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Characters I Know Too Well
I knew I would never forget that feeling that washed over me as I read Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. As I sped through the gripping text, I asked myself again...
Relentless Consistency: Finding a Common Teaching Language Without Scripts
We recently heard Michael Fullan speak about the impact of common language and consistent practices on the speed of change within school systems. Consistency in core practices and key language...
Read Alouds for the First Day of School
Last year we surveyed Big Fresh subscribers to learn their favorite literacy activities for launching the school year with students and colleagues. This week and next we'll feature suggestions for read alouds...
Injecting Writing into Everything: Cover-up Stories
When you read the word cover-up, what comes to mind? Roswell, New Mexico and U.F.O.s? A political scandal? Misappropriated funds? I'm using the term "cover-up" as literally concealing the illustrations...
The Email Mirror and Literacy Coaching
Last year while attending a mentor symposium, my thinking about coaching was challenged. As experienced instructional coaches, we were asked to rate ourselves on a number of attributes. When I...
Save the Picture Books!
I got the bad news from my friend, Pam Pifer. I opened an email from her and it contained this article from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/us/08picture.html. The reporters note a dramatic...
Social Justice Picture Books
Many wonderful new resources exist to introduce issues of social justice to even very young children. There are a wealth of picture books that can help us educate students, their...
Balancing Assessments Through Better Classroom Notes
Marie Clay reminds us, "The one closest to the classroom experience is in a unique position to see and communicate a reliable and valid instructional perspective of the child." In...
Ways to Avoid Coaching Traps
When we first began providing staff development to schools, our mentor at Tufts University shared the book Strategies for Teacher Collaboration by Loviah Aldinger with us. We each carry a well-worn copy...
Similes, Metaphors, Homophones and Synonyms: Children’s Books to Teach the Language of Words
When I hear the word "analogy" or "metaphor" I immediately think of multiple choice questions and #2 pencils. I was introduced to these ideas as they related to test taking,...
Favorite Spaces (Part 1)
Look at your learning space with 21st-century eyes: Does it work for what we know about learning today or just for what we knew about learning in the past? The...
Quick and Thorough: Literacy Coach Conferring Notes
For most classroom teachers, it takes years to perfect a system for conferring during reading and writing workshops. In my role as a literacy coach I have supported many teachers...
Launching the Newbery Club
The students arrived at 8:00 in the morning for the first Newbery Club meeting, and it was exciting to see them carrying their books. We took a quick inventory of...
Along Saplines
Looking out at you, you skinny old tree, waving your rough arms in place like a tired warrior with nothing but a flurry of white between you and victory. Nothing's...
Great Little Books for Professional Book Clubs
Tracie and Shelly were absolutely beaming! Their first professional book club as the literacy coaches at Wilson School was an undeniable success. The teachers had agreed to meet before school...
Primary Series Study
One of my first goals at the beginning of the year for my first and second graders is to help them find and choose books to fill their book bins....
Ann Marie Corgill on Launching Writer’s Workshop (PODCAST)
Ann Marie Corgill, the author of Of Primary Importance, talks with Franki Sibberson about the launch of writer's workshop early in the year, and how her thinking has changed about instruction...
Favorite Spaces (Part 2)
Look at your learning space with 21st-century eyes: Does it work for what we know about learning today or just for what we knew about learning in the past? The...
Clearing Up Confusion
Brian needed a change. He had been voraciously reading graphic novels since school began two months ago, and I had been wondering when to start nudging him to change it...
Young Learners and Martin Luther King Day (BOOKLIST)
I never met this parent, but her concerns in a letter to the editor stayed with me for years. The parent was very upset that her kindergarten daughter came home...
Math, Writing, and Coaching to Learn
In Writing to Learn, William Zinsser states, "Writing is a way to work yourself into a subject and make it your own." There is no subject I like more than...
