Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Our Favorite Online Reading and Writing Tools Round-Up (Part 2)
Our tech-savvy contributors remind us that learning with technology should be embedded with sound instructional practice and have new ideas for how that can be done. If you missed Part...
Subheading Literacy: Nothing “Sub” About It
Subheadings do a lot of work in informational text; they are crucial comprehension touchstones. Similar to chapter headings, white space, and illustrations in narrative text, subheadings alert us to pause,...
Do You Have Any Questions? Conferring with Families
“Do you have any questions?” I asked. “Yeah,” Logan's mom replied. “So, how is Logan doing?” What?! This is what I thought I had been explaining for the past 20...
They Can Sing and Define It, But Can They Use It?
One early fall afternoon, I casually walked into my colleague Linda Karamatic’s second-grade classroom and asked, “What are you working on in reading?” Linda said, “Well, I’m still working on...
Cooking Up Interest in Words with Fifth Graders
All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time. Ernest Hemingway I became fascinated with words from my grandmother, and my mother...
Exploring Rick Riordan Books in an 8th Grade Conference
In this video from Katie Baydo-Reed's 8th grade classroom, Katie confers a student about his favorite Rick Riordan books and his plans for future reading.
Our Favorite Online Reading and Writing Tools Round-Up (Part 1)
In this two-part round-up series, Choice Literacy contributors share some of their new favorite tools for integrating technology into their literacy instruction. A 20-year veteran teacher, author, and popular blogger...
The Lunch Lady and Gender in Reading
Franki Sibberson's students read a blog post together, and then talk about books for boys and girls. You can click here to read the original blog post from Jarrett J....
Keeping Track of Questions
Questions fill my journals. When my 14-year-old daughter regularly tells me I ask too many questions, my partner nods knowingly. My treks out-of-doors always start with a small spiral notebook...
Three Ways to Build Purpose in a Preschool Reading Workshop
For the past four months I have been sending my Head Start children off after our daily meal for “reading time” on the carpet while we complete our daily toothbrushing...
Shared Reading in the Intermediate Grades
I know what you’re thinking when you hear the words shared reading. Kindergartners are sitting “criss-cross applesauce” on a colorful ABC rug in front of a big book version of...
Slice of Life: Challenging Student Writers
In November of 2011 I began my blog. It was something I had thought about for quite some time, but I was nervous to take the leap. Yet once I...
The Big Fresh April 27, 2013 Stories
To be a person is to have a story to tell. Isak Dinesen I am sitting in Melissa Kolb's preschool class next to Bree, a quiet, dark-haired girl who...
The Big Fresh April 20, 2013 Data Trouble
The world is one big data problem. There's a bit of arrogance in that, and a bit of truth as well. Andrew McAfee There I was at the YMCA...
Assessing Learning During Student-Led Book Clubs
My most important job during book clubs is to know what my sixth-grade students are thinking. The point is to increase the rigor and accountability of each student through the...
10 Principles for Planning Reading Minilessons
For a while, minilessons didn’t seem to fit into my bigger goals of the reading workshop. I realized a few years ago that I was often going through the motions...
Symbiosis: Choice and Structure in Writing Workshops
In symbiosis, two organisms interact, often benefiting both. In the movie Finding Nemo, we watch the clownfish and sea anemone live together in harmony. The clownfish eats harmful invertebrates for...
Guidance and Choice in a Fifth-Grade Conference
Karen Terlecky confers with fifth grader Jillian the day after she has asked her to choose between two books for reading workshop.
Kindergarten I-Pick Minilesson
Mandy Robek presents a two-minute reminder minilesson to her kindergartners on the I-Pick strategy for selecting books during independent reading time.
Between the Brain and Page: Working with Gifted Student Writers
Students who are identified as highly capable, gifted, and/or talented make special contributions to our classrooms. They also bring challenges, some of which are unexpected given their natural cognitive aptitude....
The Big Fresh April 13, 2013 Rename It
Don't call a spade a spade. Matt Huston Tax Day is right around the corner, and for many that three-letter word T-A-X triggers anxiety. For some it is the...
