The posts linked below explore experiences with reading and writing in classes of young adolescents, ten, eleven and twelve years old.

Thinking it over, looking at photographs and work samples, talking with past students, their parents, and my colleagues, I am more-than-ever thrilled by the power kids can find in reading and writing–and I’m grateful for the variety of ways teacher, parent, and peer support can help them get there.

Hooray for fluency, momentum, and joy in the reading and writing community!

For details, click on the links below:

Love and Fluency    Helping a challenged reader find more momentum in his reading life

 Troubles with Writing   Why do so many young adolescents have trouble writing?

Think of Five   Using brainstorming to push beyond topic self-censorship

Just for Five   Using quick-writing to open up possibilities

 A Stack of Five   A way of suggesting new books for individuals, preserving students’ autonomy and sense of choice, and strengthening their understanding of themselves as readers

 Seven More Thoughts about Silent Reading   Mulling over the power of silent reading time supported by well-designed individual assessments and a lively class reading community

Using Picture Books with Big Kids   …because they are among the treasures of our culture

 My Place    A particularly inspiring and useful picture book for big kids, from Australia

My Place and Our Places   A powerful spin-off bookmaking activity

Heels-over-teakettle and Other Festivities  A healthy appreciation of our fabulous language as the base of all true word study

Word Ladders, Snowball Poems, and Dictionary Pickle   More fun with word study

 Literacy Daily Tune-ups: an Invitation to a Feast    Still more fun with word study

 The Seasonal Feast of the Skimathon   An approach to individualized content area reading, in preparation for report writing

 Supporting Deeper Understanding with a Skimathon Process  More approaches to content-area reading

Mimi Reports   Celebrating content-area writing

Skywatchers and Magicmakers   A mixed-age storytelling and bookmaking project