Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Levels and What’s Appropriate
“How do you know they are reading books at their level?” the visitor asked. This is the question I hear the most often from visitors to my classroom, students in...
Making Meaning with Simple Text: Conferring in First Grade
Katrina Edwards confers with a first grader, looking beyond the level of the book early in the year to ensure the child is engaging with the story. She helps the...
The Big Fresh August 11, 2018 Stubborn Gladness
Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. Samuel Johnson One of the hardest things about living in truly challenging times is that I’ve lost my sense...
Getting to Know Each Other Through the Work
It is the first full day of school. In my first class of the day, 31 seventh graders are staring at me and wondering what my social studies class is...
Organizing for Middle School
Ask any middle school teacher what they hope to accomplish with their students every year, and you will likely find “organization” somewhere in their top five choices. Ask a sixth-grade...
First-Grade Reading Share: Focus on Conferring and Strategies
Bitsy Parks uses reading share time early in the year to describe and summarize the work in two conferences to help students learn how conferring, independent reading time, and strategy...
Read Alouds to Start the Year in First Grade
The first weeks of school are like no other. The excitement, anticipation, and angst that comes with the first day is unmatched by any other time of year. As I...
The Big Fresh August 4, 2018 Surprise
No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader. Robert Frost Huh? I don’t know what you mean. Well, nothing I guess. I mean, I wrote it. I’ve just...
Doing the Writing in a Unit
It may seem simple to you, but every time I look at that shelf, I am filled with pride. The shelf hangs—perfectly straight at eye level in my bedroom. On...
Writing on Someone Else’s Topic
An email message in my inbox said, “Shari, can you write something about why it’s good for children to touch their foreheads? I think it has something to do with the...
Fourth-Grade Minilesson: Character Traits
Gigi McAllister helps her fourth graders develop the characters in their writing with a minilesson. She uses three mentor texts, one of which is her own writing.
Fall Fluster
I’ve been teaching for more than 20 years, yet I continue to be surprised by what I call the “fall fluster.” I spend my summer catching up on professional reading,...
The Big Fresh July 28, 2018 Passion for Work
It's your place in the world, it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. Mae Jemison...
How to Get Books Off Shelves
My eighth-grade classroom walls are lined with bookshelves. At the start of each school year, each shelf is packed with books. Throughout the school year I inevitably add to my...
Enticing Young Readers: First-Grade Group
Bitsy Parks helps a small group of first graders engage with the library early in the year by introducing a series with companion stuffed animals.
Fifth-Grade Book Talk: Wish Girl
Katherine Sokolowski builds interest in a new book in the classroom library through a book talk on Wish Girl.
Keeping the Classroom Library Current
If you walk past my room on many days during my planning period, you will see me standing in front of the shelves, pondering. Those are the days when I’ve...
The Big Fresh July 21, 2018 Hitting Save
Your calm mind is your ultimate weapon against your challenges. Bryant McGill Over the past few years I have shifted from drafting in documents saved on a single computer’s...
And This Makes Me Think
If you could see me right now, you would know I’m sitting cross-legged on my unmade bed, my hair up in a messy knot, with three tabs open on my...
Wounded Warriors: Trauma and Literacy Routines
When Rosie was in third grade, she brought a suitcase to school. It was an old-fashioned, hard black case with brown triangle patches on the corners. The stitching had unfurled....
First-Grade Read and Think Check-In
Katrina Edwards demonstrates a read and think check-in from her first-grade classroom.
