Brand describes how he uses images to build reading and writing skills among his kindergartners.
Research IS the Project (Primary Research Series)
Heather Rader blurs the line between research and presentation in the final installment of the primary research series.
Embracing the Growth Mindset with Audiobooks
Jennifer Vincent explains how recorded texts were a potent tool for reaching a struggling fourth-grade reader.
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