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Finding Meaning in Reading Podcast with Heather Fisher
The focus of this week's Big Fresh is Finding Meaning in Reading. Heather Fisher joins the podcast. Click here for ALL links discussed. Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big...
Examining Book Choices with Awareness of Bias
“Mrs. Parks, they are wearing masks like us,” came a soft voice from my laptop. I paused to look at the thumbnail images of faces that filled my Zoom screen...
Recognizing Bias Podcast with Gretchen Schroeder
The focus of this week's Big Fresh is Recognizing Bias. Gretchen Schroeder joins the podcast. Click here for ALL links discussed. Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh...
Many Uses for Mentor Texts to Teach Argument Writing
Crafting a strong piece of argument writing is essential in middle school, according to the standards. The best way we have to teach our sixth- and seventh-grade students how to...
Rethinking “Finding” the Central Idea
I have often told my students that teachers don’t always have all the answers and that sometimes when teachers listen to students, we become the learners. When I told my students...
Teaching Summary
On the first day of school, I have sixth graders complete a survey answering questions to help me get to know them as readers, writers, and individuals. The last item...
Defining Through Experience
The topic for our professional development: providing feedback to our students to help them persevere through any complex task. Up to this point in the year, our staff had experienced...
Coaching Minute: Notes and Forms
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain the value of using the same notetaking forms teachers use with students as they coach teachers. The practice not only informs their coaching, but...
How Teacher Evaluation Can Support School-Wide Change
Can we leverage teacher evaluation systems to support school-wide change? For example, if our goal is an effective and engaging ELA curriculum, in what ways might formal observations help implementation?...
Meaningful Conversations Podcast with Christy Rush-Levine
The focus of this week's Big Fresh is Meaningful Conversations. Christy Rush-Levine joins the podcast. Click here for ALL links discussed. Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter...
Harnessing the Power of Change
Camping, real camping, the kind with tents and sleeping bags and stiff backs . . . I don’t really know why I subject myself and my two young sons, Ben and...
Trending Hashtags: Finding Priorities in a Unit of Study
Outside of trust, getting to a goal that matters is arguably the most critical element for any coaching relationship. The goal has to be powerful and student focused, and it...
Meaningful Conversations
Years ago, I heard Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely speak on their book tour for All-American Boys. The authors shared how at every school they had visited, they asked how...
One Text. One Conversation. Many Possibilities.
It’s generally accepted that classroom discussion is an effective strategy for building comprehension and improving student achievement overall. But how it should occur around text is debatable. Guided reading? Yes,...
Equity Podcast with Stella Villalba
The focus of this week's Big Fresh is equity. Stella Villalba joins the podcast to discuss her current thinking about equity. Get the Big Fresh delivered straight to your inbox...
Picture Books That Affirm and Celebrate Students’ Identities
Children’s literature brings me joy. When I pick up a stack of picture books from my local library, I plan an afternoon around it. My essentials are a good cup...
Field Notes: 6 Ways to Respond Remotely to Build a Community of Writers
I’m joining Jen Vincent’s seventh-grade language arts class in a school outside of Chicago. Her students meet remotely, and I accepted Jen’s invitation to observe her writing workshop. Rarely will...
Three Small Moves to Make a More Inclusive Classroom
Sometimes understanding comes to us all at once, and other times it comes slowly, in small bits and pieces. Several years ago while I was subbing in a first-grade classroom,...
Laying the Foundation for an Equitable Classroom
I think that all teachers would agree that equity is an important aspect of education, but sometimes big concepts, such as equity, can seem daunting to the individual teacher. When...
Empowering Choice Podcast with Nawal Qarooni Casiano
The focus of this week's Big Fresh is empowering choice. Nawal Qarooni Casiano joins the podcast to discuss student-led lessons. Get the Big Fresh delivered straight to your inbox (it's...
Actively Recognizing Biases
Last year in our seventh-grade literacy class, months before the Black Lives Matter movement became a national topic of discussion, we read and discussed an article on the history of...
