Topic: Video

Begin conferences by asking students an open-minded question that invites them to talk about what they're doing as writers.

Confident readers know how to choose books. Which is not to say that we are immune to error. Every avid reader has experienced book droughts where nothing you pick up has what you are looking for.

When you ask the question, 'How’s it going?' at the beginning of writing conferences, you’re doing much more than inviting students to talk about what they’re doing as writers. The question initiates your relationship with each student and deepens each of these relationships.

In the process of writing reading responses, the importance of choice cannot be understated. Students feel like they are in control of their responses; they can view the text through whatever lens they choose.

With the practice of reading response writing, students do not have to answer specific questions with definitive answers. Instead, they can read with presence, and decide at the end what aspect they would like to respond to.

Taking ownership of our teaching and children’s learning changes everything. We own it when things go well, and we own it when they don’t.

In math, children are solving problems, and the journey to a solution is more valuable than the destination. Conferring in math asks, “Where are you?” and “Where could you go next?” rather than “Where should you be?” or “What would I do next?”

Educators have relied on levels as a valuable tool to help them match students to texts they can read independently with fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. However, the truth is that leveling books and using levels as a tool to match students to texts isn’t as straightforward as we might hope

It is often difficult to imagine how students can move from where they are to the longer papers they will need to write. This book shows the way forward, with invitations wide enough, attractive enough, and manageable enough—that students will, I believe, decide they no longer need to hide.

Choice within routines and environment is essential for instilling agency. Without choice, children are blindly following our rules and expectations.

The goal of a writing conference is to teach students something about writing that they can use in the future. If you add to students' writing repertoires in every conference, they become better writers over time.

Sometimes it can be hard to imagine how you might infuse deeper comprehension work into your district- mandated curriculum or instructional framework. If this sounds familiar...

When Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle set out to plan a year of teaching together, they knew they were going to have to take some risks, but that it would ultimately help them write a better book for teachers

In many ways, we still structure our classrooms and speak with students as if we value compliance and the look of engagement more than true engagement.

In What’s the Best That Could Happen?, Debbie Miller confronts a challenge all teachers face: the feeling of being stuck and the fear of trying something new. She explores how questions help us look beyond the limitations of what we’ve done and discover powerful new opportunities for teaching.

What if we joined the ranks of the change makers and committed the time and effort it would take to change the narrative about how schools work? Could teachers be the ones to begin real conversations with each other and those in power?

Even very young readers, while listening to text, and the rest of us while reading, can think about thinking. We can all be more active and engaged readers when we use thinking strategies to understand.

Here, Kate Roberts shares just a few extended classroom clips from her book, A Novel Approach. In this blog, you'll get a chance to watch Kate confer with two different students, and see how Kate structures a mini-less and read aloud.