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
The Five-Minute Solution: Mini-Groups after Minilessons to Maximize Conferring Time
Aimee’ Buckner’s mini-groups are an easy and simple way to differentiate instruction in workshops, and save time when conferring.
Getting Started with Sentence Observations
Karen Terlecky details the assessments and preparation that goes into the design of her sentence observation program.
Connecting Read Alouds and the Literacy Curriculum at the Start of the School Year
Here are some ways to link read alouds with learning across the curriculum at the start of the year, suggested by Choice Literacy readers.
Book Matchmaker: Texts for Young English Language Learners
Franki Sibberson shares some of her favorite new titles for young English language learners.
Fluency in Focus: Conferring with Jake
Gail Boushey confers with Jake, a seven-year-old who is setting a reading goal of developing fluency. After the conference, she debriefs with Joan Moser.
I Can’t Quite Put My Finger On It
Have you ever had a teacher enthusiastically embrace a new “magic bullet” instructional program that includes scripted or rote elements that concern you? Melanie Quinn considers this sticky situation instructional coaches sometimes find themselves in, and comes up with some starting points for conversations with colleagues.
Middle School Book Clubs in Action
Katie Doherty talks about the links between strategy lessons and book club work in her 6th grade classroom. Katie also sits in on a book club discussion.
Book Matchmaker: “Cool” Books for a Struggling Second Grader
Franki Sibberson selects some “cool” books for a struggling reader who wants to fit in with his 2nd grade peers.
The Sponge Summary Lesson Part 5
In this sequence of videos, Heather teaches a 4th grade class, using the analogy of a sponge to explain how summaries work. In this fifth video, Heather and students shift from “I do” to “we do” as students try test their summary writing skills with partners
Tried and True Trumps Shiny and New
Amanda Adrian explains why running records are still an essential tool in any teacher’s assessment arsenal. She also includes links to web resources for honing your running record skills if they are a bit rusty.
Words and Images: Mentor Texts for Second Grade Boys
In this conference with two of her second-grade students, Linda Karamatic shares mentor texts and tips to help them with their writing. Both boys are writing stories with strong visual components.
The Sponge Summary Lesson Part 6
In this sequence of videos, Heather teaches a 4th grade class, using the analogy of a sponge to explain how summaries work. In this final video, Heather and students debrief and capture their learning in writing.
Conferring with Tweens: Boys and Series Books
In this conference from a 6th grade classroom, Katie Doherty confers with a boy who is reading a book from a series she is unfamiliar with – watch how she engages the child to learn about the series and refocus the discussion on skills and goals.
Guiding Reading Partners: Work on Accuracy
In this reading conference from a 2nd grade classroom, Linda Karamatic pairs two children who have similar needs in reading.
Frogs as Learning Ambassadors Part 1: Literary Nonfiction in 4th Grade
Andrea Smith gets creative in teaching literary nonfiction to her 4th graders in this video series.
Rumor Has It
Lisa Koch says we should get our students to start some rumors — about characters, that is.
Narrative Nonfiction in 5th Grade Part 2
In this lesson from a 5th grade classroom, Aimee Buckner guides students in a note-taking process to help understand the qualities of nonfiction narrative writing. In this second part of the lesson, students share their notes and Aimee makes connections to additional mentor texts.
Nonfiction Read Aloud
Sean Moore reads nonfiction aloud to his 2nd grade students. This is the first video in a two-part series.
Nonfiction Read Aloud – Part 2
Here are some more tips for nonfiction read-alouds, based on Sean Moore's reading of Plants That Eat Animals.
Astrigs, Asterisks, and Letting Students Lead
In this video from Linda Karamatic’s second-grade classroom, Charlie shares his punctuation “find” of asterisks with his classmates. He is reading the book Miss Child Has Gone Wild by Dan Gutman.
Book Matchmaker: Global Citizenship and Social Responsibility
Here are some newer books for teaching students about social responsibility and what it means to be a citizen of the world.
“And Then and Then and Then”: Moving Students from Retelling to Thoughtful Response
Katie Doherty confers with sixth grader Kristina during reading workshop. Kristina is new to the classroom, and Katie demonstrates how to gently move a student from retelling to more thoughtful responses to literature with a few simple and carefully worded questions.
Conferring About Chunking Words in Second Grade
Sean Moore confers with a 2nd grader who is learning the strategy of chunking words in reading. Notice how Sean focuses the student, refers to previous conferences, and previews an upcoming whole-class reading.
Stop and Track: Conferring with a Fifth-Grade Reader
In this conference with a 5th grader, Aimee Buckner shares two strategies — one to use when putting a book away between readings, and another to help keep track of characters in a complex narrative where the point of view is constantly shifting.
Book Matchmaker: Picture Book Biographies
Franki Sibberson shares some of her favorite picture book biographies in the latest installment of Book Matchmaker.
Common Core Conversations: Text Complexity
Amanda Adrian and Heather Rader find ways into understanding text complexity with students and teachers.
Book Matchmaker: Wordless Picture Books
Brad Smedley, an elementary principal, is looking for wordless picture books to share with his preschool classes.
Middle School Book Clubs: Introduction
Katie Doherty explains why she has book clubs with her 6th grade students.
Fresh Books and Age-old Skills
Suzy Kaback provides a booklist of newer texts that can be used to teach multiple reading strategies.
Middle School Book Clubs: Response Options
Students have different response options in Katie Doherty’s sixth grade book clubs.
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