Lead Lit Article Type: Picture It
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How to Build Your System for Knowing, Thinking, and Writing
Your notes deserve better than to be forgotten. When I started my new position as a systems coach for an educational service agency, my first project was to develop a...
Picture It: Literacy Leaders and a Classroom Observation
It is a luxury in professional learning to experience a shared observation. This is especially true for literacy leaders. As the director of a network of instructional influencers, I aim...
Picture It: Highlight the Strengths in Student Writing
Students select a portion of their writing they are proud of and mount it on colored paper. These are displayed on a bulletin board in a high-traffic area of the...
Picture It: Planning Ahead
Christy Rush-Levine is prepared for a day of back-to-back middle school classes. The opening slide is displayed on the large smartboard, and her slide deck is prepped for her lessons,...
Picture It: When Material-Use Goes Awry
I was leading a demonstration lesson for 40 middle school teachers when I looked across the classroom and saw that one of the students had lined his hands with stickers....
A PLC Idea: Planning Scaffolds for Upcoming Units of Study
As classroom teachers, we loved being thoughtful about the charts we authored with our students. Rather than relying on premade charts, we built the unit as it progressed, relying on...
If Your Walls Could Talk
I plopped myself down on the couch for a moment of mindless television watching before continuing with our family’s nightly routine. As I turned the television on, a commercial for...
No More Learning Target Drudgery
Making learning targets meaningful to first graders was more complicated than I thought. I know the research and understand why kids need to know what they are learning and why...
A Checklist of Ideas to Support New Teachers
Every year brings grade-level shifts, new agendas, and new and improved ways of doing things in a school. Even though these initiatives and shifts take time and adjustments, we at...
Welcome Slides Set Professional Learning in Motion
The beginning of staff meetings was normally a flurry of activity, getting set up, checking in with colleagues, and passing out any materials while the hubbub of catching up and...
Showcasing the Vision
A family portrait hanging on the gallery wall in your house. A photo block of your child’s first birthday front and center on the fireplace mantel. A matted and framed...
Using Digital Tools for Instructional Walks
For a while, I avoided technology when visiting classrooms for instructional walks. I thought these tools evoked anxiety in the teachers, who might associate digital tools with formal observations. My...
A Chartbook Tour
During my years of working with teachers, one of my most valuable tools has been the sketchbook that contains my charts. I’m actually on my third rendition, not because I...
200 Feet
It was a personal mission at my previous school to provide students with as much access to books as possible. Two hundred feet from a book at any one time...
Parent Bulletin Board
At a recent meeting with one of the principals I work with, she described how she wants to use some of the bulletin board space in her front hallway to...
The Importance of Creating a Literacy Room (Instead of a Tiny Office)
This past spring, I was asked if I would be willing to return to a literacy coaching role in my school. I was in that role for three years before...
Picture It: Student Mentor Text Bulletin Board
Inspiration is at the heart of writing. Whether it be a well-known author from an author study or a classmate, students become inspired by other writers when the abstract becomes...
What’s in Your Bag?
What's in your bag? We are asked this question often. It may not always be organized, and you might find tea bags or candy wrappers in it, but there are...
Picture It: A Mentor Text Is Like . . .
Looking for a way to assess the effect of your professional development sessions on teachers? Try having them compare your area of focus to an everyday object. This picture is...
Picture It: Museum Walk with Quotes
When transitioning from one focus to another in a professional development session, we find that using quotes gives teachers a taste of new learning through another person's perspective. At the...
Takeout Book Club
Book clubs are a rewarding opportunity for educators to continue growing in their profession while reading the latest in professional resources and collaborating with colleagues. But with the hustle and...
