Content Category: Choice Literacy
Results
Setting Goals During Mini-Celebrations
Last week, I spent some time working in one of our second-grade classrooms. As part of a unit on writing about reading, they are developing opinions around the books that...
We Are All Writers with Louise Borden (PODCAST)
Louise Borden is the author of many acclaimed books for children, including The Journey That Saved Curious George, Sea Clocks, and His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg. In this podcast with...
Connecting Literacy and Math (PODCAST)
Kassia Omohundro Wedekind is the author of Math Exchanges: Guiding Young Mathematicians in Small Group Meetings. In this podcast with Franki Sibberson, she talks about the connections between reading, writing...
Wonder in Classrooms with Georgia Heard (PODCAST)
In this podcast, Franki Sibberson chats with Georgia Heard about the importance of a sense of wonder and "pondering time" in classrooms. Georgia is a poet and teaching consultant. Her...
The Big Fresh May 30, 2015 Borders
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. Maya Angelou I was visiting classrooms in the Pacific Northwest this fall when I saw a...
Ralph Fletcher on Mentor Texts (PODCAST)
Ralph Fletcher's status as a writer and teacher is legendary in elementary schools. He is the author of many books for teachers and children. In this podcast, Ralph and Franki...
Cris Tovani on Reading Workshops with High School Students (PODCAST)
In this podcast, Franki Sibberson chats with Cris Tovani about using a reading workshop model with high school students. A full transcript of the podcast is available below the player....
Donalyn Miller on Modeling Literate Lives (PODCAST)
Donalyn Miller, author of the acclaimed bestseller The Book Whisperer, chats with Franki Sibberson about the importance of teachers modeling their literate lives for students. You can visit Donalyn's blog at:...
Quick Take: Starting an Anchor Chart in Kindergarten
Mandy Robek begins an anchor chart with her kindergartners and explains the value of shared writing for creating charts about reading strategies and behaviors.
The Power of Charts in the Classroom
I love creating charts with students each year during read-alouds, minilessons, and discussions. In my classroom, you will never see charts that are laminated, store-bought, or faded from previous years....
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
The other night, I watched the final episode of Mad Men, and even though the characters came out with mostly happy endings, I cried. I cried because I had been...
The Big Fresh May 23, 2015 Starting with “Secondly”
Stories are as important as food and love. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie In her beautiful TED talk, The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes her childhood perception...
Student-Created Text Sets
My students are readers. For at least the two years they are in my classroom for seventh and eighth grade, a time in adolescence when research shows a decrease in...
Note Taking for Research
In our fifth-grade classroom research isn’t confined to one unit in the school year, but instead we do small units all year long. Small research projects often are listed among...
Owl Research Notes Group
Andrea Smith helps a group of boys completing their note taking during an owl research project.
The Big Fresh May 16, 2015 From Obligation to Appreciation
It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment. ...
Choices for Paragraphs
Over the last month, I have been working with a third-grade teacher to help her students understand the concept of paragraphing. They have been working within an opinion unit, so...
Second-Grade Minilesson on Paragraphs
Ruth Ayres uses a student text to demonstrate the importance of paragraph breaks in this second-grade minilesson.
Closing Out the Year with “Where I’m From”
For nine of the ten years I’ve been teaching, I’ve been in a classroom with eighth graders. Part of what I love so much about this age group is that...
The Big Fresh May 9, 2015 A Pile of Stories
The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor. Hubert H. Humphrey Some of the best writing I read every day comes from the...
Closing the Year and Making Space to Remember
Last summer, Kim moved from Long Island to Wellington, Florida. Although the move was an exciting and celebrated adventure for her family, leaving her dear home where both of her...
