Content Category: Choice Literacy
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A New System for Anchor Charts
The corners of our anchor charts are peeling away from the walls. The once vivid marker strokes are faded and hard to read. If there was ever a cute graphic...
August 16, 2019 We Know How
Adults are just outdated children. Dr. Seuss It’s afternoon in kindergarten, Kindergarten is squirrelly this afternoon. We’ve gone too many days without sunshine, and we've had too much rain....
The Curious Incident of Poem in the Stream of Time
—this daydream of meddling with writing. Michel De Montaigne In the nighttime a poem crawls out of a bog, hides trembling behind a tangle of myths, circles the sunrise painting...
Young Learners and Self-Talk
“She does a lot of self-talk while she is reading. We don’t want her to do that,” the teacher says. “Why?” I ask. I wonder why the teacher is seeing...
August 9, 2019 Reading the Signs
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of...
Spacing Words: Kindergarten Small Group
Tammy Mulligan uses another kindergartner's writing as a mentor text for teaching young children how to use spaces in their writing in this demonstration small group.
Drawing and Learning in Kindergarten
Max Brand demonstrates basic drawing strategies early in the year, and then has his kindergartners attempt similar pictures. He explains how the exercise builds basic skills both in literacy and...
No Pictures Stinks!
All of us teachers have recollections of cringe-worthy moments from the earlier years of our careers. Well, maybe one or two from later in our careers, too. We all painfully...
August 2, 2019 Diving into New Roles
Starting a new job is always scary, or at least for me it's always scary. It's like the first day of school. Sean Maher My...
Student Greeting
Students in the first-grade classroom of Bitsy Parks lead a morning greeting at the start of the day. It's a quick activity to check attendance, build reading skills, and help...
Status of the Class: Reflecting on Reading Communities
I have used information from some sort of “status of the class” for most of my teaching years. Asking students at the beginning of reading workshop what they are reading...
A Better Status of the Class
The room was calm and quiet on this Thursday afternoon. Students were settling in to their reading spots and their books. The next 30 minutes would be dedicated to independent...
Linking Literacy and Community at the Start of the Year
At the start of the school year, teachers everywhere strive to build community. A sense of community is vital to our literacy classrooms, so we search for activities to launch...
Voices Mantra
The 23 Voices Strong mantra is based on the mantra from Dr. Alfred Tatum's ID: Voice, Vision, Identity program. My students revised the original to include some parts that spoke...
July 26, 2019 Death by Banana
Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably. C.S. Lewis Getting a report from my son’s middle school about a lost or damaged book is not surprising. He...
July 19, 2019 Data Without Judgment
As I get older, the more I stay focused on the acceptance of myself and others, and choose compassion over judgment and curiosity over fear. ...
Speed Reading
Like many of us, I live in a community with a robust Facebook group made up of parents from all over our district attendance area. Many communities have these groups,...
Managing Take-Home Books
The music begins to play, and readers return to the carpet to share the work they have been doing during reading workshop. The children have begun to settle into a...
Strategies for Sustaining Student Attention
Last October, my family got a puppy. I have extensive experience with dogs from my childhood and pre-parenthood days. I know a few things about training a puppy into a...
Forgetting and Remembering
Mr. Pim, my seventh-grade math teacher, had a trademark phrase he used when a student forgot something—a homework assignment, a parent signature, the required brown-paper-bag textbook cover. “I forgot,” the...
July 12, 2019 The Most Important Person
People who do not value you are worthless and those who do are priceless. Amit Abraham I recently went into a hearing clinic to pick up supplies for my...
