Library
Choice Literacy Articles & Videos
The Choice Literacy library contains over 3,000 articles and 900 videos from 150+ contributors. Classic Classroom and Literacy Leadership subscribers have access to the entire library. Content is updated continuously, with five to six new features published each week.
Latest Content
Simplifying Word Study
Max Brand has suggestions for simplifying word study.
Bridge to Comprehension Minilesson
Deb Gaby uses a bridge metaphor in a comprehension minilesson for second graders.
March Literacy Contracts: Nonfiction Curiosities
This month’s literacy contract for middle school students focuses on nonfiction texts and growing independence in the classroom.
The Big Fresh March 1, 2014 Sensing Spring
A fun take on March Madness with book brackets is the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.
Bracketology
Mary Lee Hahn uses bracketology to help her fifth-grade students explore determining importance in short texts and close reading.
Drama and Two-Page Spreads: Conferring with Max
Ruth Ayres confers with second grader Max about the drama of losing his dog, and the value of using two-page spreads to tell a story.
The Big Fresh February 22, 2014 Making Opinions Matter
Opinion and argumentative writing are the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.
The Pause That Refreshes: Write When the Conversation Gets Hot
When’s the best time for some spontaneous opinion writing? Suzy Kaback argues it’s when class conversations get hot.
Writing Fiction: More Than Just a Walk in the Park
Is there room for fiction writing in middle schools in the age of the Common Core? Katie Baydo-Reed shares eight compelling reasons why fiction writing is still essential in her eighth-grade classroom.
Conferring About Lemony Snicket and Vocabulary
Aimee Buckner confers with fourth grader Samantha about reading a series and tackling challenging vocabulary at the same time in this brief video.
So You Think You Can Combine Sentences? You Can!
Heather Rader concludes her series on sentence combining with a four-step process to help teachers explore the sentence combining craft on their own.
The Big Fresh February 15, 2014 Fancy Foods
We explore instruction with series and chapter books in this week’s Big Fresh.
Sentence Combining in Workshops
Heather Rader has strategies for using sentence combining in literacy workshops.
More Sophisticated Mysteries: Conferring with Yuki
Franki Sibberson confers with fourth grader Yuki to expand his reading options into more complex series and mysteries.
The Power of Mystery Series for Teens and Tweens
Ruth Shagoury shares her top picks of mystery series for teens and tweens.
A Tool Worth Exploring: Sentence Combining
Heather Rader begins a new series on sentence combining, an alternative to traditional drill and kill grammar instruction.
Conversational Skills in a Boys Book Club
Linda Karamatic observes a second-grade boys book club using tokens as a cue for turn taking, and then discusses her observations with the students.
Deeper Writing: The Story Behind the Selfie
Gretchen Taylor taps into a cultural phenomenon with her seventh-grade writers to help them deepen their writing and reflection.
The Big Fresh February 8, 2014 Keeping It Short
Short texts are the focus of this week’s Big Fresh.
Making the Most of Short Texts
Mary Lee Hahn melds short texts with the Common Core in this first article in a two-part series.
“Article of the Week” Activity in Fourth Grade
Tony Keefer finds that the article-of-the-week activity (adapted from Kelly Gallagher's work) is a good way to integrate short shared texts into his fourth-grade literacy workshop.
Collecting Ideas in the Writer’s Notebook
Ruth Ayres confers with third grader Jade about the importance of the “collecting” phase for writers.
no i don’t think you need to shave
Katie Baydo-Reed lays down the law for her eighth graders about capitalization and the use of periods, with excellent and hilarious results. This piece will make you laugh out loud at the gaps between the ways teachers and teenagers think.
The Big Fresh February 1, 2014 Strength and Weakness
We consider middle school literacy in this week’s Big Fresh.
Previewing a Book with an Eighth Grader
In this brief conference, Katie Baydo-Reed chats with an eighth grader as he previews The Wednesday Wars
Multiple Strategies for Kindergarten Readers
Tammy Mulligan explains why it’s important to encourage kindergarten students to use other strategies beyond “sound it out” in this demonstration small group.
Children’s Literature for the Olympics
The Olympics are just around the corner, and Sarah Klim has suggestions for read alouds in a new booklist.
Explanatory Grammar Moves: Getting Verbal with It
Jeff Anderson concludes his series on explanatory grammar moves by exploring participles, included in the Common Core eighth-grade standard covering the use of verbals.
Making Classics Relevant for Middle School Students
Jennifer Schwanke helps middle school students make connections between classics and their current reading.
Middle School Design: Cozy Reading Spaces
Katie Doherty has design tips for creating cozy reading spaces in middle school classrooms where there is no space or budget for a whole-class rug area.
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