Jillian Heise
Jillian Heise is a K-5 Library Media Teacher in southeastern Wisconsin after having taught 7th & 8th grade ELA for eleven years. She also serves as chair of the WSRA Children’s Literature Committee. You can find Jillian online at Heise Reads & Recommends and @heisereads.
All Content
#bookaday in Middle School: Nuts and Bolts
Jillian Heise shares advice for teachers who want to try a #bookaday challenge of sharing at least one picture book each day with older students. She gives criteria for book selection, as well as examples of books to read at the start of the school year.
#bookaday in Middle School
Jillian Heise rises to the challenge of reading a new picture book to her seventh and eighth graders each day all year long.
Getting Mentor Texts in Students’ Hands
Jillian Heise discovers that her students need more access to the mentor texts she reads aloud, so she develops strategies to get them to students.
Student-Created Text Sets
Jillian Heise’s middle school students design text sets late in the school year. It’s a great activity for discovering how they have grown as readers, as well as a gift to next year’s class.
Closing Out the Year with “Where I’m From”
Jillian Heise shares a marvelous poetry writing activity for students who are transitioning from elementary to middle school, or middle to high school.
Book Blurbs in the Middle School Classroom
Jillian Heise uses the quirky genre of book blurbs in her middle school classroom to model summaries and glean information about students’ comprehension, reading interests, and writing skills.
Blackout Poems and Paint-Chip Haiku: Two Fun Ways into Poetry with Adolescents
Jillian Heise uses the lowly paint-chip board to inspire poetry in her middle school students.
