Classroom Tips

The Mary Sue Project by Lelac Almagor (November/December 2006)
Fifth-graders write themselves into the story

A Letter to Parents by Robin Smith (September/October 2006)
Favorites for second graders.

What Ails Bibliotherapy? by Maeve Visser Knoth (May/June 2006)
Books can’t cure everything.

Online Intrigue in an Arizona Library by Tim Wadham (September/October 2005)
How one system created its own digital whodunnit.

Purposeful Poetry by Susan Dove Lempke (May/June 2005)
Why poetry can't be forced onto every lesson plan.

Teaching New Readers to Love Books by Robin Smith (September/October 2003)
A second grade teacher's well-stocked classroom library.

As Good as Reading? by Pamela Varley (May/June 2002)
How audiobooks are speaking to young readers.

Unlucky Arithmetic: Thirteen Ways to Raise a Nonreader by Dean Schneider and Robin Smith (March/April 2001) (PDF)
A tongue-in-cheek directive for discouraging young readers.

Pets and Other Fishy Books by Monica Edinger (November/December 1999)
Some books make excellent classroom pets.

Have Book Bag, Will Travel: A Practical Guide to Reading Aloud by Mary M. Burns and Ann A. Flowers (March/April 1997)
Step-by-step guidelines for how to read aloud and an annotated list of what to read.

Readers Request, Or, YOU ASKED FOR IT by Jon Scieszka (November/December 1996)
A handy guide to pronoucing tough names, like the author's.