Content Category: Choice Literacy
Results
Reading Workshop Non-Negotiables
For the first time in my 15-year teaching career, I have taken on the opportunity of having a student teacher. So far, this experience has been wonderful, and it has...
Connecting to Text: First-Grade Conference
Bitsy Parks confers with first grader Leo early in the school year, reinforcing the basic principle of making connections to text while reading.
Joy
The minilesson ended, and 23 first-grade writers launched into their stories—a flurry of paper and possibilities—as one sat paralyzed on his carpet square. Shoulders hunched, face flushed, head resting heavily...
Celebrating and Nudging: First-Grade Writing Conference
Bitsy Parks takes time to celebrate first grader Colson's finished writing, even as she nudges him to try a technique shared in the day's minilesson.
Reconsidering Reading Workshop Routines
Scheduling and the game of Jenga have a lot in common . . . This is something my building principal says when launching a scheduling meeting with classroom and support...
Sketchnoting as a Response to Reading
When I first began to see sketchnotes on my Twitter feed, I was intrigued. Sketchnotes are a method of note taking that combines images and words. Some educators sketchnote at...
The Big Fresh June 24, 2017 Meeting the Challenge
There's nothing an artist needs more - even more than excellent tools and stamina - than a deadline. ...
Building a Next-Read Stack
Katherine Sokolowski helps fifth grader Abby build her next-read stack of books.
The Benefits of #bookaday
A few things came together to create one of my most favorite classroom routines. Jillian Heise took Donalyn Miller’s #bookaday idea and shared a picture book a day with her...
#bookaday in Middle School
One of the best teaching decisions I have made was having a #bookaday picture book read-aloud goal with my seventh- and eighth-grade classes this past school year. You may be...
The Big Fresh June 17, 2017 Flimflam Man
True forgiveness is when you can say, "Thank you for that experience." Oprah Winfrey “You sure have a sophisticated security system!” I was chatting with the cashier in a...
The Big Fresh June 10, 2017 Surf Lesson
It is what teachers know, do, and care about which is very powerful in this learning equation. John Hattie We recently visited the West Coast, where my 14-year-old daughter...
Practical Ways to Connect Students and Goals
We often hear the administrators in our building talking about self-assessment. In fact, the observation model that our school uses places a high value on students self-assessing their work. One...
Brave Writers
Katrina Edwards has her students think of something brave they did for a writing share session.
Student-Designed Development Cards
The other day, I was planning to teach elaboration to fifth-grade students through demonstration, and I wanted to give them each their own printed cards of the teaching point and...
Video Games and Literacy
Picture this: A student finishes early with a letter-writing activity, thanking a community member for a donation to their classroom. The teacher encourages her to select an independent task for...
The iPad Is 7
Consider this: the iPad is only seven years old. Hard to believe, right? That thing—and its brothers and sisters, phones and tablets of various brand names—all seem to have been...
Digital Revision: Conferring with Aidan
Gigi McAllister helps fourth grader Aidan revise his writing on the computer to flesh out character development.
The Basics of Teaching Internet Search Skills to Children
One of the most amazing things about living in the digital age is the fact that information is everywhere. With a few clicks, keystrokes, or taps I can get most...
The Big Fresh June 3, 2017 Bearing Walls
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. Andy Warhol Years ago I did three video projects back-to-back in classrooms in three different...
Consistent Feedback in Writing Workshop
As a middle school language arts teacher, I am responsible for seeing that my readers and writers grow and achieve at their highest ability levels possible. That seems simple enough...
