4th
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Restarting a Writing Draft in Fourth Grade
Beth Lawson confers with Michael, a fourth-grade writer who struggles with focus and basic conventions.
Using Reading Notebook Covers for Reflection and Goal Setting
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan are using reading notebook covers in ingenious ways.
Getting Started with Digital Portfolios
Megan Skogstad shares advice launching digital portfolios.
Staying True to Best Practices with Required Resources
Are you required to use a reading or writing program that goes against your beliefs about teaching and learning? Gigi McAllister has suggestions for holding onto your beliefs and sanity.
Launching Student Data Binders
Megan Skogstad shares lots of practical advice for creating and sustaining student data binders.
Strategies for Using Reader’s Notebooks
Melanie Swider enhances read alouds and the entire reading workshop with creative uses for reading notebooks.
Fourth-Grade Read Aloud: Checking In
In this video from a fourth-grade classroom, Gi Reed reads aloud Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson. Gi continually checks in with her students, making sure they are visualizing, noticing new vocabulary, and making connections to earlier incidents in the texts—all without breaking the flow of the story.
Owl Research Notes Group
Andrea Smith helps a group of boys take notes during an owl research project.
Using Picture Books to Foster Resilience
Gigi McAllister uses picture books to strengthen her fourth-grade classroom community.
Percy Jackson Read-Aloud in Fourth Grade
Tony Keefer demonstrates how he makes his read-alouds interactive, and explains why he selected Percy Jackson to use with this group of fourth graders.
Giving Students a Notebook Tour
Melanie Meehan finds a notebooks tour is a terrific minilesson for helping students expand the ways they use notebooks.
Notebook Sketching: Conferring with Sarah
Aimee Buckner confers with Sarah about sketching in her notebook.
Finding Pockets of Time
Gigi McAllister gives suggestions for finding pockets of time in overstuffed schedules.
Making Time for Individual Conferences
Franki Sibberson explains how longer conferences early in the year pay dividends all year long.
Making Memories Stick: Tutoring Kirk
Max Brand tutors a struggling fourth grader who produces very little writing.
Moving Away from Bed to Bed: Conferring with Ty
Ruth Ayres confers with fourth grader Ty about his personal narrative, and works to move him away from a “bed-to-bed” approach in his writing.
Infographics and the Common Core: Resources and Standards
Andrea Smith explains why infographics are more useful than ever in the age of the Common Core, and provides many links to free infographic resources on the web.
Teaching Search Skill Basics to Students
Bill Bass has advice for teaching web-based search skills to students.
The Power of Written Blind Word Sorts
Max Brand uses written blind word sorts to build student word learning skills.
Classroom Displays for Nonfiction Learning
Andrea Smith shares some of her favorite nonfiction classroom displays.
Blurring Genres and Real-Life Readers
The line between fiction and nonfiction can be fuzzy, but Tony Keefer finds what matters most is finding texts that captivate readers.
Explore: Time for Nonfiction
Andrea Smith uses Explore Time with her fourth graders to build interest in nonfiction.
The Power of a Hashtag
Katharine Hale looks at the value of hashtags in helping students harness Twitter in a reading community.
Choosing the Right Tool for Your Message
Julie Johnson has advice on classroom uses of tech resources.
Character Traits and Vocabulary Development
Gigi McAllister shares how she combines vocabulary instruction with analysis of character traits in her fourth-grade classroom.
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.
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.
Peer Evaluation of Student Writing
Megan Ginther found she was spending too much time responding to student writing, and just as important, taking on too much of the responsibility for improvement. She tackled the issue by developing a new program for peer evaluation of student writing.
Writing Homework
If your students are already comfortable with an unstructured requirement of 20-30 minutes of reading each night, you may find adding 10 minutes of writing at home works wonders in fostering writing skills. Katherine Sokolowski explains how the assignment works in her classroom.
Conferring About the Author
Beth Lawson confers with a fourth grader about her “about the author” blurb, a great chance to learn more about students’ home passions.
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