Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 16 seconds. Contains 254 words.
Target Audiences: Classroom Teachers and Literacy Coaches
The Context: The first six weeks of school are about building community and teaching routines and procedures. Depending on when your school year began, you’ve either started your first unit of study or are about to leap into it.
Catch Up Quick: If you are unsure whether or not you and your students are ready to leap into instruction, read through “Is It Time to Teach Yet?” Sarah Valter posed excellent questions about student and teacher readiness for instruction. Then, come back here!
From the Archives: Over the past 16 years, we’ve amassed many blog posts on whole-class instruction, emphasizing minilessons, which are short, whole-class lessons in which students learn a strategy they can use in their writing not just on that day, but in the future. The minilesson consists of a connection, a teaching point, active engagement, and a link to students’ work. Here are some of my favorite past blog posts about minilessons to help you as you shift from the first six weeks of school to the heart of the school year.
- 4 Tips for Successful Active Involvement in a Minilesson by Lanny Ball
- How to Plan a Minilesson from Scratch by Beth Moore
- Minilesson Alternatives: Considering OTHER Ways to Kick Off Workshop by Pam Koutrakos
- Minilessons: It’s All About the Link by Beth Moore
- Showing Not Telling: Demonstrations Matter by Lanny Ball
- Six Tips to Keep Minilessons Short: Maximizing Writing Time by Stacey Shubitz
- The Importance of Repertoire for Teachers by Melanie Meehan
- Top Ten Ways to Keep Minilessons from Turning into Maxilessons by Beth Moore
- Write Your Own Teaching Points by Stacey Shubitz
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