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.
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Mentoring from the Real to the Ideal: Mental Images of Teaching
We know the power of mental images as a strategy for helping readers comprehend difficult text. Suzy Kaback uses a similar technique to help novice teachers envision success. Thisl is an activity you might want to try with a new teacher group.
Learning from Coaching Mistakes
Inventors understand that early prototypes inform them best about what doesn't work rather than what does. But what about when prototypes are people? Heather Rader reflects on risk-taking, failure, and learning as a literacy coach.
Not Available in a Six-Pack: Books to Place Alongside Leveled Texts for Our Youngest Readers
Teachers of young children often face the difficult choice of using leveled books that aren't necessarily engaging, or children's literature that isn't as easy to peg for readability. Franki Sibberson is on the hunt for wonderful children's literature that can easilysupplement or replace those lowest level "six-packs" of texts.
The Book Lovers Quilt Project
Katie Doherty and Ruth Shagoury present a fun way to launch (or close) the year with middle schoolers and discover the best-loved books of students from previous years. This project can be adapted for any age level.
Accurate But Not Quite Fluent: Books for Second-Grade Readers in Transition
Many second-grade readers are in transition – they can decode almost any text and are eager to read chapter books. Yet many don't have the stamina for reading even very short chapter books on their own. Katie DiCesare presents a booklist of her top picks of new fiction and nonfiction books that might engage and challenge her second-grade students.
Wii Summary
Heather Rader coaches a 6th grade teacher as she helps her students write better summaries.
Towards Thoughtful Strategy Instruction
Sometimes the pendulum swings so hard in education that it’s hard not to feel whiplash. Shari Frost considers critiques of strategy instruction, analyzing what’s valid and what’s not in attacks on the flurry of post-its in classrooms.
Mentor Texts for Urban Students
What texts work best for students with urban backgrounds? Shari Frost has suggestions for teachers.
Expedition Mondays: Launching the Week with Nonfiction
Expedition Mondays launch every week in Andrea Smith's classroom with a healthy dose of nonfiction.
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.
Triangulating: The Importance of Multiple Data Points When Assessing Students
No data point for any child stands alone. Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan write about the importance of triangulating data when looking at student assessments, and in the process affirm the value of classroom observations.
Dear Mrs. T: Moving Students from Summaries to Rich Response
Karen Terlecky shares how student letter writing about books has evolved over the years. The secret? Karen uses student letters from previous years as mentor texts for moving her 5th graders from summaries to more sophisticated responses.
What’s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About . . .?
Ruth Shagoury and Melanie Quinn asked their colleagues to share the “most beautiful thing” about the puzzling student each of them is looking at closely in their study group. This is a great activity you’re looking for a quick and easy icebreaker to spark some positive energy in your next study group or staff meeting, and remind everyone of the joys of our profession.
Just Because It’s Skinny, Doesn’t Mean It’s Easy: Matching Books to Transitional Readers in Grades 2-4
Franki Sibberson writes about her evolution in choosing books for transitional readers in grades 2-4. Franki includes a handy list of criteria for evaluating whether new short chapter books are appropriate for young readers.
Conferring with Children: Principles and Procedures
“The Sisters” (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) share their principles and procedures for conferring in the classroom.
Opening Classroom Doors
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share many nonthreatening techniques to break down resistance among teachers to classroom visits and collaboration.
The Porch in August: Letting It Be
Shirl McPhillips reminds us "in the face of all that tugs at us from the past and from what's to come, we can step into the moments of the day with our students and take pleasure in what we find there." Such wise words for any time we need to hit the pause button in our lives.
Preschool Letter Detectives
Andie Cunningham works with three-, and four-year-olds as they become "letter detectives." This activity is a wonderful bridge between children's natural curiosity and the alphabet, suitable for preschoolers or kindergartners.
Making Time for Literacy Chitchat to Support Book Choice
Franki Sibberson shares ways to initiate conversations about books naturally in classrooms. The feature includes a question set for launching discussions about books with individual students.
Ready for Guided Reading?
Shari Frost writes about the “Level A Purgatory” many kindergartners and young students endure when teachers assign reading groups too early. Her feature includes other instructional options beyond small groups for early in the year that may be more appropriate for our youngest learners.
Animals as Ambassadors: Using Class Pets to Reach an English Language Learner
When a student is struggling, language barriers can make it even harder for teachers to connect. Andrea Smith finds webbing during conferring is an excellent strategy for assisting a young English language learner in her writer's workshop.
Making Time for Play
Can we make time for play with our youngest learners, and still insure they are getting the literacy skills they need? Absolutely! says Shari Frost, as she shares many strategies the coaches and teachers she works with use to make letter, sound, and word learning fun.
Free Rice: Tools for Web-Based Vocabulary Learning
Mary Lee Hahn shares how she uses Free Rice in her classroom, as well as other online vocabulary learning tools.
Books We Love: Building a Reading Community
Katie DiCesare talks about how her first graders closed out the year with a sequence of activities analyzing their favorite books individually and as a community.
Sharing Our Lives as Readers with Our Students
Students look to us as model readers. Franki Sibberson explains how a quick explanation of your habits and preferences can be a wonderful start to year-long conversations.
A Workshop Model in the Library: Time for More Than Book Checkout
Franki Sibberson shares ideas for library browsing baskets, as well as ways to integrate minilessons into the school library routine.
Making Book Logs Purposeful for Students
Is the use of reading logs getting a little stale in your classroom? Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan have suggestions for assessing and refreshing the activity.
Swimming and Learning
Mary Lee Hahn uses her experience as a swimmer to take another look at standards.
If You Like Captain Underpants: Related Books for Students (BOOKLIST)
Franki Sibberson has suggestions for sustaining the interest of kids who love silly and gross fun in this booklist.
Looking for Evidence: Seven Questions
With all the things teachers could focus on in their observations of students, what are the key behaviors to look for in assessing literacy growth and development? Ruth Shagoury notes the questions she uses to focus her observations and assessment of student comprehension of texts.
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