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
Introducing Annotation in Eighth Grade
Katie Baydo-Reed introduces the concept of annotating text to her eighth-grade students.
Shared Reading and Annotation in 6th Grade
With the Common Core swiftly coming to many classrooms, I hear a lot of talk about rigor and shared texts. One of the challenging shared texts in my sixth-grade classroom...
Weaving Word Study into Writing Workshop in 5th Grade
As I think about building word study and starting to make the connections to the Common Core, I have purposefully decided to weave word study instruction throughout my reading and...
Integrating Vocabulary and Retelling Strategies into Read-Aloud
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....
Vocabulary and iPhones: A Four-Step Process for Independent Student Word Learning
"Reading," Callie sighs as she rolls her eyes. Callie is a hard-working 17-year-old junior in high school. She is involved in many different activities in school and takes college prep...
Linking Movement, Minds, and Literacy in Kindergarten
Rituals and routines shape our habits. Students construct inner control of their thinking through repeated actions, guided by an inner dialogue. Self-regulatory talk can be intentionally taught, then integrated into...
Student-Selected Vocabulary in Middle School
“Look! I found eavesdropping in this book.” Aden had placed his book in front of my eyes, completely obscuring my view of my own choice book as he loudly whispered...
Curating the Classroom and School Library
The problem with teaching reading is you need books -– a lot of books. You need those books to be easily accessible and appealing to students. This is easier said...
Conferring to Build Stamina in First Grade
Katie DiCesare works with first grader JJ to help him meld decoding and comprehension skills.
From “Show Me the Lessons” to Sustainable Planning (Part 4 of the Opinion/Argument Writing Series)
Years ago when teachers were first encouraged to use mentor texts to model for writers and weren’t sure how, I had a lot of requests for help. I heard from...
Movement with First Graders
Katie DiCesare leads her first-grade students through movements and a song, and explains in the debrief why movement activities are valuable for young learners.
The Power of Read-Aloud Notebooks
It’s close to the end of the year. We are reading aloud a powerful book, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. The students are listening attentively as I...
Backing Up and the Bossy E
In this conference with second grader TJ from Sean Moore's classroom, the strategies of backing up and rereading as well as attending to the "bossy e" are discussed.
Peer Conferring: The Release Phase
Last summer I read the book Mindset by Carol Dweck. If you ran into me at the pool up the road, at a professional development class, or even at the...
Fantasy Reading in Eighth Grade
Katie Baydo-Reed confers with an eighth-grade student who is reading The Hobbit.
Lists, Facts, and Reports: Conferring with Anna
Franki Sibberson confers with fourth grader Anna to help her connect report writing with her love of animal lists.
Using Comics in Literacy Workshops
Franki Sibberson works with her 3rd and 4th graders to use comics in the literacy workshop. Students study a variety of comics and list common attributes in small- and whole-group settings.
A Graphic Novels Unit in 5th Grade
I recently tried a new unit in my classroom. I had read Terry Thompson’s Adventures in Graphica last summer. While I have always celebrated graphic novels and encouraged my students...
Understanding Adolescent Readers: A Podcast with Penny Kittle
Penny Kittle is a classroom teacher and literacy coach at Kennett High School in North Conway, New Hampshire. She is the author of Public Teaching: One Kid at a Time,...
Building Peer Conferring Skills in the Primary Grades
In my past experience with sixth-grade students, peer conferring was a way of life in our writing class. Students were able to take the lead and really push the thinking...
Using Wipe-Off Boards with Young English Language Learners
It is January, a time to review teaching practices and rethink, reorganize, and re-energize. January is a perfect time to refine skills-based teaching practices, and wipe-off boards are the perfect...
