Choice Lit Topic: Struggling and Striving Learners
It’s hard work, it matters . . . and nothing brings more joy than reaching a child who is struggling. The problem is each of these students presents a unique array of challenges and needs that don’t allow for a uniform approach. Here are the stories from our contributors of their breakthrough moments, one child at a time.
Results
Responding to Dysregulated Behaviors: A Symptom of What?
This is the second installment of a four-part series chronicling the responses when a student with dysregulated behaviors joins Becca Burk's kindergarten class mid-year. A decade ago, I was in...
Responding to Dysregulated Behaviors: “What’s a Book?”
This is the first installment of a four-part series chronicling the responses when a student with dysregulated behaviors joins Becca Burk's kindergarten class mid-year. Reading through the file of a...
Responding to Appeals for Help
Sloane looked up at me with her big hazel eyes. The colorful headband perched on top of her head wasn’t doing its job, and some of Sloane’s wispy bangs fell...
Teaching Students to Self-Monitor
“And so the man trapped the bear in the mermaid trap and hostile him up the hill to his shake…” Brody aggressively flipped the page, took a deep breath to...
Fostering a Love of Reading in All Students
“I read all the way to here,” Rebecca exclaimed, showing me the spot in her book. She had just borrowed El Deafo the Friday before. Now, on Monday, she had...
Know/Wonder Chart
Teaching young kids to read is uncomplicated. Please do not misunderstand: Teaching young kids to read is hard, hard work. It takes intentionality, perseverance, systematic planning, knowledge of how the...
Morning Message 4: Application and Differentiation
The scene playing out around the morning message as students trickle in is a familiar one. “Try it, Kento! See this? Say /g/, /l/… like that. You try it.” Naomi...
Developing Reader Identities: It Is More Than Magic
It was the last Monday of kindergarten…You can imagine the level of exhaustion I was feeling as I did lunch count and attendance for the 171st time that year. (And...
When They’re Hard to Teach
Nathan sits down at the table and begins to read from his collection of familiar texts. He’s strategic. He grabs the easiest books he can from his pile. As we...
When Reading Practices Drift
I spend much of my summer at my sister’s pool. It is my way of rejuvenating and making time to focus on myself after a long school year. One of...
Detours: A Reminder of the Humanity of Students
It would have been like any other Monday of the school year. The students would have come in, answered the daily attendance question, done 10 minutes of independent reading, attended...
Increasing Student Choice
“What are we doing today?” “How long does it have to be?” “Does this sound right?” “How much do I have to get done today?” We hear these questions often....
Practical Advice for Dealing with Messy Handwriting
Do struggles with handwriting matter? They do when a student can't even decipher his own words. Katherine Sokolowski confers with fifth grader Sauvi to help him find solutions to the...
My Teaching Toolbox (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this article, I introduced you to Mason and Isaac. You might remember they were each struggling in their own way with identifying the important events in...
Small Shifts That Make a Big Difference
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. ― attributed to Maya Angelou I noticed something interesting about Sophia’s eyes. I had...
Let’s Write Together: The Importance of Class Books
Years ago my classroom was filled with first-grade students. Children with smiles of missing teeth had pencil boxes filled with crayons and pencils, and a few lucky ones even had...
Creating Learning Progressions with Students
It’s November, and routines have been established in reading workshop. Teachers have spent time getting to know their students as readers and supporting their readers during book shopping to ensure...
Getting Ready to Read
“Okay and lastly, what genre is this book?” I ask. If you have administered an oral reading assessment to kids in your class or school, you too have asked this...
What’s Your Point of View?
Michael De La Pena presented at Bank Street College’s Teaching Kindergarten Conference. He started by asking, “What’s your point of view?” He paused, then continued, “We always go into a...
Alert! Mistakes in Progress
As we sang our class song, I realized I had made a mistake on the chart paper in one part of the first verse. When we finished singing, I said,...
Overcoming Challenges in Writing Workshop with Trauma-Informed Practices
I was in a first-grade classroom during a writing workshop. There was a student, Gerald. The teacher told me, “He only copies text. I’ve never seen anything like it. He...
