Articles
Here is where you’ll find all the latest print features from our contributors. If you’d like to browse specifically by grade level, topic, or contributor, you can use the links in the right sidebar.
Latest Content
Fostering a Love of Reading in All Students
Lisa Mazinas reminds us of the importance of fostering a love of reading in all students. She offers specific ways to reconnect students with the enjoyment of reading.
Know/Wonder Chart
Dana Murphy shares the power of a Know/Wonder chart to peek inside the minds of intermediate readers and provide direction beyond assessment data.
Building Vocabulary One Purple Word at a Time
Leigh Anne Eck shares one way to uplift word choice of middle school writers. Through a simple and responsive system, her students are growing their vocabulary, learning parts of speech, and taking risks with more sophisticated word choice. All you need is a purple highlighter and a willingness to celebrate student voices.
Let’s Do It Again, Together
Heather Fisher revisits a whole-school vocabulary routine that she set in motion. In this update, she shares the ways she adjusted to work together as a team rather than fly solo. This might be just the school-wide vocabulary routine you’ve been craving.
Building Bridges (and Confidence): Planning Solid Essays
Melissa Quimby offers time and intentional planning to build students’ confidence and capacity as essay writers.
Informational Poetry
Hannah Tills and Josie Stewart teach students to write informational poetry. They remind us that poetry can serve as a mentor text in many units and does not have to be siloed in its own unit.
Writing About Reading
Mandy Robek is on a quest to make writing about reading feel natural with her elementary students. She shares practical ways to help students change the way they approach writing about reading to lift the level of comprehension and conversation.
Morning Message 5 — Meaning and Content Connections
In this installment of the morning message series, Ruth Metcalfe unlocks a wide range of opportunities to support learning in any content area.
Morning Message 4: Application and Differentiation
The possibilities for differentiation during morning message are almost endless. Ruth Metcalfe highlights ways to meet a wide variety of needs via the morning message.
Morning Message 3: Word Study and Conventions
There is much debate in today’s educational landscape around what and how to teach young readers about print. No matter what your classroom realities are around teaching how sounds, words, and language work, Ruth Metcalfe attests that using a morning message is an engaging way to support word study and conventions.
Morning Message 2: Routine and Community
Ruth Metcalfe reminds us of the power of routines and shows how over the course of time, morning message is an anchor in her first-grade classroom community.
Step Into Poetry: Building a Poetry-Conscious Classroom
Joanne Emery has curated a fabulous list of resources and ideas to build a poetry-conscious classroom community.
Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month
Gretchen Schroeder incorporates poetry into her high school classroom as much as possible, and in April she makes a plan to go big! Gretchen shares a variety of ways to create memorable and fun experiences around poetry no matter your grade level.
Weaving Words Throughout the School Year
Joanne Emery rounds up several ideas for embedding vocabulary routines in the school day. She also shares many rich vocabulary resources.
Empowering Students Through Thinking Routines
Jodie Bailey shares practical ways to nourish students’ thinking routines in her math classroom. She is inspired by Peter Liljedahl’s book Building Thinking Classrooms.
Morning Message Series: When and How
It’s not always easy to hold on to effective instructional routines and find ways to embrace new initiatives and mandates. In the first installment of a morning message series, Ruth Metcalfe addresses the issue of time.
Developing Reader Identities: It Is More Than Magic
Becca Burk reminds us of the importance of building a reading identity within all students so they can become stronger readers.
Using Drama Games to Approach Difficult Conversations
Gretchen Schroeder is committed to having conversations about race and racism with her high school students. Sometimes it’s difficult to engage students, so Gretchen used drama games as a means to think about concepts metaphorically, then ground them within the text, and, finally, have students apply them to their own lives and the world.
Big, Loud, and Slow: Six Strategies for Better Public Speaking
Matt Renwick worked with a speech therapist after having a stroke. Through this process, he realized powerful teaching points to help students become stronger public speakers.
When They’re Hard to Teach
Cathy Mere reminds us of the complexities of teaching readers, especially those who are in intervention. She shares the “rules” she’s put in place for herself when a rough patch is hit and little growth is gained.
When Reading Practices Drift
When Leigh Anne Eck noticed her students’ reading practices weren’t as robust as she expected, she realized she was the one who had drifted away from key instructional practices. Leigh Anne offers several ways to support students in their independent reading lives.
Kintsugi
Given an assignment to break a china bowl and rebuild it allowed Gretchen Schroeder to engage in the Japanese art of kintsugi. What surprised her were the lessons she learned about growth and innovation in her teaching practice.
Reclaiming Our Time
Vivian Chen gives four steps to adjusting a lesson from the teacher’s guide to reclaim your time and make the lesson more meaningful and engaging to students.
Increasing Engagement During Online Practice Opportunities
Mallory Messenger is intentional about monitoring and supporting cognitive engagement while students use online practice tools. Use her tips so your students are engaged too!
Bet You Didn’t Know: Chicken Eggs and Research
Mandy Robek encourages young writers to collect information about a topic. She provides whole-class and individual structures for students to learn that their understanding can change, as well as to be able to access information when they are ready to draft. Don’t miss Mrs. Robek’s digital class book.
Color Coding: An Organizational Strategy
Leigh Anne Eck gives advice to her middle school writers for collecting research notes.
Poetry Friday Stretches Into Poetry Slam
Mandy Robek shares an update to her Poetry Friday routine inspired by the professional book Artfully Teaching the Science of Reading by Chase Young, David Page, and Timothy V. Rasinski. You, too, will want to incorporate this poetry routine into your week.
Poetry Strategies for Partners and Groups
Gretchen Schroeder offers three ideas for partners or small groups to engage with poetry. Not only will they get creativity flowing, but they will also lift writers’ energy.
Stay Curious
Inspired by Ted Lasso’s mantra, “Stay curious, not judgmental,” Julie Cox provides three questions she asks herself and students to remain innovative.
Sparking Curiosity: Developing Ownership of Learning Through “What If” Questions
Jodie Bailey encourages us to use “What if” questions in all content areas to give students the space to use their innate curiosity to engage in meaningful learning.
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