Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Conferring with Eddie
Eddie is a six-year-old student who speaks Cantonese as his first language. In this conference with Ruth Shagoury, little English is spoken, and yet there is much communication through gestures...
From Cross Checking and Retelling to Main Ideas: Helping Advanced Readers Develop Skills
In this five-minute video, Gail Boushey confers with Amanda, a second-grade student reading at a fourth-grade level early in the school year. In the conference, Gail helps Amanda set a...
Moving into “Big Fat Chapter Books”: Conferring with Elyse
In this conference with seven-year-old Elyse, Joan Moser helps her set a reading goal that will help her move into "big fat chapter books." In the debrief with Gail Boushey,...
Book Matchmaker: Texts for “Outdoorsy” Boys
I received this request from Carolyn: "Can we tackle the age-old problem of books that get ten-year-old boys jazzed about reading? I had many boys this past year...
Bookroom Tours – Part I
In this three-minute video, The Sisters (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) take viewers on a tour of an elementary bookroom. The books are arranged by levels, with Joan and Gail...
Listing Strategy: Minilesson
Aimee Buckner confers with students after a listing strategy minilesson in writing workshop using the book This Is the Tree.
Quick Take: Protocols for Teacher Study Groups
In this three-minute Quick Take video, Clare Landrigan describes the teacher study group protocol she uses to foster shared understanding and allow for differentiated learning among teachers.
Bookroom Tours Part II
In this three-minute video, "The Sisters" (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) continue their tours of school bookrooms. The focus in this presentation is on the checkout system used to keep...
From Compliments to Naming the Craft: Fifth-Grade Writing Workshop Share Session
This whole-class share session in Lesley Fowler's fifth-grade classroom is the culmination of a nonfiction writing unit. Over the course of the year, we moved from having students compliment their...
Conferring Notebook for Coaches
I am always on the hunt for new ways to reorganize the records I keep as a literacy coach. I want to be sure I have good records of encounters...
Literacy Room for Teachers Tour
When Jennifer Allen became a literacy specialist ten years ago in Waterville, Maine, she inherited a dusty basement space, bare except for a large pile of ancient reading intervention materials...
Under, Over and Beyond Words: Strategies for Observing Talk in Classrooms
In the book Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning, Peter Johnston writes about the importance of the ways teachers talk with students. He notes, "Teachers have very different...
Creative Literacy Events for Families
If your program for families has been centered on a few tried-and-true events you rarely vary over the years, you might want to mix it up with a new event...
Tools to Redesign Your Classroom (TEMPLATES)
How can teachers get started with thinking through a new classroom design? In these two tools from their acclaimed "Trading Spaces" classroom design courses, "The Sisters" (Gail Boushey and Joan...
Adjectives to Anecdotes: Writing Better Report Card Comments
If your report card allows you to write only a few sentences about each student, a bit of advance planning helps if you want to be specific and concrete. Try...
Alphabet Books for English Language Learners
Five-year-old Bao Jun lived two-thirds of her young life in China, then moved to Portland, Oregon. On the first day of kindergarten, her mother told me, "You say, she understand....
Reorganizing the Classroom Library
In this time-lapse video, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser help Carrie, a second-year teacher, begin to organize her classroom library according to themes and traffic patterns in the classroom.
Lighting Redesign from the Sisters
In this five-minute time-lapse video, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser redesign the lighting in their colleague Ahnsaly's literacy meeting area. In the process, they talk about the challenges of "black...
Shopping With Ana: Expanding Our Definition of “Just Right” Books in Grades K-2
My six-year-old daughter Ana has recently discovered the joy of gift certificates. She received a gift certificate from Borders Bookstore from my parents for Valentine's Day. Ana seemed to grasp...
Puzzle Kids: Observing and Analyzing Challenging Students (E-GUIDE)
Puzzle kids. Students on the bubble. Children in danger of falling through the cracks. Every teacher can instantly think of students who fit these terms, and can just as quickly...
Conferring with Yourself: A Tool for Anticipating Response (TEMPLATE)
Teachers thinking about making big changes to their literacy programs need a few good voices in their heads. Not the kind that lead to extended stays in padded rooms, but...
