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Act III: Exploring Subtext with A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare and the Common Core Series)

Gretchen Schroeder concludes her Shakespeare in the Age of the Common Core Series with activities to explore subtext in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Act II: Understanding Hamlet Through Close Reading (Shakespeare and the Common Core Series)

Gretchen Schroeder continues her Shakespeare and the Common Core series on teaching the classics in high school, explaining how she uses Hamlet in creative ways to teach close reading strategies.

Penguins Are Amazing!: Informational Writing Comes Alive in Kindergarten

Can kindergartners do informational writing? Keri Archer finds the answer is yes, as she applies Common Core standards to inquiry work in her classroom.

Streamlining Research Check-ins

Gretchen Taylor finds streamlining research check-ins in her middle school classroom is easy to do when she uses a simple online tool to eliminate a mountain of paper.

Common Core Research Shifts

Maria Caplin explains four changes she is making in her fifth-grade classroom with writing instruction because of the Common Core.

Act I: Delving into Deep Questions with Macbeth (Shakespeare and the Common Core Series)

Gretchen Schroeder launches a three-part series on Shakespeare in the Age of the Common Core. This week’s installment is a fresh take on teaching Macbeth to high school students.

Keep Going

Ruth Ayres has advice for moving forward, staying positive, and focusing on what’s important.

Journeys and Quests: January Literacy Contracts

Middle school teachers Megan Ginther and Holly Mueller focus on journeys and quests as the theme of their January Literacy Contracts in the latest installment of their year-long series.

A Closer Look at Engagement

Are the terms stamina and engagement synonymous? Cathy Mere defines the terms by observing her first graders.

Rethinking Nonfiction Topic-Based Text Sets

Franki Sibberson concludes her series on redesigning nonfiction sections of classroom libraries in the age of the Common Core.

Middle School Design: Reading Gutters

Katie Doherty explains how reading gutters, an inexpensive design feature, dress up her middle school classroom and build community at the same time.

Tell Me More

Gretchen Taylor finds the three little words “tell me more” provide breakthroughs in helping her middle school students respond to reading.

Rethinking Nonfiction Series Books

Franki Sibberson explains how she features nonfiction series books in her classroom library.

Rethinking Nonfiction Author Baskets

Franki Sibberson realizes she needs to highlight nonfiction authors in new ways in her classroom library.

Explanatory Grammar Moves: Right-Branching Sentences

Jeff Anderson continues his Explanatory Grammar Series with a feature on the power of right-branching sentences.

Spelling Cycles: An Alternative to Weekly Spelling Lists

Max Brand developed Spelling Cycles as an alternative to weekly spelling tests. He explains how they work with an example from a third-grade class.

Mock Newbery Club

Katherine Sokolowski has suggestions for organizing and hosting a Mock Newbery Club in the weeks before the award is given in late January.

Exploring Winter with Short Texts

Middle school teachers Megan Ginther and Holly Mueller focus on winter in short texts as the theme of their December Literacy Contracts in the latest installment of their year-long series.

Curating a Nonfiction Classroom Library

Franki Sibberson writes about how her thinking about nonfiction is changing her classroom library in this first installment of a four-part series.

Better Reading Conferences

Katherine Sokolowski describes how she worked over the past few years to initiate better reading conferences.

Powerful Conferences

Ruth Ayres explains how deciding the purpose of conferring in advance can lead to more powerful conferences.

November Contract: Family and Memoir

The November installment of Megan Ginther and Holly Mueller’s yearlong literacy contract series has a theme of family and memoir.

Shared Blogging in the Primary Classroom

Shared reading and shared writing are essential instructional techniques in the primary grades. How about shared blogging for teaching children basic blogging skills? Cathy Mere describes how it works.

Dandelions, Chinese, and Patience with Our Youngest Learners

Kelly Petrin meditates on the importance of trust and patience when looking for ways to connect with preschoolers.

Finding a Writing Buddy

Beth Lawson helps her fourth graders sort through what makes peer collaboration work during writing buddy time.

Two Lessons for Teaching Theme

Franki Sibberson writes about how she chooses books for theme instruction and shares two lessons.

Learning from Kidwatching

Quiet kindergartners can be a challenge to understand when they are in the beginning stages of learning social and academic norms. Andie Cunningham uses observation to make sense of five-year-old Sierra’s learning.

Choice, Content, and Format: Understanding How Boys Write

Katherine Sokolowski is dismayed when many of the boys in her fifth-grade class admit they don’t like to write. She explains how she changed her writing program to meet their needs.

She Wants to Be Katniss for Halloween: Courageous Girls in Books

Shari Frost celebrates a tomboy who finally finds a female character she wants to emulate with a booklist highlighting courageous girls.

Pumpkin Time: Provocations and Stories with Preschoolers

Kelly Petrin reinvents a pumpkin decorating project with her preschoolers to help them build storytelling skills.

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