Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Rethinking Nonfiction Author Baskets
Last year, my class put together a Symbaloo page highlighting all of our favorite authors. It was a fun project as we reflected on authors we loved. We wanted to...
Explanatory Grammar Moves: Right-Branching Sentences
There is a secret that writers know about grammar: it’s the power of the right-branching sentence. It’s easy to navigate for novice and expert writers alike, and on top of...
Spelling Cycles: An Alternative to Weekly Spelling Lists
About two years ago I decided to become environmentally conscious. Cutting back on the amount of energy I used led me to commute to school by bicycle. At first I...
Second-Grade Minilesson on Capital Letters
Ruth Ayres gives a brief minilesson on the use of capital letters to a class of second graders.
The Big Fresh November 30, 2013 5-2-1-0
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act but a habit. Aristotle I was driving home when I heard the radio spot for 5-2-1-0. Instantly an...
Finding Topics in Writer’s Notebooks Minilesson
Sean Moore shares the importance of using a writer's notebook to discover topics in this minilesson with his second-grade students from early in the year.
Mock Newbery Club
Last year I created my first ever Mock Newbery club. I rushed to come up with something in January, and students met with me over lunch one day to talk...
Exploring Winter with Short Texts
December is a short month with lots of interruptions like choir practices and holiday parties, which lead to antsy students. Because of the time limitations, we will focus on shorter...
Curating a Nonfiction Classroom Library
We should be curators of our libraries, not just collectors. Offering students an engaging, diverse classroom library requires more than buying books and putting them on bookshelves . . ....
The Big Fresh November 23, 2013 Abandoning Books
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. William Shakespeare As a child, I was trained to finish every book I started. The approach of...
Reporting and Crafting: Conferring with Ezra
Ruth Ayres confers with Ezra about crafting an ending using My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother by Patricia Polacco as a mentor text.
Writing a Strong Ending: 4th Grade Writing Conference
Tony Keefer confers with Tommy about writing a strong ending for his piece.
Powerful Conferences
When we expect powerful conferences, then we get powerful conferences. Sometimes it is easy to think the videos of conferences we see online or the benefits we read about in...
Better Reading Conferences
Reading conferences. The idea of holding one used to send me into a downward spiral of anxiety. I knew I needed to include them as part of my reading workshop,...
The Big Fresh November 16, 2013 First Fruits
Your entire life is a process of sorting out some of those early messages you got. Bruce Springsteen Last month I visited the marvelous Murkland Elementary School in Lowell,...
Thinking About Theme
“So WHY did I read that story? What was its purpose? What was its meaning?” These were the bigger questions that were difficult for my students to answer at times,...
The Big Fresh November 9, 2013 The Ultimate Desk Challenge
A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world. John le Carre I have to admit when I was a kid some of the most appealing...
Kindle Highlights: Conferring with Nicole
Franki Sibberson confers with fourth grader Nicole using Kindle Highlights as a teaching tool.
November Contract: Family and Memoir
November is a month of celebrating family and giving thanks. It’s a time when many people go "home" to relatives and traditions. As much as we all love our families,...
Shared Blogging in the Primary Classroom
Several years ago I discovered blogging as a way to build our first-grade learning community. Blogging changed our community as it opened the conversations between students, gave quieter students a...
The Big Fresh November 2, 2013 Running and Reading
As we run, we become. Amby Burfoot I went out for the track team when I was 12, and I've been running ever since. Over the years, I've gotten...
