Content Category: Choice Literacy
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To Fart or Not to Fart? Reflections on Boy Writers
Yesterday was the first meeting for our study group on boys and writing. Our study groups meet once a month for an hour after school and follow a predictable structure...
Staying True to Our Beliefs When Working With Struggling Readers and Writers in Grades 3-6
Recently I was reading an article called Four Ways to Work Against Yourself When Conferring with Struggling Writers (Language Arts, Volume 80, No. 4, March 2003). The quote that haunted...
Assessing Spelling in Writing Workshop Part 3: Embedding Instruction
The only way we can teach efficiently and have enough time to teach what's necessary -- curriculum, standards, all discrete objectives -- so all students achieve at higher levels, is...
Tight Spaces Part II: Design Photo Essay Series
Is there ever enough room for all the materials our students must access and use to learn hour after hour, day after day in our classrooms? We bet if we...
Enhance Your Classroom Poetry Collection
Several years ago, I decided to build the poetry collection in the classroom. I only had a few poetry books, so I decided to make an effort to add great...
How I Flunked Literacy Leadership 101
Year four in my role as a literacy leader, and I thought that by now I might have most of the job figured out. I knew going into this year...
Change Quote Collection
Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. Maria Robinson The doors we open and close each day decide...
State Assessment Tests: Warm-Ups for Wandering Minds
It's that time of year in Wisconsin. The leaves have all fallen off the trees; the winds have picked up and are whipping and howling. Most homeowners have succumbed to...
Team Sharing of Writing Curriculum Innovations (TEMPLATE)
Literacy coaches know that the most successful staff development provides lots of time for colleagues to share their teaching stories, questions, and ideas. Hearing what is happening in the classrooms...
Helping Classroom Volunteers Become Better Listeners
In my school, asking students questions when the answer is already known by the questioner was a common practice. Frustrated by these conversations, I decided to see what might happen...
An Assessment Notebook That Works for Me
I have been looking for the perfect assessment organization system since I started teaching over 20 years ago. I remember my excitement when I heard about others who were using...
Cartwheels, Backward Rolls, and Literacy Coaching
My six year old daughter takes gymnastics lessons. I have watched in amazement over the last year at how her gymnastics coach breaks down instruction. Before ever beginning a recognizable...
Picture Books About Books: Young Learners and Reading Identity
In the first few weeks of school, I am attempting to understand a whole new class as individual readers (yikes!). I am trying to discover where, when, why, and what...
Helping Aaron Find His Voice as a Writer…and Mine as a Teacher
In my first two months of teaching, Aaron was the student that kept me up at night. He was the face I saw while sipping coffee at a red light...
Fitness Boot Camp Helps Me Understand Struggling Readers
I was an 80s aerobics junkie. In high school, I woke up at 6 a.m. to exercise with a TV program. In college, I was in the front and center...
Discussion Quote Collection
Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. Anne Morrow Lindbergh There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community,...
Recipe for a Literary Tea
Teachers, literacy coaches, and specialists are often looking for that unique gift for teachers and friends -- one with a literary touch to it. I created a "designer tea" for...
Rethinking Writing Centers – Winter Follow-Up
[Editor's Note: This is a follow-up to an article from August. If you would like to view the original article, you can access it by clicking here.] During the past school...
Fostering More Curricular Collaboration in Teams: The Meeting Notes Form (TEMPLATE)
This year our school is moving to a teaming model. The 6th grade teachers had already been working as a grade level team, and we felt like we were doing...
Sales Clerks and Literacy Leaders
Shopping for the perfect outfit is always an exhausting task. I seem to always encounter the hovering salesperson. She's the one who shows me the outfits I would never buy, and suggests...
Assessing Spelling in Writing Workshops Part 1: Thinking Through the Assessment
I have been pondering changes to my spelling and word study program in my first grade classroom this year. Specifically, I wonder how I can look at my students' writing...
