I‘ve been thinking and writing a lot lately about how our beliefs about students, learning, and teaching influence our practices. Part of this reflection has stemmed from my own instructional practice and how it has shifted—in subtle but also dramatic ways. How, for example, the nagging… Read More
All posts tagged “independent reading”
Is School In Danger of Becoming Irrelevant? (Part 1)
As a teacher, I certainly hope not. But as I listened to Will Richardson speak over the weekend at the Tomorrow’s Classrooms Today Conference, I couldn’t help wonder. The conference, hosted by Evolving Educators and held at Rider University, focused on the ways in which schools… Read More
Fostering a Reading/Writing Life Using Independent Reading
Presented on October 16, 2015, at the PA Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (PCTELA) Annual Conference, Harrisburg, PA. CLICK HERE TO VIEW PRESENTATION. Feel free to browse this site for additional materials and ideas. Much of the information shared in the presentation is… Read More
How I made time for reading . . . and had one of the best years ever (Part 3: A Weekly Framework)
With the first week of school behind us, the groundwork for our independent reading endeavors has been set. This week, my 9th grade students walked around my room, browsed the classroom library, and marked titles that they’re interested in reading. Through our scavenger hunt, students learned the ins and… Read More
How I made time for reading . . . and had one of the best years ever (Part 2: The Power of Booktalks)
Although I’d been doing some form of independent reading for several years, with each year better than the one before, I came into last school year determined to commit in a way I hadn’t before. I wanted to find a way to make students’ independent… Read More
How I made time for reading . . . and had one of my best years ever (Part 1)
I‘m ashamed to admit that for many years, I rarely built in any time for independent reading. The extent of independent reading in my classroom was taking students to the library to check out a book, telling them it was due by X date, and… Read More
Favorite Goodreads: 2015 Student Edition
In the midst of my classroom prep this week, I came across the binder of letter-essays that my 9th graders wrote at the end of the year. In this binder are 75+ letters that described their favorite independent reading selections. As I paged through their letters again, I couldn’t help… Read More
Reading Challenges Visualized
Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting at the PA Writing & Literature Project (PAWLP) Summer Institute on using visual tools in multigenre composition. One of the visual tools that I discussed was the use of infographics. Then in my Twitter feed this past… Read More
From the Classroom: If You Build It, They Will Come: The Classroom Library
Three years ago, my first attempt at a classroom library was a collection of titles that I’d read during and after college. Well-loved copies of books like A Farewell to Arms, Pride and Prejudice, and Mrs. Dalloway sat along side more contemporary fiction I read for… Read More
A Year in Our Reading Lives: An Infographic
As the culminating project for their 9th grade year, my students created an infographic to represent their year in reading. They included the 9 books they read as part of the course (our “whole class” novels) and then any additional books they completed as part… Read More
Tricia Ebarvia 
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