Content Category: Choice Literacy
Results
Offering Playful Choice to Show Learning
It all started when one first grader complained, “Mrs. Mulligan, I don’t want to talk with my book club. It’s boring.” Then several others chimed in, “Yeah, it’s boring.” Hearing...
Sensible Reasons to Use Student Reading Records
Several years ago I started a Goodreads account to keep track of the books I read. Creating my own personal shelves allowed me to track books from genres, topics, and...
Conventions Podcast with Jen Schwanke
The focus of this week's Big Fresh podcast is conventions. Jen Schwanke joins the conversation. Click here for ALL links discussed. Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter...
June 11, 2021: Conventions
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across...
June 4, 2021: Multimodal Writing
Books are something social—a writer speaking to a reader—so I think making the reading of a book the center of a social event, the meeting of a book club, is...
The Choice Literacy Book Club Discusses My Hero Academia, Volume 1
Enjoy listening as the Choice Literacy Book Club discusses My Hero Academia, Volume 1 by Kohei Horikoshi. Click here for the Choice Literacy Book Club about My Hero Academia, Volume...
May 28, 2021: Craft Moves for Writers
When we are no longer able to change our situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. —Viktor Frankl [Now you can listen to the Big Fresh as a podcast!] Don't...
Where the Writing Carries Meaning
Ruth Ayres explains the way image, text, and sound work together to create meaningful writing. She helps us consider where the writing carries the most meaning, as well as how...
Fairy Tales with a Multimodal Twist: Process and Product
The lights in the library dimmed. The room, filled with parents and other distinguished guests, quieted. Students wiggled in their seats, whispering excitedly as they waited. It was time for...
Fairy Tales with a Multimodal Twist: Laying the Groundwork
“We picked the name Prince Sparklepants because we wanted people to laugh.” The three girls giggled as they told me about the main character in their twisted fairy tale. “Tell...
Fairy Tale Study that Needed a Restart
Each year, I remember when I returned to teaching second grade. I was overwhelmed by learning new standards and content. One of our literacy standards asks us to compare and...
Craft Moves in Before the Ever After
Meg Kearney, the director of the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College, said many memorable things during my time as a student. One of them involved...
Overplayed Mentor Texts
“What about this book?” I asked my kids as I held up The Sandwich Swap. We were unpacking yet another box of books from our recent move and having to...
Conventions and Keeping It Real
Conventions. Ahh, the bane of a writing teacher’s existence. How many times have I looked at a student’s writing and seen lowercase letters starting sentences, names not capitalized, end punctuation...
Is Grammar-Check Cheating?
I was recently having a conversation with friends when, as part of a larger story, I mentioned that I had my students install Grammarly, a grammar checker extension, on their...
Editing to Consolidate
Writing teachers spend a lot of time helping students edit their work. Getting words down on paper is the easy part. Choosing which words to keep around? Entirely different, entirely...
Creating Places for Dialogue
I remember playing with dolls as a child, sitting on the floor with Barbie in one hand, Ken in the other, and creating conversations between them. Recently, I watched my...
Transfer of Learning Podcast with Melanie Meehan
The focus of this week's Big Fresh is Transfer of Learning. Melanie Meehan joins the podcast. Click here for ALL links discussed. Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh...
May 21, 2021: Transfer of Learning
The more you practice, the better you get, the more freedom you have to create. —Jocko Willink [Now you can listen to the Big Fresh as a podcast!] Practice with...
Crafting Argumentative Essays
Ever since my dad recorded The Eagles’s Hotel California album onto a cassette tape along with my Sesame Street songs when I was a toddler, music has been a part...
Yoga Poses and Workshop Processes: Honor the Journey
It’s still dark outside when I descend the stairs, careful not to wake my sleeping children with sounds of creaky floorboards. When I arrive at the mat, I cross my...
