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
Conferring Close-Up: Test-Taking Strategies (Part 2)
Andrea Smith leads her fourth-grade class during word study time as they analyze a math word problem. In this video, she chats with two girls who are considering the word problem. This is the second video in a three-part series.
Fluency in Focus: Conferring with Jake
Gail Boushey confers with Jake during reading workshop. Jake has a goal of working on fluency in his reading. Click here to download the workshop guide. COMMON CORE CONNECTIONS: RF.1.4....
Learning to Cross-Check: Conferring with Hailey
Joan Moser confers with Hailey, a kindergartner who is working on the skill of accuracy through the strategy of cross-checking.
Working on Accuracy and Fluency: Conferring with Colin
Joan Moser confers with Colin, a first grader who is working on the skills of fluency and accuracy.
Concepts of Print: Conferring with a Kindergartner
Joan Moser confers with Mariano, a kindergartner who is beginning to understand basic concepts of print.
Crafting Characters in Writer’s Workshop
In this lesson from writer's workshop, Franki Sibberson shows how shared text can be used to help young writers understand character traits and development.
Supporting Thoughtful Book Choice in Grades 3-4
In this video filmed in the spring, Franki Sibberson helps her third and fourth grade students think through what books they might select for independent reading. The discussion ranges from new books available in the class library, to individual quirks and preferences.
Setting Nonfiction Goals
Franki Sibberson facilitates a discussion with her class of third and fourth graders about their nonfiction reading. They are setting goals during Nonfiction Reading Time.
Nonfiction Read Aloud (Part 2)
Sean Moore is reading Plants That Eat Animals to his second graders. He asks students to listen for short periods of time, and then has them remember two facts and do a think pair share quickly.
Book Clubs in 3rd Grade
At the beginning of this book club, Beth Lawson checks in with three students about their character studies in the book Because of Winn Dixie. As they prepare to have an independent conversation, she offers them a suggestion to get started.
Reorganizing Guided Reading Supplies
In this video from a first-grade classroom, Joan Moser and Gail Boushey ("The Sisters") help Kelly Yahr reorganize the books and materials in her guided reading instruction area.
Conferring About Stamina in 3rd Grade
In this conference with third-grade student Jeffrey, Beth Lawson helps this young reader think through the importance of developing stamina to get through the first 50 pages of a book. Beth connects the conference to a wall chart the class developed earlier in the year.
Next-Read Stack: Conferring for Independence
Next-Read Stack conferences take up much of my conferring time with some students. Because engagement in text is key for every child, I make time to support the students who...
The Five-Minute Solution: Mini-Groups after Minilessons to Maximize Conferring Time
Writing conferences in the upper elementary grades can be scary. Books and gurus say you have to have "editing conferences" and "revision conferences" and "idea conferences." They say you need...
Getting Started with Sentence Observations
If you watched the recent video clip posted on Choice Literacy of a sentence observation in my classroom, you may have noted the sophisticated language and discussion strategies of the...
Connecting Read Alouds and the Literacy Curriculum at the Start of the School Year
Many teachers use read alouds at the start of the year to launch specific components of their literacy curriculum. In this second of our two-part series on Read Alouds at...
Book Matchmaker: Texts for Young English Language Learners
Paulette teaches English language learners at an overseas school. Children come to the school from many countries, and many have very limited English. Paulette wants to share her...
Stop and Track: Conferring with a Fifth-Grade Reader
In this conference with a 5th grader, Aimee Buckner shares two strategies -- one to use when putting a book away between readings, and another to help keep track of...
Book Matchmaker: Picture Book Biographies
Melanie Quinn is an instructional coach is looking for new picture book biographies to share with teachers and students. In the last several years, there are many picture...
Common Core Conversations: Text Complexity
When you hear the word "complex" what comes to mind? Complicated? Difficult? Many parts? More challenging? We had these associations as we began our inquiry into the Common Core shift...
Book Matchmaker: Wordless Picture Books
 Brad Smedley, an elementary principal, is looking for wordless picture books to share with his preschool classes. No matter what age we work with, I find the...
