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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.
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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.
Exploring Explanatory Moves Writers Use
Jeff Anderson explores the difference between informational and explanatory writing, and what that might mean for teaching craft moves to students.
Research Book Clubs for Struggling Readers
Beth Lawson finds that a nonfiction research book club is just the grouping structure needed for a group of struggling readers in her fourth-grade classroom.
Your Opinion Matters—Really
Gretchen Schroeder guides us in getting feedback from students, as well as sharing with students the way their feedback matters to us. In a world where we are constantly asked to fill out feedback forms, it’s good to know when our opinions matter.
Mentor Texts for “Versus” Stories
Shark vs. Train! Fork vs. Spoon! Versus stories are incredibly popular in writing workshops these days. Cathy Mere found herself struggling to teach narrative conventions to students writing versus tales, so she created a booklist of mentor texts.
On the Same Team: Better Parent-Teacher Conferences
Katherine Sokolowski has tips for improving parent conferences by using technology for flexible scheduling and easy follow-up.
The Art of the Book Talk
If you want to match students to books, you’ll need to master the art of the book talk. Katherine Sokolowski has practical tips for honing your skills.
Creating Your Own Kindergarten Assessment
Max Brand finds standard assessments don’t always give him the information he needs when working with kindergarten English language learners, so he develops his own tool for analyzing book handling skills.
Teaching the Genes
Suzy Kaback rethinks the concept of "managed choice" in writing workshops.
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