Content Category: Choice Literacy
Results
Laying the Foundation for Genre Writing
“These are just terrible!” Elaine said with a sigh. Her colleagues nodded glumly in agreement. This first-grade team was examining samples of student writing and their writing conference notes to...
A Joyful Mess
Learning something new can be messy. When I learned to roll my own pie shells, flour covered the counters and floor and me. A white cloud hovered in the kitchen....
Getting to Know Writers: The Inventory
Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. Louis L’Amour I would imagine this is wise advice for reluctant writers or...
The Big Fresh June 25, 2016 Repurposed
The paradox of life lies exactly in this: its resources are finite, but it itself is endless. Such a contradictory state of affairs is feasible only because the resources accessible...
Old-Fashioned Resources
Have you ever done this? You go looking for something in a drawer or closet—a paper clip or a roll of Scotch tape—and before you know it, you’ve spent half...
Fostering Thinking Through Play
Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. Fred...
Getting to Know Writers: The Writing Process Survey
Interest surveys are fairly common in upper elementary and middle school classrooms, especially at the start of a new school year. Teachers want to know their students’ interests, hobbies, and...
Book Talk: Trouble
Christy Rush-Levine previews the book Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt.
The Big Fresh June 18, 2016 What We Brew
What we have been becomes The country where we are. Wendell Berry We Portlanders love our tea and coffee. It's part of our identity, warding off the gray mornings with...
Last Chance Workshop
The narrative writing unit had gone on for way longer than I had planned. I had a stack of papers that demanded feedback and not enough time to give them...
Conferring with Ben: Brainstorming Writing Topics and Genres
Katherine Sokolowski helps fifth grader Ben brainstorm ideas for writing, and in the process encourages him to try a new genre.
Getting to Know Writers: Introduction
Here’s the thing about writing: it is unbearably hard. Right now, I am sitting in the parlor of a bed-and-breakfast at a writing retreat. I chose to write in the...
The Big Fresh June 11, 2016 New Tires
Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well. ...
Nonfiction Research Group in Fifth Grade
Katherine Sokolowski meets with a group of her fifth graders who are all researching the use of nets in fishing and the environmental effects of the process. She works to...
Digging into Research Questions
As I have been leading a fifth-grade class through a research and information project, I have been writing my own piece about global warming. Global warming had been one of...
The Big Fresh June 4, 2016 The Loudest Voices
You do not wake up one morning a bad person. It happens by a thousand tiny surrenders of self-respect to self-interest. Robert Brault This winter my husband and I...
Making the Most of Small Groups with Jennifer Serravallo (PODCAST)
Jennifer Serravallo is the author of Conferring with Readers and Teaching Reading in Small Groups. In this podcast with Heather Rader she talks about the joys and challenges of grouping...
Book Talk: When We Broke Up
Christy Rush-Levine piques the interest of her eighth graders in When We Broke Up by Daniel Handler.
Understanding Josh: The Audio Reader
Years ago, when I was first working as an assistant principal and charged with managing special education needs, we had a student enrolled in our school who was severely autistic....
Lester Laminack on Bullying (PODCAST)
In this podcast, Franki Sibberson chats with Lester Laminack about bullying. Lester is the author of beloved books for children and teachers, including Saturdays and Teacakes and Unwrapping the Read Aloud. You...
“Reinventing Language Every Time You Write” with Ralph Fletcher (PODCAST)
Ralph Fletcher has given teachers playful and provocative ideas for years when it comes to word study. His writer's view of vocabulary learning challenges many teaching assumptions. Ralph is the...
