Content Category: Choice Literacy
Results
Introducing Bull’s-Eye and Waves Written Responses in Synthesis Work
My students helped me understand that to synthesize what you are reading, you have to stand in two places at once: in your own shoes and in the shoes of...
Assessment and Curriculum Mapping
In this video from a new teacher study group for grades 3-5 teachers, Jennifer Allen demonstrates how teachers can use assessment data to develop instructional plans for individual students and...
The Art of Listening in Writing Conferences with English Language Learners
Listening looks easy, but it is not simple. Every head is a world. —Cuban proverb Researchers have studied the physiology of listening and speaking. One of the things they discovered...
Revision Tools: Providing Options to Students
From old favorites like highlighters to new resources like kangaroo bags, this whole-class session with Franki Sibberson's grades 3-4 students highlights cool tools that will inspire learners to dive in...
Four Essentials in Designing Professional Development for Literacy Leaders
I never imagined years ago when I was a first-grade teacher that I would one day be responsible for designing professional development for literacy leaders in a highly successful school...
Starting Points: Easy Beginnings for Writing Better Narrative Assessments and Report Card Comments
Teachers despise cheaters. We want students to do their own work, take pride in it, and stand on their personal accomplishments as learners. We expect the same of ourselves as...
Helping Young Readers Understand the Middle East: A Booklist of the Best Fiction Picture Books
I still remember the first time I read Day of Ahmed's Secret. I showed the book to colleagues and friends, telling them, "He looks just like my uncle Girgi! " or...
Reflection Sheets: A Tool for Assessment and Conferring
I use reflection sheets a few times a month with my third- and fourth-grade students in reading and writing workshops. The students answer a few questions around some issue we...
Teacher Study Group: Writing Focus
In this video of a teacher study group, Jennifer Allen leads a group of grades 3-5 teachers as they launch their monthly meeting in October. Jen follows her own guidelines...
The Dark Side of Girl Talk: How Female Conversation Patterns Can Inhibit School Change
In Margaret Atwood's novel Cat's Eye, eleven-year-old Elaine is alternately taunted and cajoled within her group of female friends in the classroom, on the playground, and in their homes. As an...
Flexible Groups: Moving Beyond Levels to Assess Reading Needs
In the past, flexible groups really weren't that flexible in our classrooms, especially when we based the groups on students' reading levels. For years we said, "Yes, of course we...
Minilessons to Start Conversations with Students About Books
In my work as a curricular support teacher, I find myself thinking about people who have been important to me in my role as classroom teacher. When I think about...
Family Survey: Report Cards and Evaluations (SURVEY)
Before you begin the arduous process of writing report card comments and evaluation narratives for your students, it helps to know a little bit about the audience for your words...
The “All About Us” Board: Linking Literacy and Community Building All Year Long
One activity that supports our community building and literacy development all year is the "All About Us" bulletin board. In preparation I divide my largest bulletin board into as many...
Concepts of Print: Conferring with a Kindergartner
In this conference with five-year-old Mariano, Joan Moser (of "The Sisters") assesses his understanding of reading, print, and books at the start of the school year. After the conference, Joan...
Creating Anchor Charts with Sticky Note Responses from Young Readers
Learners who focus on comprehension strategies rely on different tools. One of the most popular is the three by three inch sticky note. High school teachers like Cris Tovani and...
Guilty Pleasures
TV. These two letters can make a grown adult's eyes roll. It can make a child shout for joy or cry in frustration. Educators cringe as we try to compete...
The Lines are to Write My Words: Phonics in Context
New journals. The excitement of a whole blank book of pages waiting for words and drawings to fill them. The kindergarten children seem eager to have their own new journals...
On Kidney Tables: Small Changes for Big Effects
Our staff is opening a new elementary school this fall, and we have been buried beneath the many decisions required to establish a new place for learning. When you start...
Enlisting Students as Observers
If you are trying to build more observation into your assessment of students, enlisting students as class observers is a wonderful way to gather more notes daily. The activity has...
Keeping It Simple: Reflections on the December New Teachers Study Group
Written on a sticky note stuck to the edge of my laptop are three phrases: Listen first; teach by example; be patient. These are three things I've learned as a...
