Katrina Edwards

Tools to Support Our Youngest Readers

Reading Partners in First Grade

First-Grade Writing Conference: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends

In this first-grade writing conference, Katrina Edwards helps Brooklyn order and stretch out her writing with a beginning, middle, and end. She uses long pages and scissors as tools.

Writing Share Structures in the Primary Grades

First-Grade Writing Conference: Celebrations to Suggestions

Katrina Edwards begins her conference with first grader Allen by celebrating all he is doing well in his writing. She highlights his language and details in writing before moving on to new strategies to try.

First-Grade Conference: Finding Seeds in Writing

Katrina Edwards confers with a first-grade writer and helps him unpack a narrative to use as seed writing.

Reading Minilesson: A Good Partner

Katrina Edwards helps her first graders early in the year transition to more thoughtful reading partnerships through a minilesson at the start of the morning workshop.

First-Grade Word Learning with Kinesthetics

Katrina Edwards teaches her first graders the word much using kinesthetics.

Linking Pictures and Text: Conferring with Ava

Katrina Edwards begins her conference with first grader Ava by having her share what she learned from a picture walk through a simple text, and then she helps her use pictures to decode text while reading.

Making Meaning with Simple Text: Conferring in First Grade

Katrina Edwards confers with a first grader, looking beyond the level of the book early in the year to ensure the child is engaging with the story. She helps the child notice changes in the simple text and illustrations.

First-Grade Read and Think Check-In

Katrina Edwards demonstrates a read and think check-in from her first-grade classroom.

First-Grade Conference: Reading with Feeling

In this week’s video, Katrina Edwards confers with first grader Ellie. She helps Ellie read more fluently and with expression by transferring her feelings to those of characters.

Writing Minilesson: Feelings

Katrina Edwards uses read alouds as mentor texts for writing minilessons in her first-grade classroom. In this example she focuses on character feelings.

Conferring in First Grade: Focus on Goals and Strengths

Katrina Edwards confers with first grader Wyatt about his goal of increasing the volume of his reading, helping him self-assess what’s going well and what lies ahead.

Minilesson: How to Retell a Story

Katrina Edwards uses the children’s books They All Saw a Cat and Be a Friend for a minilesson with her first-grade students on how to retell stories with a partner during reading workshop.

First-Grade Conference: Stretching Writing

Katrina Edwards helps her adorable first-grade student Dylan stretch out his writing. He adds details by first talking about playing with friends near his home.

Big Picture to Close-Up Lens: Conferring with Kellan

Katrina Edwards confers with first grader Kellan about her love of the Danny book series, moving from a "big picture" discussion of patterns in the book and Kellan's reading strategies, to close-up decoding of individual words.

First-Grade Minilesson: Emotions in Writing

Katrina Edwards reads aloud a Kate Messner mentor text to build an anchor chart on emotions with her first graders.

Better Reading Partner Shares

Katrina Edwards leads a whole-class reading share session where the focus is on how reading partners work together to teach and not tell.

Writing Share Structures

Katrina Edwards moves her first-grade class out of a rut with writing shares by introducing many new options.

Lunchtime Storytelling

Katrina Edwards dreads lunchtime with her first graders, until she makes a conscious effort to build storytelling skills and share experiences more thoughtfully within the group.

Conferring in First Grade: Reading Illustrations

Katrina Edwards helps a first grader use pictures to help her make sense of confusing text.

Joy

Katrina Edwards deals with a frustrated writer on the verge of tears in her first-grade classroom. She realizes the element that is missing in her writing workshop is joy.

Brave Writers

Katrina Edwards has her students think of something brave they did for a writing share session.

Stretching Writing in First Grade

Katrina Edwards helps first grader Lila stretch her writing about going to a park on a rainy day.

Lunchtime Talk Practice

Katrina Edwards preps her students for lunchtime chats with classmates to foster more social and conversation skills.

Morning Greeters

Katrina Edwards has morning helpers who start each day with a greeting for every child in her first-grade classroom.

Heart Words

Katrina Edwards demonstrates a daily word work activity with her first-grade students, where they use oral and kinesthetic routines to master new words they should “know by heart.”

Picture Walks for Comprehension: Conferring with Dylan

Katrina Edwards confers with first grader Dylan, teaching this young English language learner the value of picture walks for comprehension.

Finding Clues in Writing Folders

Katrina Edwards looks for clues in her first-grade students’ work and conferences to help them develop more writing stamina. She analyzes her notes to develop instructional plans.

Opening the Year with Optimism

Katrina Edwards shares her plans for presenting children’s literature to help her first-grade students acquire the skills they need to be positive and proactive problem solvers.

Culturally Responsive Texts

Katrina Edwards is horrified when a student response reveals cultural gaps in her first-grade classroom library.  She researches possibilities for expanding the diversity of texts, and shares an annotated bibliography to download linking different cultures and curricular possibilities.

The Compliment Conference

Katrina Edwards confers with Camilla, a struggling reader. She is a child who has no confidence in herself. The Compliment Conference is a way to acknowledge and build upon Camilla’s strengths, and boost her self-esteem at the same time.

Jumping into Just-Right Apps

We spend a lot of time in elementary classrooms matching students to “just-right” books. Katrina Edwards uses similar principles to help her first-grade students pick just-right apps. The essay includes a downloadable chart of appropriate literacy apps for young learners.

Stamina Bubbles

“Why do you always say ‘Happy reading!’ to us?” This question from a first grader leads Katrina Edwards to develop visual support tools for building stamina during reading workshops.

Moving Beyond Bed-to-Bed Stories in First Grade

Katrina Edwards moves her first graders from writing "bed-to-bed" stories early in the year with a mentor text and writing activity that promotes self-discipline and a growth mindset.

Reading, Engagement, and Kidwatching

Katrina Edwards looked around her first-grade reading workshop one day in winter and it wasn’t a pretty picture. Many students were doing anything but reading. She develops a plan to approach the issue of time on task thoughtfully.

First-Grade Writing Conference: Celebrations to Suggestions

Katrina Edwards begins her conference with first grader Allen by celebrating all he is doing well in his writing. She highlights his language and details in writing, before moving on to new strategies to try.