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Playing with Words
Many years ago I attended an exceptional keynote address about supporting vocabulary development through content areas. I typed quickly, capturing the words of wisdom, and brought the ideas back to...
Offering Playful Choice to Show Learning
It all started when one first grader complained, “Mrs. Mulligan, I don’t want to talk with my book club. It’s boring.” Then several others chimed in, “Yeah, it’s boring.” Hearing...
Sensible Reasons to Use Student Reading Records
Several years ago I started a Goodreads account to keep track of the books I read. Creating my own personal shelves allowed me to track books from genres, topics, and...
Conventions Podcast with Jen Schwanke
The focus of this week's Big Fresh podcast is conventions. Jen Schwanke joins the conversation. Click here for ALL links discussed. Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter...
A Word to Aspiring Coaches
Not long ago, my district had a few openings for instructional coaches. The openings were an exciting opportunity, as our schools were considering a return to somewhat “normal” instruction after...
Resisting the Scripted Curriculum
During my classroom visits, one of the 4K teachers wanted to share some of her students’ writing with me. “Check out what Brooklyn can do.” She pulled a paper from...
The Choice Literacy Book Club Discusses My Hero Academia, Volume 1
Enjoy listening as the Choice Literacy Book Club discusses My Hero Academia, Volume 1 by Kohei Horikoshi. Click here for the Choice Literacy Book Club about My Hero Academia, Volume...
Fairy Tales with a Multimodal Twist: Process and Product
The lights in the library dimmed. The room, filled with parents and other distinguished guests, quieted. Students wiggled in their seats, whispering excitedly as they waited. It was time for...
Fairy Tales with a Multimodal Twist: Laying the Groundwork
“We picked the name Prince Sparklepants because we wanted people to laugh.” The three girls giggled as they told me about the main character in their twisted fairy tale. “Tell...
Fairy Tale Study that Needed a Restart
Each year, I remember when I returned to teaching second grade. I was overwhelmed by learning new standards and content. One of our literacy standards asks us to compare and...
Books Need Space
I’ve always personified objects. I grew up on a farm, and on those stifling hot summer days baling hay, I would beg my father to give the tractor a break....
Craft Moves in Before the Ever After
Meg Kearney, the director of the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College, said many memorable things during my time as a student. One of them involved...
Overplayed Mentor Texts
“What about this book?” I asked my kids as I held up The Sandwich Swap. We were unpacking yet another box of books from our recent move and having to...
Three Expectations Regarding Grammar Instruction
Anyone who has ever sat at a desk with an open grammar book and 10 sentences to perform a rote task like identifying the subject, the subordinate clause, or the...
Summer Work: Absorb the World
“I feel so much pressure to revamp the curriculum this summer,” one teacher leader said. “I know. I want to throw out what we’ve always been doing and think about...
Conventions and Keeping It Real
Conventions. Ahh, the bane of a writing teacher’s existence. How many times have I looked at a student’s writing and seen lowercase letters starting sentences, names not capitalized, end punctuation...
Is Grammar-Check Cheating?
I was recently having a conversation with friends when, as part of a larger story, I mentioned that I had my students install Grammarly, a grammar checker extension, on their...
Offer a Mirror: How Coaches Empower Reflection
“I don’t know! It’s just that I get in there and I start teaching it, and then things happen...like someone has a connection or someone doesn’t understand a word and...
Creating Places for Dialogue
I remember playing with dolls as a child, sitting on the floor with Barbie in one hand, Ken in the other, and creating conversations between them. Recently, I watched my...
Transfer of Learning Podcast with Melanie Meehan
The focus of this week's Big Fresh is Transfer of Learning. Melanie Meehan joins the podcast. Click here for ALL links discussed. Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh...
Crafting Argumentative Essays
Ever since my dad recorded The Eagles’s Hotel California album onto a cassette tape along with my Sesame Street songs when I was a toddler, music has been a part...
