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
Off the Beaten Professional Development Path: What I Learned from the Teachers as Writers Group
It's a Saturday and I'm pressing the norms chart up on the window of a sunlit room in a popular local coffeehouse. Two teachers are here early and smile a...
A More Literate Show and Tell
Last week Tammy joined a kindergarten teacher, Vicki Haley, for her writer's workshop. As we all know, the reality of kindergarten is that even with the best-laid plans we can...
High School Students Take on a Reader’s Bill of Rights
I've got the best job in the world; I get paid to talk about books and maps and history and philosophy and yes, even grammar and punctuation. Now, lest you...
Wonderopolis: Nonfiction, Technology, and Web-Based Independent Learning
Wonder questions bring life and energy to learning. This school year, I started using a powerful digital website called Wonderopolis. Each day, my students and I visit this site during Morning...
Ways to Collaborate With Your School Librarian
In my 24 years of teaching, I have held many teaching roles in the elementary school setting. Although most of my work has been as a classroom teacher at various...
Writers, Choice and Independence (Part II)
There is a difference between students quietly writing during workshops in classrooms, knowing the routines that are in place, and true independence. So what can teachers do to create environments...
Tuesday Trades: A New Literacy Ritual in My Classroom
How can it be mid-winter already? The first months of school flew by, and so many important things happened; sometimes evolutions and revolutions occurred and we were just too busy...
Letting Go After Holding on Tight: Reflecting on the Last Days of School
Teachers will tell you that the end of the school year means several weeks of never-ending to-do lists, the scary prospect of packing up a room so walls can be...
An ESL Poetry Cafe Celebration (Part II)
In Part I of this feature, I shared some projects, expectations, and activities for our Poetry Café celebration. This is an event where families enjoyed listening to their children read poems,...
Connecting Yoga and Character Traits in Literature Study
"Sat Nam!" the voices shouted at 8:15 a.m. right before they headed down the hall on their way to start their day at school. I had just finished my Monday...
A Bad Case of the Never-Ending Januaries
A Choice Literacy member wrote to us this week: I am noticing that we have hit a point in the year where teachers are stressed, snow days are maxed, and...
Using Jackdaws to Build Community in Kindergarten
When thinking about starting a school year and building a classroom community I've always done the jackdaw project. I stopped doing the jackdaw project two years ago when I moved...
Tuesday Trading Post: Involving the Whole School in a Book Exchange
What's in place in your classroom or school to encourage readers to share their favorite resources every day? Our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) created a new, schoolwide ritual this year...
On Compassion
"You're a sucky teacher!" She hurled these words at me just before throwing a Kleenex box across the room, tipping over her desk, and storming out the door. I sighed and called...
Poetry Fridays (and So Much More) for Students and Staff
Poetry Friday is surely my most subversive act of teaching. From the outside, you see a suspension of the regular routines of reading workshop. You see children sitting side-by-side with...
Mentor Texts to Help Students Monitor Their Actions
Thoughtful planning, experience, and visualization were not enough to help me at the beginning of the school year two years ago in kindergarten. After spending five years with third graders,...
Sense of Little Engines
About half of our coaching staff is engaged in a book study of Peter Johnston's Choice Words. We meet once a month before school at a local coffee shop that offers...
Books with Overlooked Potential for Launching the School Year (and Ideas for Using Them with Students)
Editor's Note: Teachers often have cherished favorite books for launching the school year, and it's no wonder. We know how students will respond based on our experiences in previous years, and...
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan on Getting the Most Out of Grade-Level Team Meetings (PODCAST)
In this podcast, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan, the founders of Teachers for Teachers, talk with Franki Sibberson about how to link grade level team meetings with student achievement, and...
Books for Launching the School Year (and Ideas for Using Them with Students)
Editor's Note: Teachers often have cherished favorite books for launching the school year, and it's no wonder. We know how students will respond based on our experiences in previous years, and...
5 Easy Steps to Becoming Active in the Blog Community
If you've started a blog, you're going to want to build a readership larger than just your mother, your spouse and your best friend. One of the best ways to...
