Articles

Books That Mirror the Children in Our Classrooms

Stella Villalba shares some of her favorite children’s books that mirror the home cultures of English language learners.

Using Mentor Texts to Craft Leads

Tara Barnett and Kate Mills carefully select the first mentor text for crafting leads in their fourth-grade classroom.

From Mentor Texts to Mentors in First Grade

Katie DiCesare uses technology in her first-grade classroom so that students can see the lives of the authors who create the texts they love.

Mentors for Process and Habits

Ruth Ayres shares some of her favorite mentors and mentor texts for developing good writing processes and habits.

Superpowers and a Middle School Classroom Library

Christy Rush-Levine explains how she gradually stocked her middle school classroom library, as well as how she uses student librarians to ensure books aren’t lost.

Introducing the Classroom Library

Andrea Smith shares a sequence of lessons she uses to introduce the classroom library to her fourth-grade students.

Prepping the Meeting Area for Success

Tara Barnett and Kate Mills describe how they set up their meeting area with the right supplies to build community and student independence.

Who Owns the Room?

Katherine Sokolowski considers how classroom design says a lot about the relationship between students and teachers.

“What Are We Learning Today?”: Transitioning with Compelling Questions

Mark Levine helps his seventh-grade students transition to the learning of the day with a "compelling question" posted on the board before each class session.

Transition Time in Middle School

Gretchen Taylor considers how she handles hard transitions as an adult, and questions how she can make transitions more efficient and valuable for her middle school students.

Making the Most of Transitions

Tara Barnett and Kate Mills share strategies for meaningful transitions in their fourth-grade classroom.

Student-Centered Room Setup

Tara Barnett and Kate Mills describe the principles they use to design a student-centered classroom.

Life Without the Big Teacher’s Desk

Are you contemplating the removal of your teacher desk this year? Shari Frost has suggestions for how to manage and house teaching materials you will need without a teacher desk.

Creating a Space for Peace

At a time of escalating violence throughout the world, children need peaceful spaces. Katie DiCesare creates a "peace table" in her first-grade classroom as a safe place for working through everything from playground squabbles to emotional distress.

Helping Young Readers Focus on Print

Shari Frost observes a teacher conferring with a first grader who is mystified at the advice to "get your mouth ready," and it leads her to consider what works best in helping young readers.

Thinking About Fluency

Cathy Mere finds that with young learners, not all issues with fluency are created equal—different needs require different strategies.

Beginnings, Middles, and Endings: The Power of Baseline Assessments

Carly Ullmer shares how much her seventh-grade students learn from examining their own growth as writers with baseline, midpoint, and final assessments throughout the year.

The Value of Pre-Assessment

Melanie Meehan explains why a baseline assessment at the start of any writing unit is well worth the time.

Getting to Know Writers: Using Quotes

Dana Murphy concludes her series on getting to know writers with an activity on responding to quotes. This activity is a great baseline for gauging attitudes and previous  experiences early in the year.

Laying the Foundation for Genre Writing

Shari Frost helps a teacher dealing with dreadful how-to drafts from her students by sharing quality mentor texts.

Getting to Know Writers: The Inventory

A Joyful Mess

Ruth Ayres writes about the messiness of analyzing needs, celebrating achievements, and thinking about what’s next with writers in workshops.

Old-Fashioned Resources

Jennifer Schwanke cleans out a school storage area, and with advice from teachers discovers new purposes for old items she was about to discard.

Fostering Thinking Through Play

Katie DiCesare repurposes materials for her first graders to play with, and finds that encouraging play early in the year is a great tool for building reflection skills.

Getting to Know Writers: The Writing Process Survey

Dana Murphy continues her series on getting to know writers early in the year. In this installment, she explains how to use a simple six-question survey to help teachers and students explore differences in writing routines and habits.

Last Chance Workshop

Christy Rush-Levine breaks her routine of responding to student writing, and instead calls on students to guide and support peers. She shares some surprising results.

Getting to Know Writers: Introduction

Dana Murphy writes about the litmus tests we give writing teachers to analyze whether or not they are teaching the "right" way, when we might better serve students by focusing on the six truths of writing.

Digging into Research Questions

Melanie Meehan explains how helping students deepen their questioning strategies leads to more thoughtful research projects.

Making the Most of Small Groups with Jennifer Serravallo (PODCAST)

In this podcast, Jennifer Serravallo shares her “then” and “now” reflections about how guiding groups has evolved in her classroom.

Understanding Josh: The Audio Reader

Jennifer Schwanke tells the story of Josh, a special-needs student who is almost impossible to reach, until one committed teacher unlocks the key to what makes him tick as a learner.