book list

Literacy Links – Volume 104

book list, coaching, literacy links, online learning, professional resources, writing
One of my first Instagram Reels.

I know that Scholastic Book Fairs aren’t equitable and show loads of privilege, but I’m still going to recommend books to my young readers and their families. So I learned how to make Instagram Reels. Whew! I *truly* understood how my grandparents must’ve felt when they learned how to email. It took me DAYS to figure it out, and they are mediocre AT BEST. Still…I can’t wait to use that glitter filter again. All the heart eyes!

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 103

book list, literacy links, phonics, poetry, professional resources, reading
My bulletin board of tools and ideas to accompany my Pot of Gold and Teach: From A to Zine about poetry.

At the beginning of April, I published the Pot of Gold portfolio of resources (digital one-page, bulletin board, zine, and podcast). The focus this month: POETRY! I’m not exaggerating when I say that poetry saved my sanity during the first year of the Pandemic. Usually a voracious reader, I could NOT read books. I couldn’t concentrate. I had to reread a page eight times. I eventually lost interest because it was such a frustrating experience. This was not good for me. Reading is such a big part of my identity, and I felt lost without books in my life. Determined one day, I decided to try poetry based on Jason Reynolds’s wisdom. I have lots of poems and anthologies that I’ve collected over time, so every day I would read one. Then I started reading several poems. By June, I was successfully reading novels in verse. Poetry didn’t have “pages in the form of pitbulls”. It allowed my brain to focus on the intentional words on the page and also emote beyond the worry and empathy that consumed me. If I hadn’t grabbed hold to the poetry life saver back in April 2020, I might still be struggling to keep my head above water.

testify
by Eve L. Ewing

i stand before you to say
that today i walked home
& caught the light through
the fence & it was so golden
i wanted to cry & i lifted
my right hand to say thank
you god for the sun thank
you god for a chain link fence
& all the shoes that fit into
the chain link fence so that
we might get lifted god thank
you & i just wanted to dance
& it feels good to have food
in your belly & it feels good
to be home even when home
is the space between metal
shapes & still we are golden
& a man who wore the walk
of hard grounds & lost days
came toward me in the street
& said ‘girl what a beautiful
day’ & i said yes, testify
& i walked on & from some
place a horn rose, an organ,
a voice, a chorus, here to tell
you that we are not dead
we are not dead we are not
dead we are not dead we are
not dead we are not dead
we are not dead we are not
dead
yet

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 100!!!

book list, literacy links

Whoweeee. I dragged my feet posting this ONE HUNDREDTH volume. These Literacy Links aren’t anything groundbreaking, but one hundred of anything feels significant. Maybe I couldn’t think of a significant way to celebrate. Maybe everything else felt more significant. Maybe a little bit of both. But while posting some more resources to the teacher page of my site recently, I noticed that the last Literacy Link (Volume 99) post featured a picture of my vocabulary board, which was THREE whole Pots-of-Gold-ago. I knew I’d stalled long enough, and I needed to get something up. So here we are: Volume 100. Whoweee.

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 98

book list, language study, literacy links, reading, writing
Anchor chart/student goal sheet for readers’ workshop

This week I’m helping launch a first grade readers’ workshop, so I mined my kindergarten resources for familiar reading goals from the Super Reader unit, also known as my favorite kindergarten Reading Unit of Study. Tomorrow, the first grade readers will get a plastic sheet protector to record the number of books they want to read and which super reader power they’ll use while reading. Can’t wait to see what goals they make for themselves. I just linked to this goal sheet on the LPS ELA calendar for this unit, but HERE it is if you’re an LPS employee.

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 94

book list, coaching, creating, professional resources, racial justice, reading
Our rainbow runway for our end-of-the-year awards ceremony. The confetti (the remains of our scrap paper bin) was simultaneously my best and worst idea of the year.
But SO worth it.

Someone once doubted my ability to find the joy in teaching, and it was a very painful comment. How could they think that? Was my joy not enough? Or were the things I thought were joyful not obvious to an observer? With my joy-fidence rattled, I decided to infuse as much obviously, outwardly joyfulness into my teaching. We sang. We danced. We created colorful art. I’m pretty sure these are all things I would’ve done anyway, but that accusation practically made it my official goal for TeachPoint. Not such a bad thing after all.

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 93

book clubs, book list, literacy links, professional resources, reading, summer, writing
My current favorite read aloud for the last day of school!

Man, I really wanted to publish Volume 100 by the end of this school year. Turns out being a full-time, *first-time* kindergarten teacher and full-time coach was too much even for an overachiever like me.

I don’t feel too bad though. I taught kids how to *read* this year (and even got them all to meet or exceed our district’s end of year benchmark ), a task I would’ve thought impossible fifteen years ago when I started teaching fifth grade. Turns out I’ve learned a lot in those fifteen years from people much smarter and more experienced than me AND I can do hard things. If I never forever endeavor, indeed.

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 92

book list, literacy links, professional resources, summer
KV’s stained glass window display to celebrate the end of our geometry unit.

One of my favorite parts of teaching in The Now is the art that we’ve created. From plays for our theatre to this stained glass window display, we’ve been creators. Creating has been a great form of expression and even leads to more writing and reading. What a colorful year!

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 91 *Poetry Edition*

book list, literacy links, poetry
The library of poetry picture books at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, aka my version of heaven.

Two summers ago, in The Before, I attended the Summer Poetry Institute hosted by The Poetry Foundation (PoFo) in Chicago. It was a glorious week of being immersed in poetic forms and devices. I learned and learned and learned and wrote and wrote and wrote. I’m embarrassed to admit that I learned a new-to-me literary term: ars poetica, which means poems about poetry. My upcoming poetry display’s theme is going to be ars poetica, and I can’t wait to unveil it this week.

If you love or are intrigued by poetry, I urge you to consider any events hosted by PoFo. I might just change your life.

Here is this week’s roundup of POETRY links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 90

book list, literacy links, online learning, poetry, professional resources, writing
KV Digital Library theatre collection for our new theatre!

Our beloved post office transformed into a theatre recently! To help build students’ background knowledge, we watched a video of a backstage tour of a theatre and I’ve been reading at least one picture book a week about theatre. We’ve been so inspired we even wrote our very first play about our shared reading text, Gossie. I’ll be sure to promote its opening day show! 🙂

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 87

book list, literacy links, online learning, professional resources
*Optional* Choice Board for families and students.

One of the many (endless?) struggles of remote teaching has been how much of my students’ days do I fill with learning? I, of course, want to grow their brains, but I also don’t want them to be in front of a screen *all* day. Another aspect to consider is their families: Some families want more structure and other families want less. I have no clear answer to my problem, but in the meantime, I created an optional choice board that’s going to provide families with optional activities. I tried to create meaningful activities that can work in many contexts, sort of like a center I might have in my classroom in The Before. I hope it’s helpful to those who use it.

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment: