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Professional Development Closing Activities (ROUND-UP)
In the closing moments of professional development sessions, how do you leave participants inspired and commited to making changes in their classrooms? We asked Choice Literacy contributors to share some...
The Five-Minute Solution: Mini-Groups after Minilessons to Maximize Conferring Time
Writing conferences in the upper elementary grades can be scary. Books and gurus say you have to have "editing conferences" and "revision conferences" and "idea conferences." They say you need...
Extreme Makeover: Revision Edition
Once upon a time in my third-grade classroom, I had an eight-foot pencil poster on my wall that listed the steps of the writing process from prewriting at the point...
Getting Started with Sentence Observations
If you watched the recent video clip posted on Choice Literacy of a sentence observation in my classroom, you may have noted the sophisticated language and discussion strategies of the...
What to Say on Parent Teacher Night
As the school year gets in full swing throughout the country, many teachers and literacy coaches have been talking about and preparing for parent/teacher night or the annual school Open...
Connecting Read Alouds and the Literacy Curriculum at the Start of the School Year
Many teachers use read alouds at the start of the year to launch specific components of their literacy curriculum. In this second of our two-part series on Read Alouds at...
If You Like Junie B. Jones, You Might Like . . .
Getting hooked on a series is an important part of a child's reading development. I remember as a child getting addicted to Nancy Drew, the Betsy books, The Secret Seven...
Fresh Books and Age-old Skills
Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables. Spanish Proverb Getting stuck in a rut is easy because making a change is difficult. Take the story of my kitchen clock and...
Vocabulary, Comprehension, and the Common Core: A Conversation with Doug Fisher (PODCAST)
Douglas Fisher has spent decades researching the place of vocabulary instruction in literacy programs at all grade levels. He is the author or coauthor of many books and articles for...
Every. Single. Day.
"Welcome, Eric!" Katie tells the brand-new student to her 6th-grade classroom, mid-way through the school year. Eric smiles hesitantly -- but gamely as Katie addresses the rest of the class....
Telling Our Stories
We all know that teaching requires constant renewal of the mind, heart, and spirit. How do we find time to truly renew ourselves, to refuel our spirits that get used...
You’ve Got to Be Joking
Kai's class was "obnoxious" (in his words). I'm accustomed to working with high-energy kids in need of redirection, but some days even I had to admit they knocked the wind...
Making Assumptions
It had been a rough morning. I'd spent the last two-and-a-half hours in jaw-tightening silence, watching a novice teacher making misstep after misstep in his classroom. In my capacity as...
The Power of Powerpoints for English Language Learners
I'm in love with lesson planning. I'm equally enamored with creating and organizing, so filling a binder with unit plans, multi-colored tabs, and pretty post-it notes is basically a dream...
From “I Don’t Get It” to “Never Mind — That’s Amazing!”: Scaffolding Schema for Comprehending Poetry
In the beginning poetry was reserved for April. It is National Poetry Month after all, so why not teach about it then? As it became difficult to fit all things...
I Can’t Quite Put My Finger On It
Have you ever been working with a teacher and they start to tell you about a new strategy or "program" you are not familiar with, but the description you are...
Tried and True Trumps Shiny and New
My son, Mitchell, adores the idea of getting something new. "Please!" he begs, "Can we go to the toy store?" He believes there must be a toy out there that...
Rumor Has It
This April, let's talk about people; let's start some rumors. Let's talk about characters and authors we know to people who have no clue who they are. Let's step out...
Literacy Coaching and Student Work with Diane Sweeney (PODCAST)
Diane Sweeney is the author of Student-Centered Coaching: A Guide for K-8 Coaches and Principals. In this podcast with Heather Rader, she talks about the dangers of focusing too much on...
Sticky Little Invention (The Post-It Essay)
I love a graffiti board assignment -- a chance for students to display their learning in creative ways and receive brief "graffiti" responses from their peers. Teachers in my college...
Poetry that Celebrates Summertime and the Outdoors
Summer is the perfect time for poetry. The warm, relaxed days are filled with great images and memories. There are many poetry books for children that celebrate nature and the...
