Literacy+Links

Periodically, Jeanine Lupisella sends out an e-mail with these links to literacy. toc

July 2009
Franki Sibberson is revamping her word study program this summer, compiling envelopes for each student that contain various tools and notebooks for building word knowledge. She explains how she is revising her word study plans and the contents of the word work envelopes here: [] Scholastic has posted a terrific collection of features and lesson plans for building a classroom community during the first days of school: [] Carol Davis and Alice Yang of Responsive Classrooms have some helpful suggestions of ways to stay in touch with parents all year long: []


 * Understanding how to teach reading (and rediscovering the pleasures of reading) always begins with our own reading. Franki Sibberson** takes Regie Routman's advice to track her reading over a short period of time. She discovers how much her nonfiction habits have changed, and what important implications there are for **teaching nonfiction in classrooms**: [|__http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/916.cfm__] If your writing curriculum could use a refresh, the **National Writing Project has 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing** culled from their journal archives, with links to the original articles: [|__http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/922#/One__] Reader's Theater is a fun activity for summer reading programs (and for building reading fluency all year long). **The Reading Lady has dozens of free reader's theater scripts** posted and available for download at this link: [|__http://tinyurl.com/askvfs__] Teri Lesesne earns her nickname of "The Goddess of YA Literature" with her remarkable blog. I confess I enjoy her humorous asides on raising the teen girls in her household as much as her wonderful insights and passion for young adult literature: [|__http://professornana.livejournal.com/__] A hearty welcome to our newest site license members from **Northbrook, Illinois; Allen & San Antonio, Texas; Rosetown, Saskatchewan (Canada); Waterboro, Maine; Charlottesville, Virginia; Hampton, Georgia; Starr, South Carolina; Nyack, New York;** and our renewing site licensees in **Delaware, Ohio** and **Port Chester, New York.** You can read more about our affordable site license program and download a registration form at this link: [__|__http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department63.cfm__]

March 1,2009
Free for All Here are a couple features from the **Choice Literacy Archives** to help you find the right book at the right time for your students and colleagues. If you rarely have time to get to the bookstore (or live far from one), the web has many wonderful blogs chock-full of reviews, author interviews, and the latest releases. **Franki Sibberson shares her favorite blogs in the kidlitosphere**: [|__http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/194.cfm__] If you had to choose only one professional text and one children's or young adult book that you couldn't live without in your teaching, what would you select? We've got the picks from over a dozen of our contributing authors: [|__http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/427.cfm__] Teachers Domain from WBGH in Boston has launched **a new web-based series of activities focused on struggling adolescent learners.** Inspiring Middle School Literacy is a set of multimedia-rich self-paced **lessons on the web in science and history to support the learning of core reading and writing strategies**. You can browse the topics at this link: [|__http://www.teachersdomain.org/special/adlit/__] March is **Women's History Month**, and the Wild Rose Reader has compiled a master list of many different **resources and booklists** of children's and young adult literacy that honor and instruct about women's achievements: [|__http://tinyurl.com/c6enne__] We've posted our **full slate of Choice Literacy Workshop summer and fall events**, including new offerings on **middle school reading instruction**,**word work,** **nonfiction in the intermediate grades**, and **dealing with assessment data**. These new topics are in addition to our popular offerings from last year on **CAFE assessment, struggling readers, literacy coaching**, and the **literacy principal in action:** [|__http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm__] For Members Only [Not yet a Choice Literacy member? [|__Click here for information on subscription plans that can give you access to members-only content.__] ] It's mid-year, and many teachers are checking in with students for more extended conferences assessing literacy strengths and needs. **Katie DiCesare shares her conferring format, template, and two sample writing conferences.** The goal with these first graders is to help them become more self-reflective and independent in monitoring their work: [|__http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/843.cfm__] If you are working in middle or high schools, the challenge is finding a way to check in with over a hundred students with a mid-year assessment. From the archives, **Katie Doherty provides a mid-year assessment survey and template** that helps students home in on their emerging skills and needs: [|__http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/534.cfm__] What texts are appropriate for teaching comprehension strategies to readers who are so young they may not yet be decoding texts? **Ruth Shagoury** and **Andie Cunningham** present criteria for selecting books for instruction, as well as **two annotated booklists** of classic and more recent titles. These books are especially useful with English language learners: [|__http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/840.cfm__] Finally, struggling readers require lots of attention in schools, but **supporting advanced young readers** sometimes requires teaching skills that are just as sophisticated. In Part II of "Harder Texts Aren't Always the Answer," **Clare Landrigan** and **Tammy Mulligan** offer advice for talking with parents about what it means to "challenge" a student instructionally. A catch-up link is included if you missed Part I: [|__http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/845.cfm__]