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Latest Content
Push Pause: Dealing with Failure in the Midst
Christy Rush-Levine discovers it’s important to “push pause” to deal with failure in the midst of teaching.
Super Teacher Reading Workshop
Mary Lee Hahn tries to be super teacher while she confers — juggling goals, assessments, notices and notes . . . and then it all comes crashing down. She shares what she learns from trying to do too much at once and failing.
Balancing Reading and Talk
Mark Levine finds that the best way to deal with controversial topics like slavery in his middle school classroom is with open and focused whole-class discussions.
Writing Share Structures
Katrina Edwards moves her first-grade class out of a rut with writing shares by introducing many new options.
Building a Reflective Community
Andrea Smith builds reflection into whole-class discussions in her fourth-grade classroom by beginning an anchor chart with four different illustrations from the covers of a read-aloud.
Planning for Small-Group Word Study
Stephanie Affinito offers five guiding principles and a template for planning small-group word study.
Sentence Phrase Word: Student Independence for Word Learning
Andrea Smith uses the sentence-phrase-word thinking routine with her fourth graders to show how potent one word can be in understanding complex themes.
Lunchtime Author Discussion Groups
Gigl McAllister explains why she hosts optional lunchtime author studies, with practical tips on getting started.
Lunchtime Storytelling
Katrina Edwards dreads lunchtime with her first graders, until she makes a conscious effort to build storytelling skills and share experiences more thoughtfully within the group.
Sharing and Celebrating Summer Reading
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills share how they use the first days and weeks of school to celebrate summer reading and build a classroom community.
Building Community with a Shared Text
Christy Rush-Levine finds a community of new teachers bonds over a text highlighting addiction struggles. The experience leads her to think through what elements are essential for whole-class texts in her middle school classroom.
#bookaday in Middle School: Nuts and Bolts
Jillian Heise shares advice for teachers who want to try a #bookaday challenge of sharing at least one picture book each day with older students. She gives criteria for book selection, as well as examples of books to read at the start of the school year.
When a Book Doesn’t Work
Gretchen Schroeder is frustrated when a novel that has worked well for many years doesn’t appeal to her current high school students. Letting go of it is hard.
The Scarlet Level
Stephanie Affinito tells everyone at a staff meeting to write their weights and ages on sticky notes so that she can post the numbers for the group to view. When teachers balk at the request, she has the perfect opening to discuss why focusing on levels in classrooms is a bad idea.
Leveled Text Dilemma
"We don't have enough leveled texts!" is the cry from teachers. Heather Fisher helps them move beyond the school book room to more creative online resources to meet students' needs, and move beyond narrow definitions of text suitability.
Stuck at Level E
Shari Frost assists a teacher who is instructing a child stuck at level E, and in the process reveals some of the issues in treating all levels equally.
Using Stories to Launch Writers’ Notebooks
If you're looking for the perfect launch for writers' notebooks this school year, you might want to begin with story. Tara Barnett and Kate Mills explain how.
Is Writing Essential?
Ruth Ayres shares some of the powerful connections between stories and writing workshops.
School-to-Home Journals
Are you considering school-to-home journals in your classroom this year? Jennifer Schwanke describes how these notebooks build community and literacy skills.
Dabbling: Reviving a Focus on Play
Mary Lee Hahn finds a focus on play and "dabbling" renews student writers during a unit on narrative nonfiction.
Planning for a Narrative Writing Unit of Study
Franki Sibberson believes planning a unit of study should be just as much fun as planning a trip to Disney World. She explains her planning process for one of her first units of study, on narrative writing.
Humor Writing with Teens
Gretchen Schroeder develops a unit on humor writing that engages and delights her high school students.
Creating a Manifesto
Ruth Ayres explains why writing a manifesto may be the best way to learn what you truly believe about teaching, learning, and literacy.
My Five Objectives for the Start of the School Year
Gretchen Schroeder winnows many competing demands at the start of the year down to five clear objectives in her high school classroom.
Reading Workshop Non-Negotiables
Scott Jones finds working with a student teacher forces him to explain what the “non-negotiables” are in his reading workshop.
Joy
Katrina Edwards deals with a frustrated writer on the verge of tears in her first-grade classroom. She realizes the element that is missing in her writing workshop is joy.
Reconsidering Reading Workshop Routines
Andrea Smith realizes her normal reading routine will not work within the constraints of this year’s schedule. She makes some radical changes to ensure she and her students can have enough time to find the joy in reading and building a literate community.
Sketchnoting as a Response to Reading
Dana Murphy tries sketchnoting during professional development, and soon finds herself sharing the fun technique with students. They hone their skills during read alouds and while annotating texts.
The Benefits of #bookaday
Franki Sibberson finds the investment of five to seven minutes a day for #bookaday with her third graders is truly time well spent.
#bookaday in Middle School
Jillian Heise rises to the challenge of reading a new picture book to her seventh and eighth graders each day all year long.
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