Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better.
John Updike
One of my favorite publications every year is the International Reading Association’s “What’s Hot and What’s Not” list. Each year Jack Cassidy and Stephanie Grote-Garcia survey and interview 25 literacy leaders to tally the topics that are most and least popular among teachers and researchers. There aren’t many surprises on this year’s list. We all know the Common Core and close reading are hot, and phonics and fluency aren’t generating nearly as much interest as they were a few years ago. I always chuckle at the “What’s Not Hot But Should Be Hot” list — it feels like I’m being scolded by an irritated professor for not paying attention to an important lecture. This year, both literacy coaching and formative assessment were on that list, two of the most popular topics for readers here at Choice Literacy.
I compile my own simple version of a “what’s hot” list every spring, by tallying the features that have been most popular with readers over the previous year. This spring break edition of the Big Fresh highlights the links you’ve visited the most since last April — you’ve voted with your clicks. I hope you enjoy revisiting or exploring for the first time this writing by some of your favorite authors. We are still knee-deep in snow here in Maine, but compiling this list each spring gives me hope that the tulips are on their way.
Brenda Power
Founder, Choice Literacy
Free for All
[For sneak peeks at our upcoming features, quotes and extra links, follow Choice Literacy on Twitter: @ChoiceLiteracy or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChoiceLiteracy or Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/]
Here are the 10 most popular Choice Literacy resources from the past year, in no particular order:
If you create anchor charts without students, are they really anchor charts? Shari Frost defines the three most common types of anchor charts, as well as the essential elements in them:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1042
Every routine can’t be introduced at the same time early in the year. Aimee Buckner gives criteria for judging if the time is right for notebooks in When Are Students Ready for Writers’ Notebooks?:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1340
Amanda Adrian and Heather Rader explore connections between the Common Core and vocabulary instruction:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1199
Ruth Ayres has a pragmatic take on progress in her reflective piece On Perfection and Goals:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1347
Year in and year out, this simple feature on the seven reading comprehension strategies always makes the list. It was one of the very first articles published at Choice Literacy eight years ago:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=85
Franki Sibberson keeps it simple and inviting with her wall and book displays at the start of the year:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1317
Your favorite podcast? Chris Lehman and Kate Roberts considered close reading from many different angles:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1851
Your favorite issue of the Big Fresh was on formative assessments:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1935
Your favorite poem was Shirl McPhillips’s “Harbinger,” about how robins and teachers come through winter each year both battered and hopeful. How appropriate for this time of year:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=940
The most popular Choice Literacy Pinterest board this year focused on Children’s Books for Teaching Grammar and Mechanics:
That’s all for this week!