Choice Lit Topic: Teaching Reading
Our contributors lead reading workshops in classrooms with creative flair. Over the past 12 years, we’ve filled our site with loads of suggestions, tools, and tips for using engaging books throughout the curriculum to hook kids on reading. Here is where you will find many stories of successful and not-so-successful workshop days, and what we learned from them. We bring these stories to life through hundreds of video examples.
Results
Previewing a Book with Zoe
Andrea Smith previews a book with fourth grader Zoe in this reading conference.
“Old Age Sticks”: Poetry Analysis in Eighth Grade
Christy Rush-Levine leads her eighth graders in a choral reading and analysis of the E. E. Cummings poem "Old Age Sticks." This is the first video in a two-part series....
Playful Texts for Beginning Readers
Easy as ABC? Child’s play? Not for some kids. For kids who find learning to read difficult, it is critical that we give them the most engaging books that we...
Loving Books or Reading?
Here are two questions: Do you love books? or Do you love reading? If you like reading, you probably like books. However, consider this: Can you like books and not...
Toward More Meaningful Extension Activities
The Chanukah party was in full swing. Candles were burning. Dreidels were spinning. People were munching on latkes. Kids were ripping wrapping paper off of gifts. I stepped away from...
Replicating or Deepening?
I remember well during my first year of teaching middle school when an experienced (and intimidating) colleague reprimanded me for “stealing” a popular poem he claimed was “his” to teach....
Beyond the Comfort Zone: Books for Our Times
Recently, I was sitting at dinner next to one of my favorite authors and surrounded by colleagues. The conversation turned to what makes a book controversial. One teacher mentioned a...
Charts as Tools, Charts as Teachers
We’ve all been in (or, at times, have been) the classroom that has chart paper as wallpaper. Every open space, and maybe even open window, is occupied by a chart....
Pulling Weeds
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground...
Critical Thinking and Captain Underpants
Unfortunately, middle school students who are considered struggling readers are often treated as if they are also struggling thinkers. However, in my experience the two rarely go hand in hand....
Embracing the Books My Students Love
A few years ago, I decided to read The One and Only Ivan to my third graders early in the year. It is one of my favorite books, and I...
Inferring and Synthesis: Conferring Over Series Books
Beth Lawson shows how to get the most from a conference about series books in third grade. Inferring and synthesis are discussed, as well as the use of written notes for making meaning from texts.
Superpowers and a Middle School Classroom Library
Reading choice matters because it shapes who you are. Choices are as much a part of reading as breathing is a part of life. I think Mrs. Rush has the...
Helping Young Readers Focus on Print
“Get your mouth ready,” prompted Lily. Deshawn gave her a quizzical look, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and went on to miscue “berries” as “grapes.” Lily...
Thinking About Fluency
As a reading teacher, I used to joke that it was important to spend time teaching fluency as a matter of sanity. That’s being a bit flip, but fluency is...
Concepts of Print in Kindergarten: Small Group
Clare Landrigan leads a "quick and frequent" small group that integrates phonemic-awareness activities with assessment.
Prompting and Support
Mandy Robek demonstrates the strategies of teach, prompt, and reinforce when conferring with kindergartner Jeri.
The Living: Book Talk
Christy shares The Living with a group of eighth graders.
Book Talk: Trouble
Christy Rush-Levine previews the book Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt.
Book Talk: When We Broke Up
Christy Rush-Levine piques the interest of her eighth graders in When We Broke Up by Daniel Handler.
Tweeting a Favorite Author
Katherine Sokolowski helps her fifth-grade student Tyler send a tweet to a favorite author.
