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
Tweets in the High School Classroom
Whenever I see a really clever tweet or the perfect hashtag, I am reminded of how there is an art to writing something that expresses so much and yet is...
Making Plans for Summer Reading
As runners, we know the importance of having a plan when training for a race. We've learned from experience that our training is more effective—we see the most growth in...
Getting Teens Out of Reading Ruts: The Sampler
The 5th Wave, The Crossover, anything by John Green, The Enemy series. These are the types of books that my students get excited about, the books that I see in...
A Formula for Great Book Talks
Christy Rush-Levine shares her formula for giving book talks that captivate her middle school students. The introduction leads to a book talk for the young adult thriller 23 Minutes.
Middle School Book Recommendations
Katie Doherty meets with her sixth-grade students who will be sharing their book recommendations to the class.
Graphic Novels for Beginning Readers
“Whoa! Do we get to read this?” asked Malik, holding up a copy of the graphic novel Binky the Space Cat. “No, sweetie,” replied Rochelle. “That book is for the...
Choosing and Refining Student Goals
I love those last couple of days before a school break. I slow down a bit, knowing I don’t have a full week of instruction in front of me. I...
Deep Reading of Picture Books in Middle School
I have listened to my favorite song, “Paradise” by the BoDeans, more times than I can count. However, nothing beats a live performance. In fact, I enjoy it so much...
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.
Assessing Learning in Middle School Book Clubs
Katie Doherty talks about the links between strategy lessons and book club work in her sixth-grade classroom. Katie also sits in on a book club discussion.
Guiding Reading Partners: Work on Accuracy
Linda Karamatic works with two readers who are going to read the same book and support each other with the use of accuracy strategies.
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...
The Case for the Sonnet
Upon hearing mention of a sonnet, I imagine many people’s train of thought goes something like this: sonnet = Shakespeare = old = boring. Sonnets, by their very nature, are...
Character Traits Through Word Sorts
Identifying character traits is an important skill for readers, and the need for precise word choice rises in third and fourth grade. Students are expected to pay close attention to...
Learning Vocabulary in Context with English Language Learners
Student 1: I think Frog is really nice. Me: What makes you say that? Student 1: Because he helped Toad find the list. Student 2: Yeah . . . because...
Read Alouds and Standards
“Oh, man, you missed the best part yesterday!” “I couldn’t believe I never saw that happening.” “My prediction was all wrong, and I totally had to revise it.” Read-aloud is...
Shared Reading in the Digital Age
For the past decade, it has been my pleasure to work directly with literacy coaches, teachers, and children in K–3 classrooms. Most of the teachers and coaches with whom I’ve...
Slow Down
It’s easy for me to get caught up in a rush, both personally and professionally. There’s always something to check off my to-do list: another standard to cover, another appointment...
Planning and the Tuesday Effect
I used to hate Tuesdays. I began hating them when I was a brand-new teacher. I would spend all weekend crafting a week’s worth of the most perfect lesson plans....
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...
Growing Toward Independence
When I first noticed Alex, he was sitting on a stool near the window in his first-grade classroom. His books were on the shelf, but he was actually turned away...
