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
Whole-Class Conversations for Read Aloud Closure
About 10 years ago, I began the ritual of having a whole-class conversation each time we finish a chapter book read aloud. I created this idea when I noticed that...
Percy Jackson Read-Aloud in Fourth Grade
Tony Keefer demonstrates how he makes his read-alouds interactive, and explains why he selected Percy Jackson to use with this group of fourth graders.
Read Aloud: Vocabulary and Retelling Strategies
Stella Villalba scaffolds the language development of her first- and second-grade English language learners during read-aloud by highlighting vocabulary and providing a tool to assist with a partner retelling activity.
Weekly Check-In Sheets
I think one of the most often asked questions when you share that you teach reading and writing workshop is “What do you do for grades?” This is a tough...
Catching Up with Anna
Because reading workshop and book clubs are such a big part of my reading curriculum, it is crucial that kids keep up with the work. To do that, they need...
Notebook Sketching: Conferring with Sarah
Aimee Buckner confers with Sarah about sketching in her notebook.
The Secret to Magical Author Visits
School visits are usually great. The staff prepares. I present. The kids participate. The projector doesn't burst into flames. Success! But occasionally, magic happens. Word ripples through hallways: "The author...
Integrating Paraprofessionals into Reading Workshops
For the past three years, I've had support in my classroom. These wonderful women, some of our school's paraprofessionals, are in the class to support students with identified behavior issues....
Digital Status of the Class
Are you frustrated about not having enough time in your reading workshop? Would you like to gain 18 hours in your reading workshop and be better prepared for your reading...
Making Time for Individual Conferences
I called Courtney over for a reading conference in early November. I had called her over to check in about a few things, but before she had even sat down,...
Infographics and the Common Core: Resources and Standards
Infographics are intentionally selected or designed visual images such as graphs, charts, or diagrams used to represent ideas, information, or data. Using both text and images, well-designed infographics help writers...
Using Google Earth to Support Readers
Reading is supposed to take us places we’ve never been and show us things we’ve never seen. But does the image we create in our mind match what the author...
Three Questions to Ask When a Guided Reading Group Is Stuck
In our work in schools, we often field questions from teachers worried about student progress. The concern goes something like this: “I have this group that is stuck at level...
Frog and Toad and Tina and Maya: A Precocious Kindergarten Reading Group
In March, Ms. Kelso invited me into her kindergarten classroom to work with some of her advanced readers. The end of the school year in Honolulu was bearing down on...
Blurring Genres and Real-Life Readers
As a teacher who likes to observe reading trends in my classroom, I sometimes start to lump kids into groups when it comes to reading preferences. For example, I have...
Exploring Literary Nonfiction with Middle School Students
Lately, I have noticed that nonfiction is sometimes hard to categorize because of the innovative ways authors are writing it. It seems more creative and literary than it used to...
Using Lord of the Flies to Teach Argument
The Common Core’s push for greater focus on argumentative writing has made me reexamine how and why I use certain texts in the classroom. I have, like many other high...
Kindergarten Small Group: Concepts of Print
This "quick and frequent" kindergarten small group is instructed by Clare Landrigan and explores concepts of print.
Questions and Picture Books
Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read. Marilyn Jager Adams...
Picture Books or Beginning Readers?
A few weeks ago, Kim and Lily were snuggled in a beanbag chair with their heads together. They were trying to decipher some troublesome words in a book. “Sat? Seat?”...
How to Get a Book to Catch Fire
Each year there are certain books that fly off my shelves. Books that I have to create waiting lists for to accommodate eagerly awaiting readers. Books that students can’t stop...
