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
Writing Do-Overs: ERPs in the Classroom
When I was in elementary school I played four square and tetherball. These seemed like the best sports for a kid like me who was less tall and more small...
Is “Just Right” Still Just Right?: Helping Children Select Appropriate Books
We taught together in an elementary classroom for years. One of the most important things we always talked about with students was the concept of "just-right" books. We used the...
Punctuation Study with Third Graders
[Writers] deliberately choose certain marks because they know these marks signal us to inflect our voice in a particular way, emphasize a word or phrase, or slow down. We know...
A Sponge is a Summary
When I'm working with a concept that I know may be difficult to grasp, I like to hook kids' attention with a metaphor or an analogy. While doing the dishes,...
Why and Watch Me: Making the Abstract Concrete for Readers
Recently Tammy visited New Mexico and had the opportunity to hike the Petroglyph National Monument. It was amazing to see that even thousands of years ago literacy was alive and...
Teaching Themes Through Keywords
I have a friend who is a whiz at online dating. It turns out you can go to these various websites and put in a 'keyword' and out pops Romeo!...
Assessing Spelling in Writing Workshop Part 3: Embedding Instruction
The only way we can teach efficiently and have enough time to teach what's necessary -- curriculum, standards, all discrete objectives -- so all students achieve at higher levels, is...
The Books We Can’t Live Without in Our Teaching: Resource Round-Up
It was late afternoon one day last spring, almost twilight, that mellow time after children are gone and planning is finished, when conversation rambles among friends in empty classrooms. Jennifer...
Becoming More Purposeful with Writing Share
In this whole-class writing-share session from Katie DiCesare's first-grade classroom, Katie talks about how she has become more purposeful in connecting student drafts with the minilesson from the start of...
Demonstration Lesson: Inferring Character Traits
In this demonstration lesson from a 5th grade classroom, Clare Landrigan leads students through a reading and discussion of inference and character development. Clare uses the book Childtimes by Eloise...
Linking Math and Writing Through Word Problems
In this six-minute video, Franki Sibberson demonstrates how she helps her 3rd and 4th grade students make connections between writing workshop and math problem solving.
Picking a Partner: Demonstration Lesson and Debrief
In this demonstration lesson from a K-2 classroom, Joan Moser leads students through guided practice in picking a partner. In the debrief with Natalie, Joan talks through issues and...
Weekend Headlines: Introduction
In this first of a three-part video series, Katie Doherty and her sixth grade students begin the Weekend Headlines activity. Each Monday, students listen to Katie share some of the...
5th Grade Sentence Observation
This past summer, I spent a lot of time thinking about all the components of my writing workshop. I intended to make it a focus of study for myself throughout...
Old Elm Speaks: Connecting Poetry, Observation, and Reading
In this first installment of a three-part video series, Aimee Buckner shows how observation skills, poetry, and reading instruction come together with the mentor text Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems...
Old Elm Speaks Day 2: Connecting Poetry, Observation, and Reading
In this second installment of a three-part video series, Aimee Buckner shows how observation skills, poetry, and reading instruction come together with the mentor text Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems...
Main Ideas in Nonfiction
In this whole-class lesson, 5th grade teacher Karen Terlecky and her students consider how main ideas work in nonfiction texts. The lesson includes reading and discussion of a short text...
Supporting Thoughtful Book Choice
In this video filmed in the spring, Franki Sibberson helps her 3rd and 4th grade students think through what books they might select for independent reading. The discussion ranges from...
Teaching Rereading During Class Read Alouds
I teach my fourth graders the power of rereading using the mentor text Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville. In this video, you can see that we use rereading...
Teaching Rereading Strategies Through Read Aloud Day 2
I teach my 4th graders the power of rereading using the mentor text Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville. In this video, you can see how we build on...
Picture Reading in First Grade
In this read-aloud lesson from Katie DiCesare's first-grade classroom, Katie demonstrates the importance of picture reading using the wordless picture book The Zoo by Suzy Lee.
