Content Category: Choice Literacy
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Connecting Reading and Thinking Minilesson
Bitsy Parks uses read alouds from earlier in September to teach the key building block of comprehension—connections.
When a Book Doesn’t Work
I once had a relative say to me, “Teaching must be easy for you now, since you already have your lessons and you’ve done them so many times.” At the...
The Big Fresh August 12, 2017 Bingo
As I lay me down to slumber, All I need is one more number. A Bingo Player’s Prayer It was the middle of a dreary, wet, and brutally cold week...
Conferring in First Grade: Reading Illustrations
Katrina Edwards helps a first grader use pictures to help her make sense of confusing text.
The Scarlet Level
I’ll never forgot the Friday night I tiptoed into my son’s room to give him one last kiss and could not find him. Rather than seeing him snuggled up in...
Leveled Text Dilemma
We looked in the library. We checked the bookroom . . . No luck. But we need more leveled texts for our readers to use. Help us! Those are the...
Stuck at Level E
Dantrell loved school. He was the first one to burst through the door of the first-grade classroom at the beginning of every school day. He was the last one to...
The Big Fresh August 5, 2017 Resolutions for a New School Year
Good resolutions are like babies crying in church. They should be carried out immediately. Charles M. Sheldon Summer is when we all think about things we’re going to do differently...
Using Stories to Launch Writers’ Notebooks
Twenty-two fourth graders are gathered on our blue carpet framed by bookshelves. One of us is perched on our stool, Fireflies! by Julie Brinckloe in hand, scanning the faces in...
Is Writing Essential?
Sam, my son, writes with me every Saturday morning. It’s a long-standing tradition. One day he asked, “May I use your phone? I want to figure out the word for...
Conferring with Spencer: Writing Notebook Topics
Katherine Sokolowski helps fifth grader Spencer brainstorm topics for his writing notebook.
School-to-Home Journals
I love school-to-home journals. I’m talking about the type where a student writes a letter to someone at home once or twice a week, and that someone—a parent, usually, but...
The Big Fresh July 29, 2017 Tickle Tickle
I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the...
Environment Small Group: Habitat
Katherine Sokolowski leads a small group of fifth graders who have chosen similar topics for their environment projects.
Humor Writing with Teens
I love seeing funny people perform. I regularly watch Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Inside Amy Schumer, and Saturday Night Live. Although it takes a talented performer to get...
Dabbling: Reviving a Focus on Play
It was April, and we were beginning our final unit of study in writing workshop—narrative nonfiction. Coincidentally, my own National Poetry Month poem-a-day project was narrative nonfiction—poems inspired by the...
Planning for a Narrative Writing Unit of Study
When we take a vacation to Disney World, our family has almost as much fun planning the trip as we do going on it. Once we decide how we’ll get...
Creating a Manifesto
The better you know yourself, the better your relationship with the rest of the world. —Toni Collette The words rattled around my ears and tapped the low beat of...
The Big Fresh July 22, 2017 Magic Wand
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our brain to grow sharper. William Butler Yeats When I found out one of my friends was leaving the...
My Five Objectives for the Start of the School Year
As a high school teacher with a short 42-minute period in which to teach all of the standards, I find it hard not to feel the pressure to get things...
The Big Fresh July 15, 2017 Growth Rings
Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift. Albert Einstein There’s a whole science that studies tree ring dating. By noting the growth rings, scientists can determine...
