Content Category: Choice Literacy
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The Big Fresh July 19, 2014 Please Don’t Ruin Our Good Work
The fingers must be educated, the thumb is born knowing. Marc Chagall The day after my thumb surgery, I returned to have the dressing changed and a splint made...
First Shared Text: Fishing for Many Meanings with Adolescents
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. —Henry David Thoreau My husband, Mark, is an expert fisherman. I have...
Second-Grade Reading Share
Sean Moore leads his second graders in a reading share, teaching them about social norms and classroom expectations as they talk about their reading in this brief video.
“I Used To, and Now I”: An Early Year Minilesson
I’ve always done a minilesson early in the fall where I talk to my students about myself as a reader and writer. I’ve done this lesson for more than 10...
Launching a Sort
“Give me that!” my youngest son, Jon, yells at his older brother, Joel. “Come and get it!” an antagonistic Joel replies. I resume writing, but the back-and-forth banter continues. I...
The Big Fresh July 12, 2014 Loving the Process
Soccer is truly universal. No matter where I go in the world, that's what kids are playing. That's what people are talking about. ...
Six-Word Memoirs
Recently I learned about six-word memoirs while I was in an orientation for the Southern Maine Writing Project Invitational Institute. Our task was to interview someone we did not know well...
An Organizing Tool for Writing
Ruth Ayres shares a visual organizing scheme with Allie for organizing her personal narrative writing.
Candy Memoirs
Why is it that high school teachers think they must start the year by going over rules and procedures? It must be something that is taught in that same methods...
Launching Writing Workshop: Mentor Texts
Writing is more than crafting an opinion, a narrative, or an informational piece to meet a standard. As I think about launching a writing workshop unit in second grade, I...
The Big Fresh July 5, 2014 Cucumber in a Tomato Cage
A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them Liberty...
Launching Reading Workshop: Mentor Texts
Unless we reach into our students’ hearts, we have no entry into their minds. Regie Routman Changing grade levels can be scary, because most likely the books and materials...
The First Days of Reading and Writing Workshops
I find that most of my fifth graders enter our room seeing reading and writing as something done for school. There are the few kids who love reading, but most...
Using Summer Reading as Bookends for the School Year
I love to talk with adults about their summer reading plans. Some people enjoy tackling longer books during the summer months, whereas others like to catch up on series or...
Fourth-Grade Reading Conference: Focusing While Reading
Aimee Buckner helps fourth grader Isaiah focus his reading early in the year in this quick conference. Isaiah is reading Morning Girl by Michael Dorris.
The Big Fresh June 21, 2014 Spider Web
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line. Alexander Pope There is a giant spider web along my front walk. It is...
30 Books in 30 Days
At the start of the school year, I use the 30 Books in 30 Days project to introduce my sixth-grade students to new authors and genres through previewing a wide...
Tutoring Ruth: Designing an Assessment
My telephone rings. It's an unidentified number but in my area code, so I pick up. A concerned mother whispers, describing her daughter Ruth’s reading struggles. I listen to more...
Character Through Literature Early in the Year
This year as I began to prepare for my new class, my mind turned to units. What would be the first units I would teach? I thought of comprehension strategies,...
Planning for Instruction: Sea Glass
On a recent trip to Lake Erie while walking along the beach, I spied something glistening in the sand. I bent down to pick up the tiny shiny nugget, and...
Fifth-Grade Memoir Writing: Conferring with Wesley
Ruth Ayres confers with Wesley about his memoir writing on his time in the Boy Scouts.
