Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Book Matchmaker: “Cool” Books for a Struggling Second Grader
Peggy asked me to help her find books for a second grader. The student is struggling, but still wants to read the kinds of books her friends are...
Book Matchmaker: Global Citizenship and Social Responsibility
When I thought about the idea of citizenship and all that could be learned about such an important topic with young readers, I wanted to share some books that...
Nonfiction Read Aloud
Sean Moore reads nonfiction aloud to his second-grade students. This is the first video in a two-part series: Here are some tips for nonfiction read-alouds, based on Sean...
Tried and True Trumps Shiny and New
My son, Mitchell, adores the idea of getting something new. "Please!" he begs, "Can we go to the toy store?" He believes there must be a toy out there that...
From “I Don’t Get It” to “Never Mind — That’s Amazing!”: Scaffolding Schema for Comprehending Poetry
In the beginning poetry was reserved for April. It is National Poetry Month after all, so why not teach about it then? As it became difficult to fit all things...
Nonfiction Read Aloud – Part 2
Here are some more tips for nonfiction read-alouds, based on Sean Moore's reading of Plants That Eat Animals: 1. Use nonverbal cues to focus students. Sean uses quick...
The Sponge Summary Lesson Part 6
This is a companion video series to Heather Rader's article "A Sponge is a Summary." In this sequence of videos, Heather teaches a 4th grade class, using the analogy of...
Book Matchmaker: Wordless Picture Books
 Brad Smedley, an elementary principal, is looking for wordless picture books to share with his preschool classes. No matter what age we work with, I find the...
Rumor Has It
This April, let's talk about people; let's start some rumors. Let's talk about characters and authors we know to people who have no clue who they are. Let's step out...
Astrigs, Asterisks, and Letting Students Lead
In this video from Linda Karamatic's second-grade classroom, Charlie shares his punctuation "find" of asterisks with his classmates. He is reading the book Miss Child Has Gone Wild by Dan...
Sticky Little Invention (The Post-It Essay)
I love a graffiti board assignment -- a chance for students to display their learning in creative ways and receive brief "graffiti" responses from their peers. Teachers in my college...
Essay Writing: Thesis Statements and Supporting Details Minilesson
Beth Lawson works with her 4th graders to develop essays with strong thesis statements and supporting details, using a folder organization system to highlight different thesis statements for each child....
Common Core Conversations: Text Complexity
When you hear the word "complex" what comes to mind? Complicated? Difficult? Many parts? More challenging? We had these associations as we began our inquiry into the Common Core shift...
I Can’t Quite Put My Finger On It
Have you ever been working with a teacher and they start to tell you about a new strategy or "program" you are not familiar with, but the description you are...
Essay Writing: Teacher Modeling
Beth Lawson works with her fourth graders to develop essays with strong thesis statements and supporting details, using a folder organization system to highlight different thesis statements for each child....
Conferring with Tweens: Boys and Series Books
In this conference from a 6th grade classroom, Katie Doherty confers with a boy who is reading a book from a series she is unfamiliar with, Bec which is Book...
Noticing Words in Second Grade
In this brief video from Linda Karamatic's 2nd grade classroom, students share words they are noticing, and Linda talks about making revisions to the wall displays of words in the...
Book Matchmaker: Picture Book Biographies
Melanie Quinn is an instructional coach is looking for new picture book biographies to share with teachers and students. In the last several years, there are many picture...
Same Old Love Song — A Cento
Like a honky tonk angel, notes right on the downbeat, you hoax me on wings of a dove in all the tender places right through the night, confusing love with...
Listen In: Writing in Math
"You've gotta see this" were Linda Karamatic's first words when I arrived in her second-grade classroom. On this particular day we marveled at how Maya had decided to make her...
Conferring About Thesis Statements
In this conference with a 4th grader, Beth Lawson talks about supporting details for thesis statements. This is part of the video series from Beth's room on essay writing.
