Choice Lit Topic: Minilessons
Keeping it short, relevant, and meaningful is the challenge when it comes to designing lessons. Here is where you’ll find practical advice and dozens of video examples of master teachers in action.
Results
Understanding Character Traits Lesson
Jason DiCarlo leads a lesson in a third-grade classroom about understanding character traits. He begins with a discussion of decisions characters make. This is the first video in a three-part...
Engaging a Room Full of Third Graders
In one of the classrooms, whenever I teach, and whenever I observe, and whenever their teacher and I teach together, we have a room full of quiet, compliant kids. But...
Ways into Personal Narratives
I’ve always picked personal narratives as our first big writing piece in fifth grade. My students are typically familiar enough with what a narrative is that I can dive in...
Understanding Fiction and Nonfiction in First Grade
This is a demonstration lesson in a first-grade classroom on understanding the difference between fiction and nonfiction led by Erin Quealy. It is the first video in a three-part series....
Choices for Paragraphs
Over the last month, I have been working with a third-grade teacher to help her students understand the concept of paragraphing. They have been working within an opinion unit, so...
Launching a Punctuation Study in Second Grade
Linda Karamatic begins a punctuation study with her second graders, sharing mentor texts, starting an anchor chart, and engaging students in punctuation inquiry partnerships.
Second-Grade Minilesson on Paragraphs
Ruth Ayres uses a student text to demonstrate the importance of paragraph breaks in this second-grade minilesson.
Big Idea: First-Grade Lesson
Bitsy Parks introduces her first graders to the concept of theme.
Shared Writing in Kindergarten
Mandy Robek guides her kindergartners through a shared-writing activity.
Read Aloud: Vocabulary and Retelling Strategies
Stella Villalba scaffolds the language development of her first- and second-grade English language learners during read-aloud by highlighting vocabulary and providing a tool to assist with a partner retelling activity.
Giving Students a Notebook Tour
I don't remember ever having a writer's notebook in elementary school. Sometimes, I look at our students and my daughters with their writer’s notebooks and I wish I had a...
Organizing Craft Minilessons
Harvesting minilesson ideas from children's books is valuable for instruction during a writing conference or for whole-group minilessons. Over the years, I've developed a system for keeping track of writer's...
Integrating Short Videos into Minilessons
Our classroom was quiet and dark. The students who had started our minilesson by being spread out and relaxed had pulled closer to the screen and were leaning in. I...
How to Notice: Mining Children’s Books for Craft Minilessons
The library is a favorite place of mine, where books are everywhere. A gold mine of minilessons waits to be found. I love to dig into the words, carefully searching...
Finding Craft Minilessons in the Children’s Books You Love
I remember when I first learned about writing workshop. The philosophy of allowing children to grow in their writing by choosing their own topics, creating text with an inner purpose,...
Making Space: Entering Lessons Mindfully
If you enter a physical space, such as your home, with your right foot (literally), the act of pausing, deliberating, focusing—even if just for a few seconds—helps you focus on...
Introducing Onomatopoeia Minilesson
Christi Overman introduces onomatopoeia to her second graders in this brief minilesson.
Understanding Study: Noticing Pictures
On a warm afternoon in late September, it was time to begin our first unit in writing workshop. I was a little nervous that my first graders might not be...
Endings Minilesson with Second Graders
Cathy Laker uses her own writing as a mentor text with her second-grade students to demonstrate options for endings.
Manipulating Time: Fourth-Grade Writing Minilesson
Tony Keefer uses his writing as a mentor text in this fourth-grade minilesson on manipulating time in personal narratives.
Owl Research Word Study
Andrea Smith links vocabulary learning with content study in her owl research unit with fourth graders.
