The focus of this week's Big Fresh is empowering choice. Nawal Qarooni Casiano joins the podcast to discuss student-led lessons.

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Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter with a round-up of features around a key topic in literacy education. You can find the January 8, 2021 issue here. 

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Florence Genevieve Saperstein: Brenda Power, founder of Choice Literacy, offered a lead essay on the legacy we leave when we empower choice in the lives of others. This is beautiful both in craft and thought. Additionally, the link will take you to another issue of the Big Fresh with the theme of choice. 

Choice in Literacy Workshops: What makes choice authentic in literacy workshops? Christy Rush-Levine grapples with this tough question that leads to changes in her instruction.

Symbiosis: Choice and Structure in Writing Workshops: Heather Rader and Ruth Ayres explore the complex connections between choice and structure in writing workshops. 

How to Lead with Positivity: Matthew X. Joseph shares how leaders can increase confidence and collaboration in their teams when they lead with positivity in his article on Edutopia.

The focus of this week's Big Fresh is fresh starts. Stephanie Affinito joins the podcast to talk about coaching visions and menus.

 

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Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter with a round-up of features around a key topic in literacy education. You can find the December 18, 2020 issue here. 

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Reset: Christy Rush-Levine  finds her students sometimes need to stop and be challenged to think in more positive ways about their reading abilities. She describes how she designs minilessons for impromptu resets in her middle school classroom.

Creating a Manifesto: Ruth Ayres explains why writing a manifesto may be the best way to learn what you truly believe about teaching, learning, and literacy.

One Little Word: A History: Ali Edwards encourages selecting One Little Word to lead you through the year. Here she explains the history and introduces her 2020 One Little Word. 

Margaret Simon’s process or Annie Campbell’s big idea for using One Little Word in classrooms.

The focus of this week's Big Fresh is digital reading.

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Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter with a round-up of features around a key topic in literacy education. You can find the December 11, 2020 issue here. 

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Shared Reading in the Digital Age: Shari Frost finds that shared reading routines are easier to implement with digital books.

Coaching Tool: Digital Books: Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share one of their favorite coaching tools: digital books.

Virtual Book Clubs in Middle School: Pernille Ripp generously outlines the way she implemented virtual book clubs in middle school.

Choice Still Matters: Gwen Blumberg shares how to offer reading choices with digital text platforms and creative ways to still get books in the hands of young readers during the global pandemic.

The focus of this week's podcast is assessing writers. Enjoy snippets of articles and make sure to check out the links to free articles and helpful links from around the web.

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Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter with a round-up of features around a key topic in literacy education. You can find the December 4, 2020 issue here. 

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Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Accountability for Young Writers: Stella Villalba teaches young writers about writer’s craft. So how come evidence of learning from the minilessons isn’t showing up when she confers with her students? She decides to develop a plan to help students link craft lessons with their writing. 

Joy: Katrina Edwards deals with a frustrated writer on the verge of tears in her first-grade classroom. She realizes the element that is missing in her writing workshop is joy.

Joy Write: A book by Ralph Fletcher that inspired changes in Katrina’s classroom.

On the Cult of Pedagogy website, Mark Wise gives five suggestions for repairing rubrics that aren’t working well.

Magic on the Page: Encouraging Reluctant Writers: Joanne Emery writes poignantly about the struggle of a young child with an on-demand writing assessment. Her poem and narrative are thought-provoking and an inspiring guide for assessing writers in a personal way. 

NCTE Position Statement  on writing assessment offers five principles to ensure valid, fair and appropriate assessment practices.

The focus of this week's Big Fresh is honoring student identity. Cathy Mere joins the podcast for a conversation about uplifting student voices and using mentor texts to help kids discover the stories they can write.

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Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter with a round-up of features around a key topic in literacy education. You can find the November 20, 2020 issue here. 

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Cathy Mere joined the podcast for a conversation about raising student voices and helping kids discover stories that uplift their identities rather than pleasing teachers. Find Cathy on Twitter at @CathyMere and on her blog Reflect and Refine.

Raising Student Voices: A Booklist: Helping students find and raise their voices so that they can someday change the world is one of the most important things we do. Cathy Mere shares some of her favorite mentor texts for this essential work.

Building Reading Identities Across the Year: The start of the school year is often all about building reader identities in classrooms. And then November comes, and many of the activities that help students celebrate their reading histories and preferences are forgotten. Tara Barnett and Kate Mills share ways teachers can continue to help students define, refine, and expand their reading identities all year long.

A Writing Workshop Tool that Builds Agency and Independence: Tammy Mulligan returns to teaching first grade and immediately creates agency and independence during writing workshop. Tammy explains how her students are setting their own goals as writers. 

Stephanie Affinito Website: Stephanie Affinito explores the power of old-school notes and cards in coaching.

This week's topic is publishing routines. Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter with a round-up of features around a key topic in literacy education. You can find the November 13, 2020 issue here. 

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Text Lineage: Christy Rush-Levine uses book covers to help her middle-school students explore their histories (or “lineages”) as readers.

Using Reading Notebook Covers for Goal-Setting and Reflection: Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan are using reading notebook covers in ingenious ways.

Susan Antonelli offers 8 tips for a great publishing party.

Jeanne Wolz shares over 50 ideas for publishing student writing at the end of a writing workshop unit.

The focus of this week's Big Fresh is interactive read aloud.

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Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter with a round-up of features around a key topic in literacy education. You can find the October 16, 2020 issue here. 

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“Do students need to love the read alouds we share in classrooms?” by Franki Sibberson 

Basics of Interactive Read Aloud” by Shannon Dipple

“Back Channel Conversations During Read Aloud” by Christy Rush-Levine 

Franki Sibberson Website

The focus of this week's Big Fresh is author studies.

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Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter with a round-up of features around a key topic in literacy education. You can find the November 6, 2020 issue here. 

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List of Curated Author Websites, Videos & Interviews by Mary Helen Gensch

“Scaffolding Instruction in an Author Study” by Christy Rush Levine

“Planning for a Year of Author Studies” by Gayle Gentry

TEMPLATE for Planning for a Year of Author Studies by Gayle Gentry

Jen Schwanke Website

 

10 Reasons to Do an Author Study

The focus of this week's Big Fresh is word learning.

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Each week Choice Literacy shares the Big Fresh newsletter with a round-up of features around a key topic in literacy education. You can find the October 30, 2020 issue here. 

Lead Essay: "Shark Attack" by Ruth Ayres

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“Quick Vocabulary Practice and Assessment" by Gretchen Schroeder 

“Quick and Easy Word Study Groups in First Grade" by Bitsy Parks 

Classic Classroom Member Content

"Making Something Together: Shared Writing Online" by Tammy Mulligan

 “It’s Not Wrong. It’s Almost Right" by Melanie Quinn

 In this week’s video, Melissa Atwood leads a first-grade guided reading group.

Dana Murphy meets with a group of fifth graders to work on strategies for understanding unknown words.

Literacy Leader Member Content

“Vocabulary Development in Writing” by Tara Barnett and Kate Mills

 “Word Study Half Day Professional Development" by Julie Wright

 “One Word to Drop from Your Teacher Vocabulary” by Holly Hagman

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“Three Classroom Games for Literacy Learning & Laughter”

“Take Five Smore: Humorous Picture Books”

“Humor Writing With Teens”