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
“And Then and Then and Then”: Moving Students from Retelling to Thoughtful Response
Katie Doherty confers with sixth grader Kristina during reading workshop. Kristina is new to the classroom, and Katie demonstrates how to gently move a student from retelling to more thoughtful...
Conferring About Chunking Words in Second Grade
Sean Moore confers with a 2nd grader who is learning the strategy of chunking words in reading. Notice how Sean focuses the student, refers to previous conferences, and previews an...
The Sponge Summary Lesson Part 4
This is a companion video series to Heather Rader's article "A Sponge is a Summary." In this sequence of videos, Heather teaches a 4th grade class, using the analogy of...
Digging Into Literary Nonfiction
Andrea Smith and her 4th grade students use an article from National Geographic for Kids to chart literary nonfiction elements.
Perspective as a Component of Text Complexity: A Common Core Booklist
Text complexity has been a big topic of conversation since the Common Core Standards were released. Reading complex texts is an expectation for readers across grade levels. In Appendix A...
Common Core Conversations: Using Evidence From Text
"I suggest the crime was committed in the lounge by Mr. Green with the wrench." Can you prove the suggestion false? Ah-ha, you happen to have a Clue card representing...
Mentor Texts for Nonfiction Writing
Beth Lawson and I met for the first time in mid-August at her school. She was organizing her classroom for teaching, and we talked about some of the changes she...
Sticky Notes to Determine Importance
In this conference from Beth Lawson's third-grade classroom, the focus is on the skill of determining importance in texts. Beth helps Sephina integrate sticky notes into her strategic reading of...
Inferring and Synthesis: Conferring Over Series Books
Beth Lawson shows how to get the most from a conference about series books in 3rd grade. Inferring and synthesis are discussed, as well as the use of written notes...
Beyond Harry Potter: Tapping Student Interest in Fantasy
Ever since the Harry Potter craze several years ago, the fantasy genre has been a popular one. I often have students in the library who would like to read more...
Planning for a Demonstration Lesson Part 1
In this first installment of a video series, Clare Landrigan takes a team of grades 3-5 teachers through the steps of planning for a demonstration lesson.
Guiding a Struggling Middle School Book Club
What do you do about those book clubs that just don't jell in your middle school classroom? Katie Doherty demonstrates how she guides a struggling group of sixth graders, helping...
Planning for a Demonstration Lesson Part 2
In this second installment of a two-part video series, Clare Landrigan takes a team of grades 3-5 teachers through the steps of selecting a book for a demonstration lesson.
Main Ideas, Summaries, and Notes in a Reading Conference
In this conference with a fourth grader, Aimee Buckner tackles text choice, notes, and main ideas all in less than five minutes. You'll notice teachers observing in the background; the...
Book Matchmaker: Teaching Theme in the Intermediate Grades
Cathy teaches fourth grade and is looking for books to teach theme. Many of us find it challenging to find books for teaching this complex idea to children. I've...
Synthesis in Reading and the Reading Notebook
Beth Lawson helps one of her 3rd grade students write in response to a complex text he is reading, talking through how the writing might help him synthesize the plot...
Conferring About Rereading Strategies
In this conference with a fourth grader, Aimee Buckner guides a child to think more deeply and critically about a book being read to the whole class, Goblins in the...
Second-Grade Team Meeting: Helping Students Choose Books Independently
In this five-minute excerpt from a second-grade team meeting, Principal Karen Szymusiak sits in on a discussion about the challenges of helping young readers learn to pick appropriate books independently....
Guided Reading in Perspective
Recently I presented my work at a regional conference. A teacher came rushing to the front of the room as I packed my computer after the session. "Do you have...
Setting the Stage for Historical Fiction
In this demonstration lesson from a fifth-grade classroom, Aimee Buckner works with students to construct an anchor chart for understanding the genre of historical fiction.
Grades K-2 Fluency Lesson
In this video from a K-2 multiage classroom, Joan Moser and Gail Boushey ("The Sisters") present a fluency lesson to the whole class.
