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Integrating Short Videos into Minilessons

Katherine Sokolowski gives advice on how to add video to your literacy minilessons.

How to Notice: Mining Children’s Books for Craft Minilessons

This is the second installment in our new series on creating your own writer’s craft minilessons.

The Big Fresh November 22, 2014 Not Very Entertaining

Formative assessment is the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.

Reading Math: Starting with Visuals

Maria Caplin finds launching her math minilessons with an image helps her students read math problems in deeper ways and notice mathematical components of everyday life.

Philanthropy and Literacy in Eighth Grade

Beth Honeycutt and Rita Schaeffer introduce a reading and writing activity to their eighth-grade students designed to help them understand philanthropy, using a video to enhance the lesson.

Running Records: Rationale and Procedure

Bitsy Parks explains her procedures for completing running records in her first-grade classroom. This is the first installment in a video series on running records.

Shallow Books? Learning from a Reading Celebration

Franki Sibberson discovers we allow students to assess what reading matters most to them, we can learn a remarkable amount.

Reading Workshop in Kindergarten: When and How to Launch

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share wise advice about launching workshops in kindergarten.

Grading in Literacy Workshops

Katherine Sokolowski finds grading student work in her fifth-grade classroom becomes far more interesting when students take responsibility for choosing what will be graded.

Letter to Franki Sibberson’s Students

Here is a letter Brenda Power wrote to Franki Sibberson's students about why adults observe children, if you're looking for ways to explain the presence of adult visitors in classrooms.

Learning to Observe: Inviting a Parent to a Tutoring Session

Max Brand brings a mother into the assessment process and teaches her what to observe as her child reads.

Character Traits and Vocabulary Development

Gigi McAllister shares how she combines vocabulary instruction with analysis of character traits in her fourth-grade classroom.

Multicultural Series Books

Shari Frost is alarmed when she realizes how rarely children of color are represented as main characters in book series. She decides to compile a list of multicultural series books.

The Big Fresh November 15, 2014 Thinking Is Good for the Soul

We explore favorite characters from children’s books in this week’s Big Fresh.

Conferring About Characters in First Grade

Katie DiCesare confers with Vidhi about the main character in her independent reading book.

Finding Craft Minilessons in the Children’s Books You Love

Mary Helen Gensch explains how to find craft lessons in beloved children’s books. She uses a mentor text with an engaging main character to describe the process. This is the first installment in a three-part series.

Eight Picture Books That Show (vs. Tell) How to Be Mindful

Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris continue their series on teaching mindfulness with picture books.

The Big Fresh November 8, 2014 Take a Different Route

We consider quiet learners in this week’s Big Fresh.

Supporting Introverts in Literacy Workshops

Kim Campbell has suggestions for ways teachers can help introverts have more say in literacy workshops.

Slow Thinkers

Gigi McAllister realizes she is a slow thinker, and this makes her reconsider some of her classroom practices to support children who need more time to respond.

Making Space: Entering Lessons Mindfully

Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris explain how to slow down and enter lessons more mindfully. This is the first installment in a three-part series on mindfulness in classrooms.

Dictation in Fourth Grade: Conferring with Donovan

Beth Lawson helps fourth grader Donovan focus his many ideas for writing through some dictation in a writing conference.

The Silent Period

Do you have English language learners in the silent period in your school? Stella Villalba has tips for teachers working with them.

The Big Fresh November 1, 2014 Short and Smart

We explore how to teaching using short nonfiction texts in this week’s Big Fresh.

Inform, Inspire, Instruct: Essays as Mentor Texts in High School

Kim Campbell shares her favorite nonfiction short texts to use with adolescents.

Shorter Research Projects: Rethinking Notetaking Strategies

Katherine Sokolowski is assigning shorter research projects in her fifth-grade classroom as a way to help students acquire notetaking skills and understand the boundaries of plagiarism.

Second-Grade Nonfiction Writing Share

Sean Moore leads his second graders in a whole-class discussion of nonfiction writing, including a partner share.

Infusing Informational Texts into Morning Meetings: Fact of the Day and Daily News Routines

Andrea Smith explains two routines, Daily News and Fact of the Day, which are key components of her morning meetings.

Visualizing Plot Points: The Roller Coaster Conference

Beth Lawson helps a child visualize a mystery story he is writing as a roller coaster with ups and downs, and twists and turns.

The Big Fresh October 25, 2014 Learning Spaces

Peer support is explored in this week’s Big Fresh.

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