Content Category: Choice Literacy
Results
April 18, 2025: Differentiation
Remember, if people like it here, they'll come back. —Ms. Fortini to Eilis in the novel Brooklyn, by Colm Tóibín Honor and Value Students Where They Are We’ve arrived at...
Helping Kids Lead Every Day: Differentiate with Precision
As I looked out into the classroom during reading time, for the most part, the kids were working. I saw students huddled together in groups silently reading, or they were...
One Size Does Not Fit All: Flexibility in Tool Creation
Readers confidently burst into talk as I asked them to recall the story arc of Mr. Indifferent—a short film we enjoyed watching earlier in the year. We did a quick...
How to Intensify an Intervention
My heart sank a little bit as I scrolled through the progress monitoring data. Graph after graph swept across my screen, and for the most part, I saw a lot...
Helping Kids Lead Every Day: How to Deepen Small-Group Discussions
Now that students knew how to get their materials, decide what to read, and how to read, it was time to lift the level of their thinking in their student-led...
April 11, 2025: Conversation in Small Groups
Learning to speak, therefore, and the power it brings of intelligent converse with others, is a most impressive further step along the path of independence. —Maria Montessori Meaningful Conversations I’ve...
April 4, 2025: Helping Students Take Charge of Their Learning
Self-confidence is contagious. —Stephen Richards Write a Little Poetry It is April which makes us all think of poetry…At least I hope it makes us all think of poetry. I...
Vertical Conversations to Create Coherence
In my shift from the world of elementary school to middle school, I’ve noticed that we talk about mathematics instruction in different ways. Initially, I believed that we shared an...
Building Thinking Classrooms in Literacy
One of the latest innovations in teaching mathematics is Peter Liljedahl’s Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics. It has been a game changer for me because my students engaged in math,...
Got Criteria? How to Help Students Engage with Success Criteria
Driving home from my young daughter’s first-ever basketball game, we filled the air with appreciation and praise for her performance. "Wow, you did great!" my son said to her excitedly....
March 21, 2025: Give Space and Time for Learning
Small habits, when repeated consistently, lead to remarkable results. —James Clear Ignore the Mess? How many of us have supervised the car line before or after school? The elementary level...
March 14, 2025: Let’s Learn!
Grant me the curiosity to explore the things I do not understand, the courage to question the things I do, and the wisdom to never stop learning. —Anne-Laure Le Cunff...
Booklist: Books that Cultivate Kindness
Sometimes when I talk to children about why they should be kind and treat each other with respect, they tune out. However, they rarely tune out when listening to a...
Welcome, Everyone!
When Gigi McAllister says the library is a place for everyone, she means everyone! As a child, Gigi did not like reading, so she is passionate about creating a space...
Giving Kids Time and Space to Show Their Brilliance
We were at a local playground in the Buckeye State last summer, and someone had left a piece of chalk lying on the blacktop. My newly turned three-year-old son took...
March 6, 2025: Writing Process Tips
A word after a word after a word is power. —Margaret Atwood Big News! I'm excited to share some news with you. Becca Burk and I are officially contracted to...
Harnessing the Power of Words
After fourth grade, your vocabulary develops almost exclusively from what you read. To put this into perspective, if you were to read for 30 minutes a day, you would be...
Writing to Learn
“Literacy is not just the responsibility of ELA teachers; it is every teacher’s responsibility.” This is my administrators’ belief statement, and we spent the last several years implementing this belief...
Whole-School Animal Research
“Who was the winner? What’s our animal for next year?” asks a group of fourth graders at the end of the school year. The rising fifth graders have voted on...
Quick Take: Everyone Owns the Learning
Tammy Mulligan wants the kids to own the learning in the classroom. Here is one way she helps reinforce the message that everyone has something to offer the learning community.
Quick Take: A Classroom of Belonging
Tammy Mulligan shares the first steps to help students develop a sense of belonging in the classroom.
