Content Category: Choice Literacy
Results
Jumping into Just-Right Apps
My K-1 students gathered together in front of a giant projection of my iPad screen. They dutifully placed their own iPads in their laps as they listened to me lead...
Tech Anchor Charts
In my fifth-grade language arts class, we use a lot of technology. The start of the year seems incomplete when comparing this new group of students with the ones who...
Student Writing, Filters, and Social Media
As I’ve thought about how social media affects the stories we tell, I’ve started to consider the earliest lessons writers need. One of the first things today’s writers need to...
Understanding Character Traits Lesson
Jason DiCarlo leads a lesson in a third-grade classroom about understanding character traits. He begins with a discussion of decisions characters make. This is the first video in a three-part...
The Big Fresh November 28, 2015 Giving and Receiving
Connection doesn't exist without giving and receiving. We need to give and we need to need. Brene Brown In Rising Strong, Brene Brown tells the story of how...
Alternatives to Home/School Reading Logs
When I announced to my fourth graders that we would not be having reading logs this year, they breathed a collective sigh of relief, and a whispered chorus of thanks...
Bringing Writers’ Voices Home with QR Codes
I love the feeling of wrapping up a unit of study in writing. I love watching my students choose a favorite piece and prepare to make it public by adding...
Making Home Connections While Conferring
Ruth Ayres meets with Zoey, a quiet writer who is drawn into the conversation through family stories and a mentor text with vivid illustrations.
The Big Fresh November 21, 2015 Moo
The mere brute pleasure of reading - the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing. Lord Chesterfield Last month I visited reading workshop in Katrina Edwards’ first-grade...
Stamina Bubbles
I sat down next to Sarah to listen in on her reading when she whispered, “Why do you always say 'Happy reading!' to us when we begin?” Her question caught...
Engaging a Room Full of Third Graders
In one of the classrooms, whenever I teach, and whenever I observe, and whenever their teacher and I teach together, we have a room full of quiet, compliant kids. But...
Ways into Personal Narratives
I’ve always picked personal narratives as our first big writing piece in fifth grade. My students are typically familiar enough with what a narrative is that I can dive in...
Invitations for Narrative Writing
I remember the stunning memoir written by a high school freshman titled “I Don’t Want to Write About Last Summer.” In it she captured the highs and lows of her...
Conferring with Jeri in Kindergarten
Independent reading provides the indispensable practice that literacy learners require to become successful, self-regulating, self-monitoring readers. Regie Routman Jeri was my third reading conference for the day. I learned...
The Big Fresh November 14, 2015 Baseball and Background Knowledge
More than any other American sport, baseball creates the magnetic, addictive illusion that it can almost be understood. Thomas Boswell My husband is a professional baseball writer. Like...
The Big Fresh November 7, 2015 Little Notebooks
Memory is a complicated thing -- a relative to truth, but not its twin. Barbara Kingsolver On the table where I sit each morning with my coffee -- thinking and...
The Big Fresh October 31, 2015 Details
Only getting the A and Z without the B through Y, leaves you SOL. Loren Weisman Have you have had a boss who liked to say, “I’m a big-picture person...
The Morning Story
Today is Monday. It is sunny. We will have music. I bet you recognize that bit of prose. It is often called “the morning story.” When I was a first...
Reorganizing the Classroom Library
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. Jorge Luis Borges It’s Monday morning in my fourth-grade classroom, always a busy time for returning and...
A Thesis Statement: Conferring with Connor
Ruth Ayres confers with sixth grader Connor about a thesis statement for an essay.
Back to Basics: Choice
Choice 1: Do you want your milk in the red glass or the blue glass? Choice 2: Do you want to read the book about trains or the book about...
