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The Big Fresh August 29, 2015 Norms

Organizing assessments is the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.

Launching Student Data Binders

Megan Skogstad shares lots of practical advice for creating and sustaining student data binders.

Staying True to Best Practices with Required Resources

Are you required to use a reading or writing program that goes against your beliefs about teaching and learning? Gigi McAllister has suggestions for holding onto your beliefs and sanity.

Conferring with Boys in Sixth Grade

Katie Doherty confers with boys in her sixth-grade reading workshop. This is the second installment in a two-part video series.

The Big Fresh August 22, 2015 Whining and Learning

We look at ways to foster independence among middle school learners in this week’s Big Fresh.

A Booklist for Grandparents Day

Sarah Klim presents a booklist for Grandparents Day, with many suggestions for read alouds to promote the September event.

Just Reading?

Christy Rush-Levine challenges the notion that there is anything easy or natural about getting young teens to select and read books independently in classrooms.

Conferring with Boys in Middle School

Katie Doherty circulates among sixth-grade boys in her reading workshop. These quick conferences and conferring tips are the first installment in a two-part series.

Speed Dating Books

Carly Ullmer presents a fun activity for introducing teens to new books and each other as readers, capitalizing on their interests.

The Big Fresh August 15, 2015 The View from the Back of the Pack

We celebrate diversity at the start of the school year in this week’s Big Fresh.

Why I Stopped Asking, “Where’s Your Pencil?”

Ruth Ayres finds the brain research is grim when it comes to the needs of neglected children, but there is still much that teachers can do to support healthy growth in students from challenging home environments.

What Difference Does Difference Make?

Mary Lee Hahn begins the year with honest and open discussions with her fifth-grade students about diversity.

Classroom Environment: Access to Supplies

Melanie Swider believes access to supplies is crucial for student independence, and she even has students in charge of monitoring and replenishing materials. This is the final installment in Melanie's classroom environment series.

Growth Lines

Deb Gaby thinks about the importance of baseline information early in the school year.

I Don’t Want to Know What You Did Last Summer: Rethinking Narrative Nonfiction

Stella Villalba rethinks the seemingly innocuous “What did you do last summer?” writing assignment at the start of the year, especially for children who may have more limited experiences than peers.

Classroom Environment: Bulletin Boards

Melanie Swider shares her favorite bulletin boards, another installment in her classroom design series.
 

Doodlebug

What makes a teacher memorable? Recognizing a child's passions from the very first day of school. Jennifer Schwanke recounts how her second-grade teacher did just that.

Beyond Cute: Print Rich with Purpose

Shari Frost cautions against overly stylized text in wall displays.

The Big Fresh August 8, 2015 Cold Pool

We look at bulletin boards and wall displays in this week’s Big Fresh.

Adding Dialogue to Writing: Conferring with Sam

Karen Terlecky confers with Sam about adding dialogue to writing in her fifth-grade classroom.

The Big Fresh August 1, 2015 What’s Worth Keeping

Routines and schedules are the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.

Back to Basics: Routines in Writing Workshops

Ruth Ayres considers what's essential in writing workshop routines.

Easing into Workshops: Routines in Third Grade

This quick and silent time-lapse video shows the arrival routine in Leslie Lloyd’s third-grade classroom.

Reading Workshop Routines in First Grade

Bitsy Parks explains the routines and procedures in her first-grade reading workshop.

Perfect Frosting and Workshop Routines

Things start to fall apart in a classroom when a beloved teacher is replaced with a long-term substitute. Deb Gaby shares how an analogy helps the class get back on track.

The Big Fresh July 25, 2015 The Power of a Read Aloud

Read alouds early in the year are the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.

Read Alouds as “Third Things”

Katherine Sokolowski uses read alouds early in the year to help students reflect on how to be kind and thoughtful members of a classroom community.

Bring Back Read Aloud

Jennifer Schwanke interviews older students and discovers their most beloved memories of elementary school involve read alouds.

Strategies for Using Reader’s Notebooks

Melanie Swider enhances read alouds and the entire reading workshop with creative uses for reading notebooks.

Fourth-Grade Read Aloud: Checking In

In this video from a fourth-grade classroom, Gi Reed reads aloud Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson. Gi continually checks in with her students, making sure they are visualizing, noticing new vocabulary, and making connections to earlier incidents in the texts—all without breaking the flow of the story.

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