Anna crawled onto my lap, wiggled her body to face outward, and snuggled her shoulders into my chest.  She held the faded book by Patricia Polacco in front of her, expecting that my hands would grasp the cover with hers as she recited the title and opened to the first page.  Her voice joined mine for the words at the end of each line.  She lisped delightfully on cue, “Mommies say Shhhhhhh!” I chuckled with her as we turned each page. My thoughts flashed back to the 1980’s, when the three-year old child on my lap was Anna’s mother. Our reading events [...]

In this second installment, I present guideline #2 along with inspirational quotes and related classroom practices: Guideline #2: Poetry as Part and Parcel of the Integrated Language Arts Program Poetry encompasses reading, writing, listening and speaking.  For this very reason, it is the ultimate vehicle for daily, ongoing language experiences in the classroom. Poetry can be used for oral language development—to expose children to new, varied,and sophisticated words, word meanings (vocabulary), sentence structure, literary devices, topics, and themes, etc.–through teacher read alouds, shared reading, and any variation of choral reading (Routman, 1988). To this extent, [...]

Every time I enter a classroom, whether for the first time or on a weekly basis, my eyes can’t help but wander around the room. I notice the library, how the desks or tables are arranged, the student work displayed, and I take notice of what is on the walls. I am looking for artifacts of classroom learning; I am looking for anchor charts. An anchor, by definition, is an object used to hold something firmly in place. Anchors are a source of stability and security.  In classrooms, anchor charts do just that. They are [...]