Category: Professional Development
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#6 Make Use of Common Procedures and Language
This is the sixth post in the Building a Reading Community blog series to kick off the 2022-23 school year. All posts in the series can be found here. One lesson I learned in my early years as a teacher was that students learn more, I have more time to teach, and the classroom seems to work more…
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#5: Teach Kids How to Choose Books
This is the fifth post in the Building a Reading Community blog series to kick off the 2022-23 school year. All posts in the series can be found here. I just spent the first two days of school with my new group of 5th graders. We are already on our way to growing into a community of readers.…
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#4: Make the Shift to Asset-Based Thinking
This is the fourth post in the Building a Reading Community blog series to kick off the 2022-23 school year. All posts in the series can be found here. One of the more powerful things a teacher can do to both positively build a reading community and enhance teaching and learning is to embrace the mind shift of…
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#3: Establish Daily Supported Independent Reading Time
This is the third post in the Building a Reading Community blog series to kick off the 2022-23 school year. All posts in the series can be found here. Now that we’ve explored getting to know your students and getting books in their hands from the start, let’s move on to establishing a predictable time…
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#2: Make Use of Browsing Boxes From the Start
This is the second post in the Building a Reading Community blog series to kick off the 2022-23 school year. All posts in the series can be found here. Choice and access to a classroom library full of books is an incredibly joyous, central part of thriving classroom reading community. Getting books into students’ hands…
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Start of Year Blog Series: 8 Tips for Building a Reading Community
Like many of you, I will be heading back to my classroom soon. While still relishing in the final days of summer relaxation (and let’s be honest, recovery from the past two and a half tumultuous school years), I’m beginning to think about the steps I’ll take starting on the first day of school to…
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Responsive Teaching is the Answer: An Open Letter
Dear Newspaper Editors, This letter is for you if your paper has published anything about the resurgence of the so-called Reading Wars, which many of us who actually teach in classrooms choose not to engage in. Frankly, we’re too busy teaching children of varying strengths and needs to get caught up in this unfortunate debate…
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Everyone needs a Midge.
Teacher Appreciation Week always has me reflecting. This Teacher Appreciation Week is extra special, but not in the way most might think. It’s nice to be appreciated and thanked. The flowers from my students this morning were lovely and have the classroom smelling of spring. The coffee and bagels in the staff lounge were also…
Christina Nosek Literacy: Building Community in Elementary Education 