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Family Dichos: Bringing the Language of Home into the Classroom
A friend and colleague, Espie dela Vega, mentioned a dicho that guided her and her family as she was growing up: En cada cabeza, el mundo. When someone acted differently, or in...
Over, Under, and Beyond Words: Alternative Strategies for Observing Talk in Classrooms (E-GUIDE)
In the book Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning Peter Johnston writes about the importance of teacher talk with students. He notes, "Teachers have very different ways of...
What’s Valued? Exploring Different Values in Evaluation (E-GUIDE)
This series of four activities is designed for use in workshops or mentoring sessions, with a goal of helping everyone ferret out their school community's history, beliefs, and goals in...
Opinion Exchange (E-GUIDE)
An "Opinion Exchange" is a wonderful activity for a study group session or faculty meeting to explore beliefs and build community around an area of interest. The activity also fosters...
The Art of Listening in Writing Conferences with English Language Learners
Listening looks easy, but it is not simple. Every head is a world. —Cuban proverb Researchers have studied the physiology of listening and speaking. One of the things they discovered...
Creative Literacy Events for Families
If your program for families has been centered on a few tried-and-true events you rarely vary over the years, you might want to mix it up with a new event...
Tools to Redesign Your Classroom (TEMPLATES)
How can teachers get started with thinking through a new classroom design? In these two tools from their acclaimed "Trading Spaces" classroom design courses, "The Sisters" (Gail Boushey and Joan...
Adjectives to Anecdotes: Writing Better Report Card Comments
If your report card allows you to write only a few sentences about each student, a bit of advance planning helps if you want to be specific and concrete. Try...
Alphabet Books for English Language Learners
Five-year-old Bao Jun lived two-thirds of her young life in China, then moved to Portland, Oregon. On the first day of kindergarten, her mother told me, "You say, she understand....
The Dark Side of Girl Talk: How Female Conversation Patterns Can Inhibit School Change
In Margaret Atwood's novel Cat's Eye, eleven-year-old Elaine is alternately taunted and cajoled within her group of female friends in the classroom, on the playground, and in their homes. As an...
Puzzle Kids: Observing and Analyzing Challenging Students (E-GUIDE)
Puzzle kids. Students on the bubble. Children in danger of falling through the cracks. Every teacher can instantly think of students who fit these terms, and can just as quickly...
Conferring with Yourself: A Tool for Anticipating Response (TEMPLATE)
Teachers thinking about making big changes to their literacy programs need a few good voices in their heads. Not the kind that lead to extended stays in padded rooms, but...
Launching Teacher Study Groups: Guidelines and Resources
Teacher study groups are becoming more popular in schools, fueled in part by the surge of interest in adult book clubs in the U.S. over the last decade. In study...
Comprehending Graphic Novels: A Primer for Teachers
Some year ago I discovered a whole new "room" in the library, one I'd never visited before. Likewise, I have found shelves in the bookstore that I've only ever walked...
Guilty Pleasures
TV. These two letters can make a grown adult's eyes roll. It can make a child shout for joy or cry in frustration. Educators cringe as we try to compete...
Writing to Reflect: Quotes for Quick Writing, Reflection, and Discussion (Download)
Educator Parker Palmer talks about the importance of "third things" for teacher renewal and growth—poems, images, or ideas outside our immediate learning community that we can look at together, discuss,...
What Are the Seven Reading Comprehension Strategies?
A "strategy" is a plan developed by a reader to assist in comprehending and thinking about texts, when reading the words alone does not give the reader a sense of...
Two-Column Notes (E-GUIDE)
It's hard to know who to credit for the incredibly useful two-column note tool. While two-column notes are definitely a kissing cousin to the Cornell Note-Taking System (Pauk, 1974), in...
The Read-Around: Raising Writers
The read-around is the classroom equivalent to quilt making or barn raising. It is the public space -- the zocolo or town square -- of my room. During our read-arounds,...
Getting Started with Your Own Writer’s Notebook
It's summer and school is out - at least in Georgia. There are a zillion things I love about the summer: waking up without an alarm, having my morning java...
The Dog Ate My Study Group Plans! Four Instant (and Fun and Reflective) No-Prep Teacher Workshops (E-GUIDE)
Okay, so maybe it wasn't the dog that ate your plans. Maybe leading today's study group is the 45th item on your "To Do" list, and you just didn't get...
