Content Category: Choice Literacy
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The Big Fresh January 27, 2018 Rosie’s Bucket List
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have...
Revising Thinking Through Multiple Readings
Sara’s hand flies into the air, waving frantically as she calls out, “Oh, I know! Maybe everyone in Miss Strangeworth’s family wrote mean letters, so she has to carry on...
Fostering More Rereading in Classrooms
Do you ever find yourself reading an email quickly to capture the gist of it and then putting it away in a folder, only to find yourself pulling it out...
Questions for Rereaders
When I was a young reader and first discovered Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie, I loved it so much that I read it again. And again. And...
Minilesson: How to Retell a Story
Katrina Edwards uses They All Saw a Cat and Be a Friend for a minilesson with her first-grade students on how to retell stories with a partner during reading workshop....
Why Bother? Practical Answers to Questions About Close Reading
It’s no secret that most language arts teachers tend to approach their work with a sense of urgency. They can’t help it. It’s just that there is a finite amount...
Bin of the Week
“These books are actually dusty!” exclaimed Bob. Bob and I were putting some newly acquired books in the appropriate bins in his classroom library. During our work, we discovered that...
Stop and Inquire
“Did Washington really chop down a cherry tree?” In the middle of a minilesson about the French and Indian War, I introduced George Washington as a young soldier in his...
The Big Fresh January 20, 2018 Thriving Artists
I just wanted to do something important. Norman Rockwell If you ever are in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, treat yourself and take an hour to visit the Norman...
The Big Fresh January 13, 2018: Teaching and Belonging
What we know matters but who we are matters more. Brene Brown This fall I heard the amazing Brene Brown speak on the concept of belonging. It was only...
Flash Forward with New Students
In my experience, student scheduling begins in the spring and is not finalized until midsummer, at best. However, this year, our principal pledged to make a change. Not only did...
Self-Assessment and Goal Setting
It was the end of the school year, and we were busy reflecting on our growth in my fourth-grade classroom. Today the students were completing a self-rating scale on various...
The Big Fresh January 6, 2018 How’s Your Stamina?
Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal. Elbert Hubbard...
Goals to Habits in First Grade
When I sat down to confer with Grace, I was surprised when the focus of the conversation quickly changed to my own reading, specifically a reading goal that I had...
Goals in Small Groups for English Language Learners
The past few months have been a steep learning curve for me. After nine years in a fourth-grade classroom, I moved to a literacy interventionist position, in which I pull...
Independence in Writing Workshop
Writing workshop is a tricky thing. When all is going well, there is a sense of calm purpose in the air: the minilesson does not stretch into a maxilesson, and...
Quick-Write with a Video Prompt
Katherine Sokolowski refreshes the quick-write routine in her fifth-grade classroom by using a video as a prompt.
The Big Fresh December 16, 2017 Making Time for Joy
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. Andy Warhol I always look forward to Monday mornings. That’s the day I treat myself...
First-Grade Reflections: Looking Back to Move Forward
It was the first day back after winter vacation, and I looked at the plans that I had penciled in the week before break. “Review reading workshop expectations: independent reading,...
Fresh Starts Through Community Building
If you had been looking for me on the first day of school, you would have found me in our bilingual second-grade classroom wearing only one shoe. The classroom teacher...
Flexible Seating: Mid-Year Tweaks with Book Nooks
Midwinter blah weather was creating cabin fever in my classroom, and I started thinking about design ideas to bring new life to our classroom. My students completed a Room Design...
