Choice Lit Topic: Community Building
It’s one of the big paradoxes of literacy instruction – students best learn how to read and write independently when they have a strong community of support in classrooms. How teachers build those thoughtful, kind, and challenging classroom communities is explained in these resources.
Results
Supporting Introverts in a First-Grade Classroom
When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt. Henry J. Kaiser It’s Saturday night as I sit to writing this. I have a mug of tea, a blanket, my...
Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Reading and Community in Kindergarten
Mandy Robek leads her kindergartners in a shared reading and performance of the classic tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Make a Note
By mid-January, any child in my classroom will tell you that I am forgetful. I make a point, in fact, of forgetting things they tell me, all of the time. ...
Linking Movement, Minds, and Literacy in Kindergarten
Rituals and routines shape our habits. Students construct inner control of their thinking through repeated actions, guided by an inner dialogue. Self-regulatory talk can be intentionally taught, then integrated into...
Movement with First Graders
Katie DiCesare leads her first-grade students through movements and a song, and explains in the debrief why movement activities are valuable for young learners.
Lists, Facts, and Reports: Conferring with Anna
Franki Sibberson confers with fourth grader Anna to help her connect report writing with her love of animal lists.
My Name Is Not Julie
This is the story I don’t want to tell you. I don’t want to tell it because it is too good to be true, and I don’t want you to...
Building Peer Conferring Skills in the Primary Grades
In my past experience with sixth-grade students, peer conferring was a way of life in our writing class. Students were able to take the lead and really push the thinking...
Classroom Jobs Build Community
As I began this year in my kindergarten class one of the classroom processes that I chose to focus on was our classroom jobs. In the past, as a part...
Lifting the Quality of Peer Response
Helping children learn to listen to each other well and give feedback takes a great deal of time. For many years, I just assumed that kids intuitively knew how to...
Whole Class Writing Share: Teaching Response Skills in 1st Grade
Katie DiCesare's first graders respond to their classmates' writing, using questions they developed together over time.
Brainstorming Student Blogs
Franki Sibberson works with a group of students as they brainstorm how they will create a blog together.
Book Talks in 4th Grade
Tony Keefer previews Infinity Ring with his fourth graders, and talks about the value of book talks for building a reading community.
Bully Literacy
Ahna came running up from her sand castle to where I was soaking up the sun. “Mom, there’s a kid with a weird arm who wants to play with me....
Fun in January: A Mock Caldecott Unit
Every January the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, gives out media awards to the most distinguished books for children from the previous...
Eliminating the Conga Line: Teaching Young Children About Strategic Thinking
In the past few months we have spent a lot of time in classrooms establishing systems and structures. We have been busy modeling how we use materials, work independently, and...
Writers Inspiring Writers
When Stephen King is asked, “How do you write?” he invariably answers, “One word at a time.” Those readers and writers who admire his work seek wisdom and inspiration from...
Teachers’ Night Out: Reclaiming Our Fearlessness
The performer dangled high above the stage, wavy blond hair cascading down her back as she skillfully wove her feet from one section of suspended white sash to the next,...
Peer Conferring: The “Try It On” Phase
Mercy Watson is always causing trouble, but I don’t think she means to. She doesn’t always know what she’s doing. Abby, age 6 “I love Roald Dahl books,...
Second-Grade Writing: Adding Details and Descriptive Language
In this first video from a four-part series, Sean Moore leads a writing workshop focused on adding more details and descriptive language to writing. He begins with the classic Charlotte's...
Poetry All Year Long
“Poetry Bands, take your places. It’s time to begin,” I announce to my eager and anxious poets. It is a warm and sunny Thursday morning in early June. Fourth graders...
