Article Content Type: Article
Results
Writing Share Structures
Can I share today? I want to share. Me too, me too! The clamoring for attention was driving me crazy. Ten minutes into our workshop and students who had barely...
Building a Reflective Community
“So what you’re saying is that this chart isn’t about being right or wrong. It’s about figuring things out,” Tom said, eyeing our newest comprehension chart that I had unveiled...
Allocating Services
Each autumn, a few weeks after the school doors have opened again after summer break, we gather a group of teachers, support staff, and administrators to consider our literacy data...
Meeting Mind-Set
“These meetings are a waste of my time.” I frequently hear this from colleagues. Sometimes, I even think it myself. In a recent conversation a dear friend and colleague said...
Can Anyone Be an Instructional Coach?
It was August, and we had a classroom teacher to hire. The reasons were positive: an increase in enrollment plus a school board and community that is very supportive of...
Coaching as Inquiry
As coaches we are always trying to gauge our effectiveness, always working to learn and grow, always looking for the answers to our questions about the work we do alongside...
Planning for Small-Group Word Study
When my children first started playing travel sports, I made many mistakes. I forgot pieces of their uniform, I learned that I should always bring swimwear in case there was...
Using Concern Forms for Feedback
The practice of having playground balls kept in classrooms or just outside the door is disruptive and unnecessary. The biggest problem is the continuous bouncing of balls in the hallway...
Sentence Phrase Word: Student Independence for Word Learning
Gazing around our classroom community area, I could see that my fourth graders were ready to begin our third day with our latest read-aloud novel. I spotted Zoe waving her...
Coaching Feedback and Reflection
A leader’s job is not to do the work for others, it’s to help others figure out how to do it themselves, to get things done and to succeed beyond...
Lunchtime Author Discussion Groups
Sophia stands in front of me, panic-stricken. “I need Sisters and it’s not in the bin!” She is holding Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novel Drama in both hands. Sisters is another...
Lunchtime Storytelling
I was routinely late to my lunchroom duty. The sounds, the smells, the lingering playground arguments, and the too-hard-to-peel-open pudding cups repelled me. Back in September it was enjoyable. I...
Sharing and Celebrating Summer Reading
We know that summer reading is essential to help prevent summer slippage, and we support students and their families at the end of the year in making summer reading plans...
Graphics and Coaching Opportunities
An email from the principal. A curriculum memo from the assistant superintendent. The monthly newsletter from district office. Teachers are bombarded with Very Important Information every day. I wanted to...
Telling Our Story
It was a few years ago when our principal called us all into the media center for a bit of news. One of my favorite games is Guess the News,...
Building Community with a Shared Text
While I was teaching a children’s literature course for future educators at a local college, my adult students were assigned to read a middle grade book, Sunny Side Up by...
#bookaday in Middle School: Nuts and Bolts
The basic concept of #bookaday at any age is to read one book per day, keep a list of titles, and share often. I decided to try #bookaday in my...
When a Book Doesn’t Work
I once had a relative say to me, “Teaching must be easy for you now, since you already have your lessons and you’ve done them so many times.” At the...
The Scarlet Level
I’ll never forgot the Friday night I tiptoed into my son’s room to give him one last kiss and could not find him. Rather than seeing him snuggled up in...
Leveled Text Dilemma
We looked in the library. We checked the bookroom . . . No luck. But we need more leveled texts for our readers to use. Help us! Those are the...
Stuck at Level E
Dantrell loved school. He was the first one to burst through the door of the first-grade classroom at the beginning of every school day. He was the last one to...
