Content Category: Choice Literacy
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The Big Fresh December 6, 2014 Watchers
Independence is happiness. Susan B. Anthony It was early fall, and I was observing Carly Ullmer lead...
Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover: Teaching Book Choice Strategies to Middle Schoolers
At the beginning of the year, the air in my classroom and the hallways of my school is thick with excitement and anticipation as we look forward to the preteens...
Classroom Management and Student Responsibility
This year, my workshop time increased from 55 to 80 minutes, which still isn't long enough for all we want to accomplish. With the increase in time, however, came added...
Running Record: Kaenon
Bitsy Parks completes a running record with first grader Kaenon.
Organizing Craft Minilessons
Harvesting minilesson ideas from children's books is valuable for instruction during a writing conference or for whole-group minilessons. Over the years, I've developed a system for keeping track of writer's...
The Big Fresh November 29, 2014 Cheerfully Indifferent
Not my circus, not my monkeys. Polish proverb This summer I participated in a qigong class, which...
Jillian’s Running Record
Bitsy Parks completes a running record with first grader Jillian.
Integrating Short Videos into Minilessons
Our classroom was quiet and dark. The students who had started our minilesson by being spread out and relaxed had pulled closer to the screen and were leaning in. I...
How to Notice: Mining Children’s Books for Craft Minilessons
The library is a favorite place of mine, where books are everywhere. A gold mine of minilessons waits to be found. I love to dig into the words, carefully searching...
The Big Fresh November 22, 2014 Not Very Entertaining
We aren't in an information age, we are in an entertainment age. Tony Robbins I visited Franki Sibberson's third-grade class in late September. It's one of my favorite times to...
Reading Math: Starting with Visuals
Students must identify themselves as mathematicians, take on the responsibility of learning to do the work of a mathematician, and make meaning of their world through mathematics. Kassia Omohundro...
Philanthropy and Literacy in Eighth Grade
Beth Honeycutt and Rita Schaeffer introduce a reading and writing activity to their eighth-grade students designed to help them understand philanthropy.
Running Records: Rationale and Procedure
Bitsy Parks explains how and why she completes running records in her first-grade classroom.
Shallow Books? Learning from a Reading Celebration
I remember my first children’s literature class as an undergraduate majoring in elementary education. I had always been a reader, but hadn’t really thought much about children’s books since I’d...
Reading Workshop in Kindergarten: When and How to Launch
We are often asked when kindergarten students should begin reading workshop or independent reading. Is there a time of year that is best? Is there a certain reading level that...
Grading in Literacy Workshops
Last year I heard Kelly Gallagher speak at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention. Many of his remarks stuck with me, but the one that I have...
Letter to Franki Sibberson’s Students
What do we tell students about adults observing them in classrooms? I wrote this letter to Franki Sibberson's third graders after I visited, when Franki and I both realized the...
Learning to Observe: Inviting a Parent to a Tutoring Session
But—more than anything—I liked him because he treated me as a companion and conversationalist in my own right. —Donna Tartt, in The Goldfinch Persistent parents, pushy parents, perpetually pestering parents....
Character Traits and Vocabulary Development
In my fourth-grade classroom, we spend a great deal of time analyzing characters. Recently, it has become apparent to me that students lack the vocabulary necessary to discuss a character’s...
Multicultural Series Books
There were about 20 emails in my inbox that morning in March. They all had the same subject line: “Where are the people of color in children’s books?” The emails...
The Big Fresh November 15, 2014 Thinking Is Good for the Soul
Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare. Harriet Martineau It was early in September, and Julie was leading her third graders in a discussion of a read aloud. She began, "Now...
