Content Category: Choice Literacy
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An Alternative to Spelling Tests
As I read through my students' writing journals, I was reminded of the question I get from parents from time to time: “What happened to spelling tests?" When parents fret...
September 5, 2025: Being Active as a Reader and Writer
Tea is the magic key to the vault where my brain is kept. —Frances Hardinge I'll Drink to That! My mom always started the day with a slow cup of...
Classroom Tour: Whole-Class Meeting Space
Mandy Robek shares the purpose and design of her whole-class meeting space.
Making the Case for Reading
The word just has really begun to get on my nerves. When an administrator asks about scheduling a walk-through and asks, “Will you just be reading at the beginning of...
Latest and Greatest Ways to Show Independent Reading Is Valued
Tara was recently moving her daughter's bedroom from downstairs, where she’s been for many years, to an upstairs bedroom. Although the room she moved to is larger, she wasn’t able...
August 29, 2025: Authentic Writing Experiences
Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion. —Barry Lopez The Heart of Teaching Writers I belong to a local chapter...
August 22, 2025: Welcoming Everyone!
Space is the breath of art. —Frank Lloyd Wright Seeing My Classroom Through a New Lens As I got ready to enter Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and desert laboratory...
Classroom Tour: Creating and Living a Classroom Charter
Mandy Robek offers a wise approach to developing a classroom vision with her students. They begin by discussing the way they would like to feel in the classroom. Then they...
Purposeful Ways to Incorporate Interactive Writing at the Start of the Year
One of the instructional methods we love the most in primary classrooms is interactive writing. It allows us to target the needs of our learners as individuals and reinforce the...
Talking Back: A Strategy for Annotation
We should think of marginalia as a genre, or so Roy Peter Clark suggests in his 2024 book How to Write Short. The purpose of marginalia, he says, is “learning,...
Hidden Lessons: Are We in Control of Who We Become? (Part 4)
In this final installment of the “Hidden Lessons” series, I turn to perhaps the most complicated question of all: To what extent are we in control of who we become?...
Classroom Tour: Classroom Supplies
Mandy Robek offers a unique and powerful approach to community supplies in her classroom.
Authentic Audiences for Writing in School
The first time we posted an article on the blog we shared was several years ago. We weren’t sure that anyone besides ourselves would even read it. At the time,...
Writing in the Wild: Bringing Back Authenticity
Papers, sticky notes, and folders are strewn across the tables as my second graders work on their fantasy books. They've studied several mentor texts of various types of fantasy writing:...
Hidden Lessons: Why Do Relationships Matter? (Part 3)
By the time they reach high school, many students have learned how to survive change, but not always how to make sense of it. They’ve lost friendships, switched schools, experienced...
Classroom Tour: Flexible Seating
Mandy Robek shares a variety of seating choices students have in her classroom. She explains the reason for her choices and how she manages a classroom where no one has...
I Am a Listener Who…
Behind the small-group table, he sat on the floor with his legs outstretched. His head rested on the cabinet while tears streamed down his cheeks. Although I had seen him...
Building Trust in Our Classrooms
The beginning of the school year brings many demands: reading and writing assessments, seating charts, and binder setup, to name a few. It can be easy to hit the ground...
August 15, 2025: Positive Approaches to Change
You just can't beat the person who never gives up. —Babe Ruth The Power of Just I wandered up to the bonus room and was excited to see Charlie, my...
Wheels: Adapting to Change on the Roller Derby Track and in Your Teaching Life
In roller derby, wheels are an important part of the game. Skaters change their wheels based on how much stick or slide they want as they play, adjusting for different...
Walking a Teaching-Readers Tightrope: Finding Balance Between Beliefs and Expectations
The history of teaching reading is often explained through the metaphor of a pendulum, swinging drastically from one side to the other, never stopping between. Educators are pulled along for...
