Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Responding to Dysregulated Behaviors: A Symptom of What?
This is the second installment of a four-part series chronicling the responses when a student with dysregulated behaviors joins Becca Burk's kindergarten class mid-year. A decade ago, I was in...
A Poetic Beginning
It is no easy task for students to jump back into writing at the start of the school year after taking a summer hiatus. I used to ask students to...
Let’s Begin
It’s the first day of the Choice Literacy writing retreat. I’ve driven a little over three hours with a friend and fellow writer to arrive at a New England inn...
Responding to Dysregulated Behaviors: “What’s a Book?”
This is the first installment of a four-part series chronicling the responses when a student with dysregulated behaviors joins Becca Burk's kindergarten class mid-year. Reading through the file of a...
Do I Belong?
At the end of the school year, a child handed me this poem, and I was struck by the line You make me feel like I belong here. As I...
August 23, 2024: Becoming a Reader
Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work. ―Khaled Hosseini The Beginning is Always Today A few weeks ago, on a neighborhood walk in mid-summer, I bumped into Stuart,...
Kindergarten Celebration of Writing
Our Kindergarten Celebration of Writing was a huge success. Parents filled the room with love and celebration. The kindergarten writers filled it with their writing and beautiful voices. They shared...
August 16, 2024: Starting Strong
In letting go we find strength to begin again. ―Marianne Williamson What I'll Keep Doing The older I get, the more conscious I become of time. My younger self didn’t...
Revisiting: Getting to Know My Students
I was recently talking to a colleague and shared, “I don’t know my students as well as I did in the past.” I could sense a little surprise in her...
August 9, 2024: Good Vibes to Start the School Year
The beginning is always today. ―Mary Shelley The Beginning is Always Today I read Frankenstein for the first time when I was a college freshman. I've always been resistant to...
Fostering Reading Lives in the Library
At the end of the school year I like to recognize the students who check out the most books in each grade. One student—we’ll call him Charlie—was a third grader,...
Advice from Hanks
I listened to Tom Hanks give a keynote session at the NCTE 2023 convention. I sensed that this was a big deal, but how could a movie star from movies...
August 2, 2024: School and Classroom Libraries
Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving our quality of life....
Story Walks
Before heading home after a visit to see my closest friend, we spent the morning having breakfast in a cafe and doing some light shopping. Near the exit to the...
Early Writing Opportunities in the Library
Every child is a natural born writer. — Carole Marsh As a kindergarten teacher drops off her students for library class, she tells me, “Jacob keeps talking about the book...
July 26, 2024: Spinning Ideas for the New School Year
I've always loved the first day of school better than the last day of school. Firsts are best because they are beginnings. ―Jenny Han Inspiring Ideas to Start the School...
June 28, 2024: Summer Reading
Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary. ―Jim Rohn Take Time to Read Part of my morning routine is to read a few pages of...
June 21, 2024: Fluency
Silent gratitude isn't very much to anyone. ―Gertrude Stein Pen a Thank-You Note Our youngest son, Sam, graduated high school a few weeks ago, and we celebrated with an open...
Tips for Interactive Word Study
“What do you notice?” I said to the group of third graders on the rug with me. We had a set of cards with words spread out in the circle...
Fluency Practice in Middle School
One thing I quickly learned when I began teaching middle school was that students, for the most part, just want to fit in. They don’t want to be singled out,...
June 14, 2024: Thinking More Deeply About Characters
Our souls need time to think, dream, and reflect. ―Jo Ann Davis Take Time to Think We live in a hurry-up world. Everything is fast. We have quick meetings, speedy...
