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More Literacy Keepsakes to Carry Home at the End of the School Year
Choice Literacy readers share more of their favorite end-of-year gifts for students to make and take home.
Beginning with the End in Mind: Planning Ahead for Closing Activities
Choice Literacy readers share their favorite end-of-year activities that circle back to events from the start of the school year.
Pencil Plans
The care and use of the lowly pencil in classrooms says a lot about what we value and our relationships with students.
Read Alouds for the First Day of School
Choice Literacy readers share their favorite read alouds for the start of the year.
A District Film Festival: Giving Kids An Authentic Audience for Their Work
Lights, cameras, and even a red carpet! Bill Bass documents how a film festival brought high school teachers and students together, with a strong focus on connecting district goals and standards to the fun projects.
Characters I Know Too Well
Books with themes of sexual abuse may be the most difficult for many of us to grapple with, if only because the issue horrifies us. Yet for some abused teens, a book may be the needed catalyst for breaking their silence about what's going on outside school. Andie Cunningham shares an annotated booklist on this tough topic.
Sarcasm Is a Useful Teaching Tool — NOT
How does sarcasm hurt students? Heather Rader counts the ways.
Getting and Giving Student Feedback
How can we help students be more reflective in our classrooms, giving us the feedback we need to make them better places for learning? Heather Rader has suggestions.
Designing Comprehension Constructors: Helping Adolescent Learners Develop Reading Strategies (E-GUIDE)
Comprehension constructors are a terrific tool for helping teens record their understanding.
The Read-Around: Raising Writers
If there was a centerpiece to teaching writing that also brought students closer together, wouldn't you want to know about it? Read on about the Read-Around.
Writing About a War-Torn Home: Zerina Talks About Finding Her Writer’s Voice
In this interview with Ruth Shagoury, English language learner Zerina talks about her growing confidence as a writer as she shares her writing with high school classmates. She also talks about how her father encouraged her to write down her most poignant memory of war in their homeland, Bosnia.
Common Core Conversations: Increasing Argumentative Writing
Teachers continue to puzzle over and sort through the terminology in the Common Core related to opinion and persuasive writing. Amanda Adrian and Heather Rader consider terms and teaching strategies.
Panels and Pages: Using Graphic Novels in the High School Classroom
Gretchen Schroeder bolsters her students’ reading lives and deepens discussion about theme by using the rich graphic novel They Called Us Enemy as a whole-class read with her high school students. Gretchen shows how teachers can support students in deep literary analysis.
The Hermit Crab Essay: Finding a Shell to Share a Vulnerable Story
Gretchen Schroeder introduced the hermit crab essay as a creative nonfiction genre to her high school students. What began as an intriguing writing invitation led to realizing that students want to process these events through writing and that the hermit crab essay gives them a way to do so that is less daunting than just a blank page.
Setting the Room for Collaboration
Gretchen Schroeder offers advice on how to arrange a high school classroom for collaboration.
Criteria for Success
Jen Vincent shares how to create a Criteria of Success to clearly define expectations for assignments and give students independence in self-assessment.
Using Fiction Writing to Change Attitudes About Writing
Katherine Sokolowski encourages teachers to take time for students to individualize the writing process and enjoy fiction writing by engaging in National Novel Writing Month. Download the story bible as a place for students to plan their stories.
Moving from Whole-Class Texts to Independent Reading: Characterization
Gretchen Schroeder offers a starting point to help her high school students prepare to write an in-depth character analysis essay.
Quick Take: Special Library Shelves
Christy Rush-Levine shares a few special shelves in her classroom library.
Shake It Up: Active Learning Strategies That Engage Students
When Gretchen Schroeder found herself wanting to make her lessons fun and enjoyable, she realized she was focused on trying to entertain and dazzle rather than facilitate learning. She offers three ways to help students be active learners through conversations, reflection, and collaboration.
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