Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Book Matchmaker: New Books for Intermediate Readers
Lori Sabo, a first-grade teacher, asked me to suggest some books that she could recommend to former students who still ask her advice about books. She wanted a...
Book Matchmaker: Characters Across the Grades
Jennifer Allen is looking for a new set of books to use with her teachers in her role as a literacy coach. She said, "I am working to differentiate...
Jennifer Allen on Working with Veteran Teachers (PODCAST)
In this podcast, Jennifer Allen talks with Franki Sibberson about mentoring veteran teachers. A transcript is included below the player. Franki Sibberson: What is your role in working with...
Our Learning Goals: Planning at the Start of the Year
As educators, we are always learning and growing. We asked colleagues and Choice Literacy contributors to share with us the goals they set this year. Cris Tovani, Author of I Read...
Teaching Students Retelling Strategies
As we meet with teachers around New England to analyze various assessment data (Dynamic Reading Assessments, conference notes, running records, and informal retellings), we notice a pattern -- retelling the...
Teaching Blogging to Second Graders
Wikis, blogs, and social networking sites allow us to be creators and consumers of content -- two roles that even younger students are ready to begin understanding using the Internet....
“The Wrath of Guess Jeans”: Reading, Writing, and Cliques in Middle School
In this first video in a three-part series, Katie Doherty leads her 6th graders through a response activity. The text they are reading was written by a middle school student...
More Literacy Keepsakes to Carry Home at the End of the School Year
Last year we surveyed readers of our weekly newsletter The Big Fresh requesting suggestions for literacy activities for the final days of school. Hundreds of teachers wrote back. Here are literacy...
Choosing Mentor Texts for Reading
In this quick take video, Aimee Buckner explains her criteria for selecting mentor texts for small-group, individual, and whole-class instruction.
Choosing 5th Grade Read Alouds for the New Year
It's that time of year when I gather together all the books I think would be good to read aloud and share with my 5th grade students for this year....
Coaching Out of Chaos: Helping New Teachers Establish Management Systems
One of my friends is a highly creative type with many big ideas. The other night he was talking about website design, and wondering aloud if he created a business...
Life on the Edge
The nest of my poem is too loosely constructed to hold much hope, all shreds of thistledown and hay on the verge of a ledge under the drainpipe, sunblasted shortly...
Next Steps: Thinking about Retelling During Reading
To demonstrate retelling skills, we model keeping in mind story elements as students determine what will be important for retelling. In a minilesson, we use a book we've already read...
Balancing Assessments Through Better Classroom Notes
Marie Clay reminds us, "The one closest to the classroom experience is in a unique position to see and communicate a reliable and valid instructional perspective of the child." In...
Reading Preferences: Social, Pleasurable, and Sometimes Awkward
Like many people, I made a few resolutions as the new year was ushered in. One of those resolutions was to be better at tracking the books that I read....
Quick Takes: Advice on Book Hogs
In this quick take video, Franki Sibberson gives advice for dealing with "book hogs" -- those students who try to grab any new book when it appears in the classroom...
Beginning with the End in Mind: Planning Ahead for Closing Activities
All of this week's suggestions for closing out the school year require planning ahead. How far ahead? Often all the way back to the first day of school, and many...
Creating a Kindergarten Classroom Library
Overwhelming. This is the only word I could use for many months as I thought about the transition from my third grade to a kindergarten classroom library. The first step...
Book Matchmaker: Teaching Point of View
Jennifer Allen is looking for a new set of books to use with her teachers in her role as literacy coach. She said, "I am working to differentiate the...
Who Rules?: Creating a Classroom Code of Conduct with Students
Each June I created a teacher report card for my students. Some of the most interesting feedback I got came from two continua that I asked students to place me...
Using Series Books to Model Comprehension and Anchor Thinking
During our series study, I read lots of picture books, and I am also reading many new early readers that have the feel of chapter books. In second grade, I...
