Choice Lit Topic: Content Literacy
Reading and writing across the curriculum is sparking more interest than ever among teachers and school leaders. Here are the resources you need to build more writing into your math curriculum, more reading and talk into your science program, and especially, how to infuse more nonfiction texts into your teaching throughout the school day.
Results
Creating a Space for Peace
A week after winter break, there were more tears than smiles in my classroom. Like most first-grade classrooms, we had our share of disagreements and upset feelings, but the difference...
Nonfiction Research Group in Fifth Grade
Katherine Sokolowski meets with a group of her fifth graders who are all researching the use of nets in fishing and the environmental effects of the process. She works to...
Digging into Research Questions
As I have been leading a fifth-grade class through a research and information project, I have been writing my own piece about global warming. Global warming had been one of...
#articleaday
Recently, I sat in the midst of my classroom's nonfiction library looking at books scattered across the floor. Fiction books were piled onto empty nonfiction shelves. When I looked at...
New and Improved Nonfiction
I found little to enjoy about nonfiction when I was a young learner. It’s been a while—three decades or more, if you’re wondering—but back then, I looked at it as...
Nonfiction Displays
In this five-minute video room tour, 4th grade teacher Andrea Smith from Dublin, Ohio shows how she builds a classroom community and much of her literacy curriculum from the care and study of unusual pets.
Strategies for Elaboration in Opinion Writing
I was in a fifth-grade classroom today, and the teacher handed me an essay a student had written. The essay was well structured, but it was definitely short. Given the...
Modeling Nonfiction Writing for English Language Learners: Part 3
Stella Villaba models nonfiction writing for her first- and second-grade English language learners, and in the process integrates vocabulary instruction into her lesson. This is the final video in a...
Wonder and React
During the first part of our information writing unit, we tried hard to get our fifth-grade students to ask questions. The classroom teacher and I modeled wondering and reacting to...
Extended Inquiry with Article of the Week
I have been using Kelly Gallagher’s “Article of the Week” strategy in my classroom for some time now. On Mondays, I introduce an interesting or pertinent article to my students...
“Giving Ourselves Hard Problems”: Rethinking Math Workshop
My teaching in my fifth-grade literacy workshops has always come easily, feeling almost instinctive. Math workshop is another matter. Until recently, I hadn’t been able to clinch that same effortless-seeming...
The Intersection of Social Studies and Language Arts
Our state has revised its framework for social studies significantly over the past four years. As I worked as part of a state-level team on the new frameworks for Connecticut,...
Owl Research Brainstorming: Partner Work
Andrea Smith meets with two girls planning their owl research.
Nonfiction Books with More Than One Entry Point
My third graders love facts and information. Often their nonfiction reading lives consist of books that share lots of facts and isolated information about topics they love. I want to...
Nonfiction Scrapbooks
This year, my sixth graders will be expanding on an idea we began last year. We’re going old school with scrapbooking! We will be scrapbooking with short text, such as...
Connecting Literacy and Math (PODCAST)
Kassia Omohundro Wedekind is the author of Math Exchanges: Guiding Young Mathematicians in Small Group Meetings. In this podcast with Franki Sibberson, she talks about the connections between reading, writing...
We Are All Writers with Louise Borden (PODCAST)
Louise Borden is the author of many acclaimed books for children, including The Journey That Saved Curious George, Sea Clocks, and His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg. In this podcast with...
Note Taking for Research
In our fifth-grade classroom research isn’t confined to one unit in the school year, but instead we do small units all year long. Small research projects often are listed among...
Owl Research Notes Group
Andrea Smith helps a group of boys completing their note taking during an owl research project.
Supporting Readers with Nonfiction Text
In a recent meeting a teacher spoke about her frustration in trying to find nonfiction resources that work with the standards she is teaching. As the conversation continued, we agreed...
First-Grade Math Lesson: Concept Practice and Conclusion
Danielle French's first graders continue to test out new math concepts and language in the conclusion of this lesson series.
