Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Adventures with Author Skyping: Nuts and Bolts from My Fourth-Grade Classroom
When I was in elementary school my favorite time of day was read aloud. I loved hearing about the adventures of Ramona or Fudge, and I couldn't wait to find out what was...
Preserving Student Writing as a Curator
It's a Friday afternoon when I sit down with second-grade teacher Linda Karamatic. After teaching many years, she's tried different systems of preserving student writing. She's clear on what she...
A Drive Through Assessment of My Writing
On the way to school, my son's favorite radio station DJs argued over who was the best driver among them. They decided to have a professional (someone who gives driving...
Georgia Heard on the Common Core (PODCAST)
In this podcast, Franki Sibberson chats with Georgia Heard about the surprising connections between the Common Core and poetry. Georgia is a poet and teaching consultant. Her latest books are...
When You Hate the Book
My family took a vacation to Tuscany this past spring. A dear friend bought my husband and me a copy of The Agony and the Ecstasy, by Irving Stone. My...
Making Kids Aware of Their Thinking
Read aloud time is my favorite time during our school day. I love gathering the kids close on the rug, sharing a good book together and digging in to talk...
Making the Reading-Writing Connection with Genre Studies: The “Must Have” Lesson
In many classrooms today, teachers use genre studies as a springboard for teaching writing. Depending on the genre being studied, every student has to write a fable or a personal...
Learning from Master Teachers: It’s the Process, Not the Content (Part I)
I was lucky enough to visit the Manhattan New School when Shelley Harwayne was principal, and I saw Sharon Taberski, Joanne Hindley, and Judy Davis in action. I have also...
Writing Better First Drafts
I love to bake—especially around the holidays. One year, I decided I would bake and build a gingerbread house. I had never done it before, but my neighbor Tina always...
Fact of the Day
Children, crows, and chipmunks are collectors. Chipmunks are driven by instinct to find and store food for the cold winter months. Crows hoard stolen items thieved from humans like pirates...
Communicating with the Y Chromosome
A colleague was relaying a disagreement with her husband. "All he did was tell me point by point what he said and what I said and what we could do...
Mentor Texts for a Writing Study in Graphica
Graphic novels have become part of our students' reading lives. It only makes sense that because of this, they'd want to write graphic novels. I am all for students trying...
Common Core Conversations: Reading in the Disciplines
The Common Core Standards demand that the building of knowledge through reading text plays a fundamental role in those disciplines. In history and social studies, the analysis of primary and...
Katherine Casey on Sharing Blunders with Colleagues (PODCAST)
In this podcast, Katherine Casey explains to Heather Rader why it is helpful for coaches to share their teaching blunders with colleagues. Katherine is the author of Literacy Coaching: The...
Invocation at the End of Summer
I call on the spirit of summer's end, of tangled roots and the earth's deep mold, a swollen sponge of mushroom and moss. Give me your hum. I call on...
Skype an Author with Kate Messner (PODCAST)
Kate Messner is one of those amazing women who are capable of handling a few full-time jobs at the same time. She is a middle-school teacher, the author of fine...
Pitching My Lesson Plans for a Day of Peace and Poetry
One beautiful day in October, I arrived at school to see the most amazing work taking place in the side yard. Our art teacher and several parent volunteers were placing...
The Superpower of Reflecting
What is your superpower? Are you a great listener, storyteller, misconception spotter, advocate, or feedback giver? Educators have a multitude of superpowers, and we'll focus here on one that takes...
Improving Poetry’s Rap
The groans of the naysayers drown out the timid cheers of the few poetry lovers in my class. I have just announced that it's time for "Poetry Friday." My students...
Current and Cocoa: Mixing Social Studies and Literacy
While student teaching, I was invited to a teacher's classroom on a Thursday for "Current and Cocoa." Next to a hot pot was a big bucket of dry cocoa mix,...
Conferring with Parents (ROUND-UP)
Parent conferences are a time of preparing, collecting, analyzing, scheduling, and sharing. This fall we asked Choice Literacy contributors to share some of their best tips and reminders for conferring...
