Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Can AI Help with Assessment?
Recently, I tried something I probably wouldn’t have considered good practice one year or even six months ago. I used AI to help me grade essays. Faced with a pile...
May 30, 2025: Nourish Independence
Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings. —Ray Bradbury Nourish Independence My youngest son, Sam, accepted a job with Norfolk Southern railroad and is in...
All the Writing Things: Putting Writers in Charge of Their Writing
It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about? – Henry David Thoreau After 22 years as a high school physics teacher, my...
May 23, 2025: Have More Fun
I think that success is having fun. —Bruno Mars Are We Having Fun? Our family sometimes went on outings when I was a little girl. When it was time to...
May 16, 2025: Trusting Students
A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect. —Jonathan Lockwood Huie Bananas At a summer writing retreat, my colleagues and I met for breakfast in the community dining...
Five Things I’ve Used AI for This Week
My mom slid into the passenger seat of my car and shut her door. “Thanks for driving me to the eye doctor, honey,” she said as she handed me a...
Not Your Granny’s Grammar: Create Intentional Transfer to Writing
Ah, the great grammar gap! That puzzling paradox where students who have been studying grammar with depth seemingly forget many of the grammar tools they acquired. This isn't a reflection...
Not Your Granny’s Grammar: Grammar Manipulatives
Grammar worksheets. They have arguably been the most popular tool for grammar instruction for decades. I’d like to offer an alternative that gives students a more interactive, creative, and effective...
And the Winner Is… Planning and Implementing a Mock Book Award
A screenful of children waited eagerly. An educator walked to the front of the room and announced the title of the book that had won their student-selected book award. The...
Not Your Granny’s Grammar: So Long, Grammar of Yore
Generally speaking, grammar instruction has not evolved much since our grandmas and grandpas were in school (and their grandmas and grandpas as well). I recently did a deep dive comparing...
Letting Go and Trusting Students
Coming back from break wasn’t really the time I would have chosen for a door-decorating contest, and almost in a last-ditch effort to come up with an easy idea, I...
May 9, 2025: Brain-Based Learning
It's rarely information we need; it's inspiration we crave. —Bob Goff What We Crave I lift heavy weights with a group of five women. You’ll find us at the gym...
Say Cheese: Sharing Photos to Increase Family and Student Engagement
I am that mom who literally walks around with a storage-full phone. There is no such thing as too many pictures. When my kids were in day care (and even...
What Just Happened? Download a Behavior Sheet
“Mason, come join us on the rug, please,” I say, calmly reminding him for the third time of the expectation. I turn to the other kids and pick up the...
May 2, 2025: Keeping Steady (Part 2)
Slow but steady wins the race. —Aesop Let's Not Be Frazzled I swim. Perhaps more accurately, I spend a lot of time exercising in the water. I don’t lap swim,...
Listening In Raises Student Voices
Listening In, Empowering, and Guiding Student Ideas The day started with our Master Gardener friends visiting and helping us learn about Ohio native plants, monarchs in winter, and winter seed...
Community Circle
Stay Steady: Classroom Community/Community Circle Jenny quickly spoke out. “What will we do at lunch, because there are only eight spots at each table and we eight fill those spots?”...
April 25, 2025: Keeping Steady (Part 1)
Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weaknesses. —Brené Brown Be Brave Fourth graders looked up at me from their...
The Influence of the Classroom Library
The purple crayon moved across the screen and a new world emerged. As my kids and I watched Harold and the Purple Crayon in the movie theater, I wore a...
Rhyme and Reflect: Fostering Fluency Through Poetry
Introduction As children learn to read, their decoding skills strengthen step-by-step. Some readers take to it like a duck to water and read smoothly with expression. Their oral reading matches...
What Is ORF Anyway?
Issac sat down across the table from me. I said hello and then read the directions on my screen to him just as I had read to countless other students...
