Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Aligning the Common Core and Conventions Instruction (Conventions Series Part 4)
Our group of three intermediate teachers was making clear progress in our plans for convention instruction. Meg, a first-year teacher, was growing in her confidence to notice what was “working...
Reading as Reward
Many years ago, a wise friend advised me, “You should always reward children with what you want them to value.” When we reward a child with candy or toys, it...
Formative Assessment: Wall Displays and Conversations in First Grade
In Peter Johnston’s book, Opening Minds, he tells us, “Formative assessment isn't only the teacher's responsibility. In the end, the community members need to be able to recognize how to...
The Apple Doesn’t Fall from the Tree: Nurturing Critical Thinking and Choice with Middle School Writers
For our first anniversary, my husband gave me a Granny Smith apple tree. He thought he had come up with a unique, thoughtful, appropriate gift with my apple pie baking...
What Anchor Charts Are Essential?
I can recall a time in my teaching that I didn’t use anchor charts. I didn’t see the value of them. How times have changed. Glancing around my room at...
Ten Things Every Writer Needs to Know: A Podcast with Jeff Anderson
In this podcast, Jeff Anderson chats with Franki Sibberson about his latest book, Ten Things Every Writer Needs to Know. A full transcript is available below the player. ...
Conferring, Rereading, and Comprehension
Aimee Buckner confers with Brendan, who is rereading Hoot and needs some strategies for holding his thinking.
Make a Really BIG List
When I look through my writer’s notebooks, I notice lists. Some are jotted in the margins; others are written on sticky notes and placed in the notebook. Some are lists...
The Big Fresh October 20, 2012 Not Proficient
The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain. ...
Ten Classic Ideas That Still Work
I am not one to use the same activities and materials over and over just because they've worked in the past. I don't keep a file cabinet of things I...
Between Inquiry and Instruction (Conventions Series Part 3)
I've been working with a team of intermediate teachers to develop a plan for teaching conventions. It's a small but diverse group, and we've already worked together to find time...
What Matters? Teaching Conventions Series
What matters, then? Poetry matters, and the line that will not break under the weight of history. What matters then? A single gardenia broken from the dark-leafed bush. What matters...
Good News: Your Teacher is Calling
Talking with parents about their children’s first weeks of school quickly divides the group into “very happy” and “not happy at all” camps. It’s usually not disappointment with curriculum or...
The Big Fresh October 13, 2012 More More More
Never play cat and mouse games if you're a mouse. Don Addis Thea was quiet and serious, with brown eyes and flyaway auburn hair, and a nervous habit of constantly...
Book Memories
When I taught middle school language arts, my favorite lessons of the year were the ones in which the students shared book memories. I have so many strong memories related...
Opening Doors to Parents in Middle School
The email starts, “What a fun day we have had!” I smile, take another bite of my sandwich, and reach across my lunch to start scrolling. “After a snack...
Writing Workshop: Preparing for Publication
Beth Lawson helps her fourth-grade students work through a checklist of items to prepare for publishing early in the fall.
The Big Fresh October 6, 2012 Future Literacy
Life is tons of discipline. Your first discipline is your vocabulary; then your grammar and your punctuation. Then, in your exuberance and bounding energy you say you're going to add...
Concise, Conversational, and Consistent: Explaining the Work of Literacy Coaches
I get asked questions about my job in a variety of ways: “So you’re a teacher?” “I heard you’re a coach. What sport?” And my recent favorite: “Then you get...
Launching a Punctuation Study in Second Grade
Linda Karamatic begins a punctuation study with her second graders, sharing mentor texts, starting an anchor chart, and engaging students in punctuation inquiry partnerships.
Finding a Fit (The Power of Conventions Series)
While students whizzed through fill-in-the-blanks worksheets and circled the correct number of nouns in a sentence, when the opportunity came for students to apply what they learned to their drafts...
