“Can’t live without doing” during my close reading lessons
Posted on September 16, 2014Share This Content
teaching reading
Intriguing Notices as Mini-Lessons
Posted on August 2, 2013I’m always intrigued by the notices posted around us. Many are perfect for mini-lessons focused on close reading of informational text. Check out this one I saw in a restroom in Chico, CA. For a close reading exercise, I would put this on the document camera or Smart board and ask students some of the …Read more
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Museums as Nonfiction Sources with Central Ideas
Posted on July 1, 2013I’ve always found field trips frustrating. The students are very excited, but most of the learning is superficial. But what if we treated field trip locations as nonfiction texts that have central ideas? What if, while on a field trip to a museum, we did the kind of thinking we do to make sense …Read more
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Lesson – Text-Dependent Predictions, Part II
Posted on April 14, 2013So I had a great time teaching a lesson on making text-dependent with a class of second grade students a few weeks ago. In my last blog entry, I wrote about teaching objectives that surfaced during reading conferences with three of these students. The students revealed to me they were not previewing nonfiction texts strategically …Read more
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Lesson – Text-Dependent Predictions, Part I
Posted on April 11, 2013Last week, I had the honor of teaching 2nd grade students how to make informed (i.e., text-dependent) predictions by strategically previewing an informational text. To determine the objective for this lesson, I visited the classroom prior to the lesson and met with three students for individual reading conferences. Using NWEA data and running record data, …Read more
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Teacher’s Blog on Text Complexity & Close Reading
Posted on March 30, 2013Check out this 4th grade teacher’s professional inquiry into text complexity and close reading on her blog. Okay…just a heads up – she does review my book! (Favorably 🙂 ) But I’m recommending her blog because the other resources she’s found deepen our understanding of this type of classroom practice. Thank you, Andrea McEvoy! Video …Read more
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Last week I had the honor of visiting multiple schools and giving demonstration lessons in 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. For each lesson, there were 10-15 teachers observing. Afterwards we debriefed about methodology and evidence of student learning. Some amazing insight was gained – as well as a sense of affirmation for what they are …Read more