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
Story Walks
Before heading home after a visit to see my closest friend, we spent the morning having breakfast in a cafe and doing some light shopping. Near the exit to the...
Tips for Interactive Word Study
“What do you notice?” I said to the group of third graders on the rug with me. We had a set of cards with words spread out in the circle...
Fluency Practice in Middle School
One thing I quickly learned when I began teaching middle school was that students, for the most part, just want to fit in. They don’t want to be singled out,...
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...
An Invitation to Elevate Readers’ Thinking Through Conversation
Approach with Curiosity I leaned over to peek at the sticky note jot that launched a book club’s conversation, and I crouched down with curiosity as their talk continued. Their...
Writing About Reading
On and off during my career I’ve had students write me letters about their reading. I get really excited to start. I make a plan and implement it well for...
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...
Three Archetypes as Advocates for the Science of Reading
My goal when navigating professional conversations around the science of reading is not to try to change people’s minds. They often have too many sunk costs in a limited view...
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...
My Teaching Toolbox (Part 1)
It was clear to me that Mason was struggling to pull out the important events from the biography we were reading in our intervention group. It was a fascinating story...
Does Gender Impact Reader Engagement?
Throughout my teaching career, I have thought a lot about gender when making text selections. For instance, when deciding on a text for a whole class to read, I want...
Holding Space for Counter-Narratives That Honor Communities
Rudine Sims Bishop changed our views of children’s literature when she explained that books can be mirrors of our own lives, windows into somebody else’s life, and sliding glass doors...
Considering Positionality and Developing New Sight Lines
Your identity, your thoughts, and your experiences influence the way that you relate to a text. This is your positionality as a reader, and it’s important to consider your positionality...
Partnering with Families on Reading
Back-to-school night in my district is a scheduling house of cards. Families try to follow their child’s complete “A Day” school schedule in roughly one hour, often dividing and conquering...
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...
Emoji Book Talks
Throughout the year, I do book talks and my middle school students share book talks with the whole class. On Friday, my middle school classes visit our school library, where...
Middle School Reading Routines
“Open your writer’s notebook to the back page. We’re going to set up a page that will be important to keeping our independent reading life active—our Books on Deck list.”...
