Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Conferring with Vita: Working Through Silence
Andie Cunningham confers with Vita, an English language learner whose first language is Russian. Vita is in the silent period. Notice how Andie coaxes communication from Vita, and manages to...
Listen In: About the Author
Snowy owls. Polar bears. Arctic hares. These fine white creatures were all the rage in second grade during their literary nonfiction unit. Linda Karamatic and I co-planned the new writing...
Matching Students to Nonfiction Texts in Grades 3-6 (BOOKLIST)
We hear so much about matching students to nonfiction texts based on their needs and interests. Often the lens is very broad ("tweens will like this book") or very narrow,...
Listen In: Writing Reviews
At first glance of Kincaid's writing folder, I saw rows and columns of data. Next to a book title was a number and then a line of letters and numbers,...
Professional Development Closing Activities (ROUND-UP)
In the closing moments of professional development sessions, how do you leave participants inspired and commited to making changes in their classrooms? We asked Choice Literacy contributors to share some...
Quick Take: “The Sisters” on Writing Journals
In this two-minute Quick Take video, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser ("The Sisters") talk about the importance of having "Small Moments" and "Happenings" sections in student writing journals. They have...
Next-Read Stack: Conferring for Independence
Next-Read Stack conferences take up much of my conferring time with some students. Because engagement in text is key for every child, I make time to support the students who...
Sixth-Grade Lesson: Editing for Conventions
In this lesson with her sixth graders, Pam Pogson talks about a goal many students have mentioned during writing conferences: editing for conventions. This brief lesson gives everyone a chance...
The Five-Minute Solution: Mini-Groups after Minilessons to Maximize Conferring Time
Writing conferences in the upper elementary grades can be scary. Books and gurus say you have to have "editing conferences" and "revision conferences" and "idea conferences." They say you need...
Extreme Makeover: Revision Edition
Once upon a time in my third-grade classroom, I had an eight-foot pencil poster on my wall that listed the steps of the writing process from prewriting at the point...
Over the Top: Mystery Writing with Fourth Graders
Helping students navigate the boundaries between realistic fiction and fantasy can be tricky, especially when it comes to mystery writing. In this lesson from Beth Lawson's fourth-grade classroom, Beth uses...
Getting Started with Sentence Observations
If you watched the recent video clip posted on Choice Literacy of a sentence observation in my classroom, you may have noted the sophisticated language and discussion strategies of the...
What to Say on Parent Teacher Night
As the school year gets in full swing throughout the country, many teachers and literacy coaches have been talking about and preparing for parent/teacher night or the annual school Open...
Listen In: Maya is a Chapter Writer
William Strunk and E.B. White produced a no-nonsense writing book in the 1950s titled The Elements of Style. I have the third edition that sits by my desk. In the...
Connecting Read Alouds and the Literacy Curriculum at the Start of the School Year
Many teachers use read alouds at the start of the year to launch specific components of their literacy curriculum. In this second of our two-part series on Read Alouds at...
Book Matchmaker: Texts for Young English Language Learners
Paulette teaches English language learners at an overseas school. Children come to the school from many countries, and many have very limited English. Paulette wants to share her...
Exit Slips Open Doors
"It doesn't have to end here." So claims the Powerpoint slide at the end of my professional development classes in the past. With this statement, along with my contact information...
Literacy Groundings
One thing I find educators cannot talk enough about is their personal literacy histories, that fundamental grounding of how they became literate. What happened in their lives that impacted who...
Stop and Track: Conferring with a Fifth-Grade Reader
In this conference with a 5th grader, Aimee Buckner shares two strategies -- one to use when putting a book away between readings, and another to help keep track of...
Fresh Books and Age-old Skills
Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables. Spanish Proverb Getting stuck in a rut is easy because making a change is difficult. Take the story of my kitchen clock and...
Middle School Book Clubs: Introduction
Book clubs are a natural fit in middle school classrooms. They are a great way to incorporate more reading into the lives of our students, and to encourage...
