Content Category: Choice Literacy
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November 7, 2025: Tools to Foster Independence
The best investment is in the tools of one's own trade. —Benjamin Franklin Tools My son is working as a conductor trainee for Norfolk Southern. As a gift, we gave...
Leveling Up The Locker Problem
Let’s choose math tasks we put in front of our students with as much care and intentionality as we use to select the books we use for read aloud. —...
Those Pictures You Make: Personalized Tools to Help Students
“Hey, Mrs. Burk, I have to come sit in here.” I looked to the doorway from the rocking chair where I was doing my read aloud to see Taleah, a...
Fostering Independence with Tools
I have heard more than one colleague mention that over time, our anchor charts become “wallpaper.” It is true that when charts hang on our walls for an extended period...
October 31, 2025: Moments to Cherish
I see your true colors shining through. —Cyndi Lauper True Colors One year for Halloween I dressed up as Cyndi Lauper. It started with a wig that could have been...
October 24, 2025: Adjusting to Change
Facts are helpful, but rarely are they soulful. —Bob Goff Hope I have a complicated relationship with hope. It’s a tiny word charged with big emotion, and I constantly find...
The Right Moment for “I Can” Statements
I spent the last year diving in and getting to know our new resource for teaching math in third grade. There is an expectation that we are using the new...
Lessons from a Bird-Watcher: How to Make Space for Students’ Passions
Kate’s sister, Emily, was visiting and they had just dropped Kate’s kids off at a camp on the bay. They planned to spend the time on a long walk, and...
Recognizing the Need for Change
What comes to mind when you think about stepping stones? For me, it’s what our family nicknamed Blue Slide Park, a park we frequented as kids that had, you guessed...
October 17, 2025: Playful Learning
Between stimulus and response there is a space. And in that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. —Stephen Covey,...
More Than a Self-Portrait
If you were to visit my classroom on any day of the year and ask me the one thing I want you to spend time with, it would be our...
The Locker Problem: Choosing Tasks and Posing Questions That Elicit Core Mathematical Ideas
Worthwhile mathematics teaching is about helping students to use what they know to reason through problems, strengthening their minds as they grapple with and make sense of increasingly complex mathematics....
Background Knowledge: More than Just Facts
It is impossible to not apply prior knowledge while reading. —Kelly Gallagher The term background knowledge was often heard in many of my college courses. I knew it was important,...
Why High School Students Need Cardboard Castles and Poetry Caves
This past spring my high school students and I built a cave in our classroom. It was made out of cardboard boxes, kraft paper, and a lot of packing tape...
September 26, 2025: Relevant and Reliable Texts
We danced starlight into the rainbows of our broken hearts. —Joseph Coelho Dance Starlight Joseph Coelho and 21 artist friends created Ten-Word Tiny Tales of Love. I hope you know...
Reading Nonfiction: A Digital Anchor Chart
Tammy Mulligan uses a digital anchor chart to hold several steps to guide students while reading nonfiction text. Students tape a copy of the printed digital anchor chart into their...
Rethinking Resources: Pausing to Reflect on Old Favorites
It was World Read Aloud Day—one of my favorite days of the year—in my fourth-grade classroom several years ago. We spend the day sharing favorite read alouds from visitors, staff...
Shining the Light on Truthful Histories
At the 2024 NCTE convention, I was surrounded by professionals who valued that year's theme: Heart, Hope, and Humanity. During one of the keynote addresses, I was struck by these...
September 19, 2025: Play Promotes Identity, Reading, and Writing
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. —William James Milestones I’m thinking about milestones. It’s my son’s 23rd birthday so I woke up contemplating him and...
Classroom Tour: Portable Tools for Regulating Emotions
Mandy Robek shares a collection of portable and personalized tools to help students regulate their emotions.
September 12, 2025: A Love of Reading
The smartest person in the room is never as smart as all of the people in the room. —John Maxwell Join Our Free Community! Choice Literacy has been around since...
