Articles

Poetry Friday! Poetry Books That Are Fun to Read Aloud

What do doughnuts and talk-filled mornings have in common? Learn about this Poetry Friday ritual that impacts independent reading time as well.

Under, Over and Beyond Words: Strategies for Observing Talk in Classrooms

This article offers possibilities for observing classrooms focused on talk as an alternative to traditional observation notes.

Inviting Students to Organize Books and Materials

Debbie Miller advocates for involving children in the organization of materials for readers and writers in the classroom.

Charting the Course: A Yearlong Professional Development Plan for New Teachers (SCHEDULE)

Planning with the end in mind is essential for literacy leaders. Jennifer Allen takes us through her process for creating a focused and progressive year-long plan.

The Other Buddy: How Partnership Programs Help Older Readers

In many buddy reading programs we often tout the benefits for the younger, less experienced reader, but Shari Frost tells the story of a “big kid” reader with a legitimate reason to read books that were closer to his independent level. Read on.

Idealism Fades to Reality: Thinking Back to My Days as a New Teacher

Jennifer Allen makes connections between her new professional life as a literacy coach and her beginning as a classroom teacher.

Layered Support: Meeting the Needs of Beginning Teachers

Jennifer Allen reflects on essential layers that provide a safety net for the challenges facing beginning teachers.

Digging Deep: The Power of Rereading

Max Brand considers how rereading helps students understand and enjoy texts.

Let’s Get Some Attitude

Shirl McPhillips recalls a junior high experience that promoted serious "attitude" and an uproar among her peers.

Power Tools

Aimee Buckner shares three essential "power tools" for writers.

Coaching Moment: Reorganizing a Classroom Library

Gayle Gentry reflects on how a colleague’s simple request to reorganize a classroom library turned into coaching opportunities that had a direct impact on student learning.

Tracking Young Children’s Writing and Development

Andie Cunningham and Ruth Shagoury share the assessment tools they use to track Andie’s kindergarten writers.

Common Core Conversations: Increasing Argumentative Writing

Teachers continue to puzzle over and sort through the terminology in the Common Core related to opinion and persuasive writing. Amanda Adrian and Heather Rader consider terms and teaching strategies.

The Difference Between Conferring and “Touching Base”

Debbie Miller goes against the grain, advocating for “the luscious feeling of endless time” as we slow down to confer with children.

“I Am the Book”: Helping Emergent Bilingual Learners Connect with Books

Jesabel Centeno helps her emergent bilingual learners respond orally to texts and share favorite books with classmates.

Whole Class Interviews: Building Community in Writing Workshop (TEMPLATE)

Interviews early in the year are a potent tool for building a class community.

Word Study is More Than Spelling

Franki Sibberson works to expand her views of spelling and word work, redefining routines in her grades 3 and 4 classroom.

Important Book, Important Notes: Guiding Young Students Through Notetaking

Suzy Kaback catches a young learner near and dear to her in the process of plagiarizing. She uses the experience to develop a template to help students and colleagues with notetaking.

A Strategy Lesson for “Drive-Thru” Readers

Who is a “drive-thru” reader? One who zips through the start of a book and discards it before finishing, moving  ever more quickly through random books.  Aimee Buckner has some minilesson suggestions for dealing with those students who can’t or won’t finish any books they start.

Teaching About Words, Grammar, and Mechanics Through Children’s Literature (BOOKLIST)

Franki Sibberson wants her students to be more than just good spellers — she wants them to understand words in sophisticated ways, from many different angles. Children's books are a tool for reaching that goal.

Company-Ready Teaching

Mary Lee Hahn prepares for classroom visitors, and the process of viewing her room with fresh eyes makes her question routines and wall displays.

Breathing New Life into the Writer’s Notebook

Tara Smith finds her sixth graders have years of experience with writer's notebooks by the time they reach her classroom. How to inspire enthusiasm for a familiar tool? Mix old favorite tasks and lessons with fresh texts and tech-savvy options.

Choosing Books in Verse

Tara Barnett and Kate Mills offer tips and a booklist to position students to read novels in verse.

Panels and Pages: Using Graphic Novels in the High School Classroom

Gretchen Schroeder bolsters her students’ reading lives and deepens discussion about theme by using the rich graphic novel They Called Us Enemy as a whole-class read with her high school students. Gretchen shows how teachers can support students in deep literary analysis.

Dot Images: Taking Time to Reflect Brings Out Mathematical Ideas

Mallory Messenger shares a way to help students slow down and reflect on mathematical ideas. As she poses dot images to the class and collects different ways students see and count each image,  students begin to reflect on key ideas. Mallory gives questions that will help students develop a stronger understanding of the concepts.

Ready-to-Go Book Talks

Leigh Anne Eck shares the dilemma of many teachers—at the start of a new school year, book talks are easy to keep up with because the fresh reads from the summer are front of mind. But as the year gets busy, it becomes more difficult to keep up, and it’s easy to let book talks fall away. Leigh Anne offers a simple and practical solution to have book talks ready no matter how busy or frazzled you are!

Teaching = Communication

Jodie Bailey reflects on the power and problem of using acronyms to define the order of operations for students. She offers several routines to foster an understanding of mathematical concepts beyond memorizing an acronym.

Giving Kids Time and Space to Show Their Brilliance

Mallory Messenger offers intentional ways to give students time and space to share their learning. This is easier said than done in our fast-paced, standardized-test-driven, mandates-filled world, but with a few intentional strategies, we can slow down the pace just enough to see what our students can really do.

Twitter Chats and Professional Development

Connection Points: The Sambusa Was the Key

Becca Burk recalls a pivotal moment when a multilingual student brought her sambusas to taste. Let’s remember that connection points—accepting a gift from home, sitting in the struggle, celebrating the small things, and noticing perseverance—are effective because they allow the child to feel seen, included, and celebrated.