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Using Summer Reading to Expand the Whole School Reading Community
I have always worked hard to prepare my students for a summer of reading. When I was a classroom teacher, we spent quite a bit of time during our last...
Book Basket Idea: Cars and Trucks
Around this time of year I am anxious to look back at what kids loved to read. I take into account what baskets the students fought over (literally), and the...
There’s Been a Misblunderstanding
If you aren't already familiar with Becky Botsford (aka WordGirl) and her sidekick Captain Huggy Face on PBS's Word Girl http://pbskids.org/wordgirl, you should check out her powers. Even if you don't...
The DIBELS Divide (LITERACY COACH CONFIDENTIAL)
Literacy Coach Confidential is Choice Literacy's forum for answering the toughest questions literacy coaches and teachers face as they work together. Our contributors respond to the questions anonymously, which enables them...
Mentoring from the Real to the Ideal: Mental Images of Teaching
When I work with new teachers, I often feel compelled to tell the story of my friend Michelle who was afraid to be a mother. Married for three years, Michelle...
Learning from Coaching Mistakes
Inventors understand that early prototypes inform them best about what doesn't work rather than what does. But what about when prototypes are people? It's difficult for me not to feel...
Not Available in a Six-Pack: Books to Place Alongside Leveled Texts for Our Youngest Readers
Some of my favorite days in teaching have been when a new reader insists on reading a book aloud to me (and everyone they meet that day) because they've discovered,...
The Book Lovers Quilt Project
"Ida B. is the book I fell in love with this year," 11-year-old Sara gushed to Ruth. "I've read it 12 times. I even own three copies, I'm so obsessed....
Accurate But Not Quite Fluent: Books for Second-Grade Readers in Transition
This summer I have had much to think about as I loop with my first graders into second grade. Knowing their taste for books, I have enjoyed finding books about...
Wii Summary
"The summaries my sixth graders write are just awful," Ingrid* explained when we met. "How much time would you estimate that you've spent teaching them explicit summarization strategies?" I asked....
Towards Thoughtful Strategy Instruction
I think it's about to happen again. Education is famous for wide swings of the pendulum. From code emphasis to meaning emphasis, from whole class to small group . ....
Mentor Texts for Urban Students
I sat back, closed my eyes, and listened to Victoria's voice. I was visiting her fifth grade classroom during writing workshop. She was reading Up North at the Cabin (Chall, 1992). Her...
Expedition Mondays: Launching the Week with Nonfiction
If you were to visit my classroom on any Monday morning, students would beg you to join us for Expedition Monday. What would this opportunity mean for you? ex·pe·di·tion NOUN: A...
Getting and Giving Student Feedback
I saved this quote from an email with the title "Why We Love Children": A little girl had just finished her first week of school. "I'm just wasting my time,"...
Triangulating: The Importance of Multiple Data Points When Assessing Students
We went to a professional development session a few years ago with Elizabeth City and she gave us a name for something we have always believed - the importance of...
Dear Mrs. T: Moving Students from Summaries to Rich Response
"Dear Mrs. T" are three of my favorite words in my 5th grade reading workshop. They are the first three words in the reading letters I receive from my students...
What’s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About…?
We've been meeting each week this spring with a group of teachers pre-K through grade 12, all of us exploring literacy teaching in our classrooms around our teacher research questions....
Just Because It’s Skinny, Doesn’t Mean It’s Easy: Matching Books to Transitional Readers in Grades 2-4
I buy a LOT of books for my classroom library. But, there are also many books that I won't buy! My husband has a lot of trouble believing I reject...
Conferring with Children: Principles and Procedures
Just for fun, when we're in a new classroom of young children together, we often introduce ourselves and begin by asking the class a question. "Who do you think is...
Opening Classroom Doors
The role of the reading specialist in elementary schools has shifted so much in the last ten years. Many specialists have gone from working solely with students to serving, at...
The Porch in August: Letting It Be
Chris told his fifth-grade students last week that when he is inside a good book he just cannot put it down. He is caught in the vortex of the story...
