literacy links

I’m pumped for next weekend’s Saturday Reunion at the always gorgeous and inspiring Teachers College with keynote speaker, Jason Reynolds. Every time I’ve gone, I’ve taken PAGES of notes and left with *almost* TOO MANY ideas. This session: I’m hoping to meet Mr. Reynolds and attend as many coaching and toolkit sessions as possible. I…

I launched rainbow PD this week, and it might be my favorite thing ever. Especially this Maya Angelou clip. She is such an inspiration. Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment: NEA’s Read Across America focus is now reading diverse books. Here’s why. Finding Purpose: The Key…

Some of Center’s Reading Ambassadors “bookmarked” a classroom door! They spent about two sessions creating the parts before installing it today. What classroom will get “bookmarked” next? Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment: Mr. Schu’s Best Books of 2019 list  There’s a new Facebook group for…

This week at Harry Potter Club, we did a lot of making. Did YOU find one of our corner bookmarks with a “Read more Harry Potter” slogan? We hope so! We want as many people as possible to read the books! Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links for some quick inspiration, tips, and…

The High Quality Teacher Share on Making Literacy Toolkits is half over, and I am so proud of teachers’ ideas for and dedication to their toolkits. We have everything from a kindergarten reading toolkit to a fourth grade realistic fiction writing toolkit in forms ranging from sketchbooks to ARC notebooks and binders. Together, they’ve troubleshooted…

After weeks of organizing, brainstorming, and planning, some of the Reading Ambassadors will finally start revealing their projects. One group is surprising a class with a book cover door creation. Can you guess what book this is? Which Center classroom will be “bookmarked” (their trademark!) first? Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links for…

Center’s kindergarten super readers celebration Kindergarteners had an exciting week. To celebrate the end of their super readers unit, in which they learned about their pattern power, pointer power, picture power, and more, kindergarteners and their teachers came to school dressed as superheroes. Singing their Super Reader theme song to the tune of the original…

I’ve been digging into Patterns of Power A LOT lately. And I’m loving it even more than I did last year. Ten minutes a day. Very little prep. Student-centered. Inquiry-based. Most beneficially, it raises students’ language consciousness. They are more aware of their choices as writers and the effects their choices make on their readers.…

I hope everyone had a great break from school! Whenever I travel, I make a point to visit literary locations: bookstores, libraries, authors’ homes, etc. Over break, I visited my old stomping grounds in NYC and checked out the public library and Books Are Magic, a Brooklyn bookstore. It was, indeed, magical. The children’s section…

Students as content creators is my jam. This week, my WINners (OMG, I’m totally calling them that from now on!) are working through the writing process to develop book recommendations of favorite books from their childhoods. On this WINners desk, we see a marked up text full of his reading thinking, pre-writing using a graphic…