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The Case Against Management Systems

Katherine Sokolowski advises teachers to ditch the search for the perfect management system, and instead focus on building relationships early in the school year.

Curriculum Night? No Sweat

Curriculum night? No sweat says Tony Keefer. Only kidding — there is a lot of sweat involved, but Tony’s humorous account of how he has changed his curriculum night presentation will get you thinking about new ways of connecting with families.

Room Tour: Mandy Robek’s Kindergarten Classroom

Mandy Robek gives a tour of her kindergarten classroom, highlighting literacy spaces that build relationships and independence for her young learners.

Shoebox Autobiographies

Susan Dee uses shoebox autobiographies to build community and relationships with students early in the fall.

The Big Fresh July 26, 2014 Beautiful Questions

We consider student writing of this week’s Big Fresh.

Effective Student Writing Groups

Ruth Ayres has advice for effective peer feedback in writing workshops.

Revising Writing: Fourth-Grade Conference

Tony Keefer confers with fourth grader Sydney about revising her writing and transitioning to a new genre early in the year.

Giving Audio Feedback to Student Writing

If you find yourself buried in student work that needs a response, you’ll enjoy suggestions from Bill Bass for using a nifty new online tool.

The Big Fresh July 19, 2014 Please Don’t Ruin Our Good Work

First activities for the school year are the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.

First Shared Text: Fishing for Many Meanings with Adolescents

Christy Rush-Levine introduces her middle school students to the complexity of reading on the first day of school.

Second-Grade Reading Share

Sean Moore leads a second-grade whole-class reading share early in the year. This quick video shows that this instruction time is as much about establishing social norms as talking about reading.

“I Used To, and Now I”: An Early Year Minilesson

Franki Sibberson finds an “I Used to and Now I” format helps her third-grade students understand how technology is changing reading habits.

Launching a Sort

Launching a sort with primary students early in the year begins not with words, but with leaves for Max Brand.

The Big Fresh July 12, 2014 Loving the Process

Memoir is the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.

Six-Word Memoirs

Gigi McAllister finds the ever-popular six-word memoirs are a wonderful way to build community and help students get to know each other.

An Organizing Tool for Writing

Ruth Ayres gives fourth grader Allie an organization tool for brainstorming memoir possibilities early in the year.

Candy Memoirs

Gretchen Schroeder ditches the long discussion of rules and procedures with her high school students, and instead gives writing workshop a sweet start.

Launching Writing Workshop: Mentor Texts

Mandy Robek shares her favorite texts for building understanding early in the year of writing workshop with young writers. These books are ideal for launching discussions about how writers find ideas.

The Big Fresh July 5, 2014 Cucumber in a Tomato Cage

We feature books for launching reading workshop in this week’s Big Fresh.

Launching Reading Workshop: Mentor Texts

Mandy Robek shares her favorite texts to use early in the year with young students to introduce them to everything from places to read to how to handle books.

The First Days of Reading and Writing Workshops

Katherine Sokolowski explains how she spends her time during the first days of literacy workshops in her fifth-grade classroom.
 

Using Summer Reading as Bookends for the School Year

Karen Terlecky has advice for using summer reading for launching and closing the school year to build community and enduring connections with students.

Fourth-Grade Reading Conference: Focusing While Reading

Aimee Buckner helps fourth grader Isaiah focus his reading early in the year in this quick conference.

The Big Fresh June 21, 2014 Spider Web

Building community early in the school year is the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.

30 Books in 30 Days

Justin Stygles uses the 30 Books in 30 Days project to introduce his sixth graders to a wide variety of authors and genres.

Tutoring Ruth: Designing an Assessment

Max Brand continues his new tutoring series. In this installment, he designs a creative intake assessment for Ruth, a first grader who struggles with following directions.

Character Through Literature Early in the Year

Katherine Sokolowski finds that the beginning of the year is the best time to build community with a unit on character and morals through literature.

Planning for Instruction: Sea Glass

Karen Terlecky uses sea glass as a metaphor for the assessments she completes to launch the year, and data analysis all year long.

Fifth-Grade Memoir Writing: Conferring with Wesley

Ruth Ayres confers with fifth grader Wesley about his personal narrative on scouting.

The Big Fresh June 14, 2014 Mind and Body

Habits are the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.

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