Franki Sibberson explains how “reflection sheets” work as an assessment tool in her classroom, replacing detailed notes from conferences.
Max Brand considers how rereading helps students understand and enjoy texts.
Aimee Buckner shares three essential "power tools" for writers.
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.
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.
Interviews early in the year are a potent tool for building a class community.
Franki Sibberson works to expand her views of spelling and word work, redefining routines in her grades 3 and 4 classroom.
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.
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.
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.
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills continue their series on independent projects with nuts and bolts advice on management.
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.
Melissa Styger slows down the launch of the classroom library to ensure it is a valuable resource all year.
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.
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.
Mandy Robek set out on a quest to discover new nonfiction books with characters who offer inspiration, compassion, and heart. Here are eight new titles you won’t want to miss.
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.
Melanie Meehan shares activities that help students talk about their characters before writing about them in a realistic fiction unit.
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.
Choice Numeracy | Problem posing is a strategy that involves students creating mathematical problems to solve or reworking given problems to change them in some way. Mallory Messenger shows how this strategy allows students to explore and test their current thinking. Download the Problem Posing with Problem Stems Recording Sheet to get started in your classroom.
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.
Julie Johnson learns some important lessons about connecting with students remotely, and few of them are about technology.
Dana Murphy explains how her small-group planner is an essential tool for organizing groups in her fourth-grade classroom.
Tammy Mulligan knows the most productive and engaging discussions to build reading comprehension are not monopolized by the teacher. She creates a structure to support students to engage in deeper work with each other in small groups. This is the first part of a three-part series.
Aimee Buckner teaches her 4th graders the power of rereading using the mentor text Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville.
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.
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.
Christy Rush-Levine shares a few special shelves in her classroom library.
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.
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