Content Category: Choice Literacy
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November 17, 2018 Heat Maps
Gatherings that are willing to be alienating—which is different from being alienating—have a better chance to dazzle. Priya Parker In her new book The Art of Gathering: How We Meet...
Poetry Connections
Every day at the start of class my coteacher would remind him to take down his hood. He ducked his head inside the hood-cave even farther before reluctantly pulling it...
Past Midnight
—remembering Eva she rides a river of words like a floater in a rip tide. Rogue waves strain for space outside the breaking zone. ...
The Power of Similes
Write a good simile for me. Go ahead; I’ll wait. Not so easy, right? You can come up with a bad simile in a minute or two or rattle off...
The Big Fresh November 10, 2018 Just Keep Pedaling
Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving. Albert Einstein I’m trying to get back into the rhythms of riding. Last...
The Big Fresh November 3, 2018 The Second Choice
Having a sense of security in one realm gives us the freedom to be original in another. Adam Grant What’s your dream project? The one at the top of your...
Pick a Poem
“Hey, look at the next page! It’s about a tiger!” Robert, whom many referred to as all boy or by some initialism that gets tossed around to explain student listlessness,...
Hidden Treasures
Bruce Howdle was an unofficial ambassador for our small city of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. A local artist and university instructor, he was often seen walking up and down our main...
Being a Teacher Writer Is More Than Being a Teacher Who Writes
I began writing alongside students so I could experience the work as a writer. I was doing the writing work because I needed it for the thing I cared about...
The Third (or More) Time Is the Charm
Remember the Where’s Waldo? books you used to look at as a kid? Do you think you’d be able to find Waldo—let alone take in all the other details—if you...
Reading The Crossover: Fourth-Grade Reading Group
Gigi McAllister leads a group of boys who are just starting the novel-in-verse The Crossover in her fourth-grade classroom.
First-Grade Conference: Finding Seeds in Writing
Katrina Edwards confers with a first grader, Holden, and helps him unpack a narrative to use as seed writing.
The Big Fresh October 27, 2018 Stretching
A mind that is stretched by experience can never go back to its comfortable old dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes When to stretch? If you work out, you know there...
Evidence Claims in a Middle School Small Group
Christy Ruth-Levine leads a small group of eighth graders as they explore how to include textual evidence in their literary analysis essays.
Readers’ Guides: Helping Students Think About Informational Text
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.5With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. Teachers are often waging a small...
Hunting for Textual Evidence
“Do we have to put quotes in this essay?!” “What page is that quote about repeating the past on in Gatsby?” Finding textual evidence can be hard for students. Arming...
The Big Fresh October 20, 2018 Crayons
History written in pencil is easily erased, but crayon is forever. Emilie Autumn This fall I’m immersed in a redesign of the Choice Literacy website. One thing the designer...
The Right to Be Seen
I would often ask myself: What’s the kind thing to do? What is the right thing to do? —Jacqueline Woodson How can anyone forget the face of a child that...
Shoulders-Down Spaces
In certain people, places, and events, we hear the tune of our own bones. Laurie Patton Last February, I found myself walking under the famous Dragon’s Gate and onto...
Reading Minilesson: A Good Partner
Katrina Edwards helps her first graders early in the year transition to more thoughtful reading partnerships through a minilesson at the start of the morning workshop.
The Big Fresh October 13, 2018 Raccoon
The raccoon problem is under control. They have their part of town and we have ours. Leslie Knope (in Parks and Recreation) The last thing one expects to see when...
