Practical tools for K-12 literacy coaches, classroom teachers, and school leaders including study group guides, booklists, writing workshop advice, and  professional development planners.
Home     About     Contact Us     FAQs     Tell a Friend     Search     Buy DVDs     Workshops     Site Licenses     Members Only

Click here to learn what a membership to Choice Literacy includes.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
 About Choice Literacy
About
Contact Us
FAQs
Free Samples
Testimonials
Annotated Archives
Buy DVDs
Workshops
Site Licenses
 Favorite Topics
Literacy Coaches
Assessment Tools
Teaching Writing
Classroom Design
Teaching Reading
New Teacher Mentors
ELL
Leadership
Teacher Study Groups
Word Work
Big Fresh Archives
Preview DVDs
 Other
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Search


 
Quote Collections

Quote Collections

Quote Collections are one-page pdf downloads of quotes around a literacy or professional development theme. Provocative, funny, thoughtful - each page has a range of quotes to spark discussion, focus inquiry, or foster reflection. These quotes might be used in study groups, or shared between mentors and colleagues, or highlighted as a "Quote of the Month" in newsletters.

To open any of these materials, you will need a copy of Acrobat Reader on your computer. Get a free copy of Acrobat Reader by clicking here.

Click on any link below to download the quote collection of your choice.

Content Literacy

Mentoring

Commitment to Teaching

Solving Problems

Punctuation

Leadership and Change

On Writing

Featured Articles
Time Quote Collection
We get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless. Paul Bowles . . . more

Change Quote Collection
If you want to truly understand something, try to change it. Kurt Lewin . . . more

Discussion Quote Collection
As a leader . . . I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a consensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom: a leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind. Nelson Mandela . . . more

Reading Comprehension - Yesterday and Today
Quote Collection
The problem is that when we tell kids they have to seek connections as readers, we're teaching them to stop engaging in stories and start looking for distractions. And no one can be engaged and distracted at the same time. Nancie Atwell . . . more

Evaluation Quotes
There is a comedian on television who jokes about putting together a difficult, five-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle: It was all sky! Too much talk about standards, and not enough of the kind of professional development that makes change at the classroom level is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle of the sky. It takes an impossible amount of time and it doesn't add up to much. Shelley Harwayne . . . more

Writers on Revision (Quote Collection)
If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn't realize the teacher was saying, "Make it shine. It's worth it." Now I see revision as a beautiful word of hope. It's a new vision of something. It means you don't have to be perfect the first time. What a relief! Naomi Shihab Nye . . . more

Solving Problems
When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. Abraham Maslow Each problem that I solved became a rule which served . . . more

Punctuation Quotes
In the family of punctuation, where the full stop is daddy and the comma is mummy and the semicolon quietly practices the piano with crossed hands, the exclamation mark is the big attention-deficit br . . . more

Favorite Mentoring Quotes
When you get conflicting reactions, block your impulse to figure out which reactions are right. Eat like an owl: take in everything and trust your innards to digest what's useful and discard what's not. Peter Elbow . . . more

Quotes about Commitment to Teaching
To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin. . . . more

Poets on Notebooks Quote Collection
Notebooks are like attics, a place for treasures which sometimes turn out to be junk, but take you anyway to another time and place.

Cynthia MacDonald


. . .
more

Quotes about Content Literacy for Adolescents
Unfortunately, the idea of harder textbooks has captured the attention of educators and policymakers interested in raising academic achievement. But harder books won't foster the growth of content learning. Think about your own attempts to acquire new content knowledge. Imagine you want to learn about building a website. Do you reject the books you might use because they are too easy? Do you say to yourself, "Gosh, only 11 words on this page that I can't pronounce--not hard enough for me!" Richard Allington . . . more

Solving Problems Quote Collection
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" ("I found it!") but rather "Hmm....that's funny..."

Isaac Asimov


. . .
more


Time Quote Collection
We get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless. Paul Bowles . . . more
Change Quote Collection
If you want to truly understand something, try to change it. Kurt Lewin . . . more
Discussion Quote Collection
As a leader . . . I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a consensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom: a leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind. Nelson Mandela . . . more
Reading Comprehension - Yesterday and Today
Quote Collection
The problem is that when we tell kids they have to seek connections as readers, we're teaching them to stop engaging in stories and start looking for distractions. And no one can be engaged and distracted at the same time. Nancie Atwell . . . more
Evaluation Quotes
There is a comedian on television who jokes about putting together a difficult, five-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle: It was all sky! Too much talk about standards, and not enough of the kind of professional development that makes change at the classroom level is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle of the sky. It takes an impossible amount of time and it doesn't add up to much. Shelley Harwayne . . . more
Writers on Revision (Quote Collection)
If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn't realize the teacher was saying, "Make it shine. It's worth it." Now I see revision as a beautiful word of hope. It's a new vision of something. It means you don't have to be perfect the first time. What a relief! Naomi Shihab Nye . . . more
Solving Problems
When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. Abraham Maslow Each problem that I solved became a rule which served . . . more
Punctuation Quotes
In the family of punctuation, where the full stop is daddy and the comma is mummy and the semicolon quietly practices the piano with crossed hands, the exclamation mark is the big attention-deficit br . . . more
Favorite Mentoring Quotes
When you get conflicting reactions, block your impulse to figure out which reactions are right. Eat like an owl: take in everything and trust your innards to digest what's useful and discard what's not. Peter Elbow . . . more
Quotes about Commitment to Teaching
To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin. . . . more
Poets on Notebooks Quote Collection
Notebooks are like attics, a place for treasures which sometimes turn out to be junk, but take you anyway to another time and place.

Cynthia MacDonald


. . .
more
Quotes about Content Literacy for Adolescents
Unfortunately, the idea of harder textbooks has captured the attention of educators and policymakers interested in raising academic achievement. But harder books won't foster the growth of content learning. Think about your own attempts to acquire new content knowledge. Imagine you want to learn about building a website. Do you reject the books you might use because they are too easy? Do you say to yourself, "Gosh, only 11 words on this page that I can't pronounce--not hard enough for me!" Richard Allington . . . more
Solving Problems Quote Collection
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" ("I found it!") but rather "Hmm....that's funny..."

Isaac Asimov


. . .
more
 The Big Fresh
Sign up for The Big Fresh, our FREE weekly
e-newsletter for K-12
literacy leaders.
[Browse Big Fresh Archives]

 Contributors
Jennifer Allen
Aimee Buckner
Jan Miller Burkins
Andie Cunningham
Katie DiCesare
Katie Doherty
Shari Frost
Landrigan & Mulligan
Shirley McPhillips
Debbie Miller
Brenda Power
Heather Rader
Ruth Shagoury
Franki Sibberson
The Sisters
Andrea Smith
Karen Szymusiak
Karen Terlecky
 Resources by Grade
Preschool
Kindergarten
1st Grade
2nd Grade
3rd Grade
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade
Grades 7-12
 PD Corner
Clusters
Digests
E-Guides (pdf)
Podcasts
Print Downloads
Videos to View
Audio
Quote Collections
Copyright Policy