During test prep and test time, our students could use a little encouragement and motivation. This time can be so stressful for students and teachers. I've found that coloring pages with motivational quotes can really help students during the testing season. To ease the stress, I've created these … [Read more...]
Teaching Literary Theme in Upper Elementary
In the upper grades, your students are no longer reading fables with clearly stated morals or lessons. Your students must read a fiction story and determine a theme (message or lesson), which is not explicitly stated. In this post, I will share a step-by-step process to teach theme in the upper … [Read more...]
Setting Fun Writing Expectations to Start Your Year Right
I'm back to share some more tips on how you can stop the stress and anxiety and have your best first week ever! One of the best things you can do at the start of the year is set up strong classroom procedures, routines, and expectations for every part of your room. Make sure your students … [Read more...]
How to Completely Transform Your Teaching with Exit Tickets
Whether they're completed on a piece of paper, a tablet, or a whiteboard, exit tickets are a powerful tool to use in your classroom. What are Exit Tickets? Exit tickets are formative assessments that provide information about your students' learning and understanding of a topic faster than any … [Read more...]
Practicing Punctuation During Your Read Aloud Time
My students need help practicing punctuation? They sure do! Punctuation is one of those funny things. You think that by the time students reach upper-elementary, they will have a firm grasp on basic language rules of punctuation. You hope that your students will come to you knowing how and when to … [Read more...]
Writing Narrative Endings
I have to be honest. Teaching writing is tough. Each year, I set out to build a community of writers, and it is no easy task. One of the toughest things for my students is writing endings. They always start out with catchy beginnings only to get bogged down and just stop at the end. How many … [Read more...]
How To Convert Your Fake Readers Into Real Readers
I'm here to share some tried and true tips and tricks to convert your fake readers into real readers. To help our fake readers, we have to identify their coping behaviors that are helping them hide the fact that they aren't reading. Here is a list of 10 Ways to Spot a Fake Reader: I … [Read more...]
Must-Have Resources for Reading and Writing Workshop
I'm here to share some of my Must-Have Resources for Reading and Writing Workshop. My top must-haves include: A great classroom library that is organized for your students, easy for them to use, and contains a whole plethora of books is so important. Students need to feel like they have access … [Read more...]
Presidents Day Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions & More
I'm back with my next Close Reading resource! I posted my Winter Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions & More, and if you want to see more, click HERE or the "Purchase Here" button at the bottom of this post. In addition to my Winter pack, I also posted my Presidents Day … [Read more...]
Understanding Close Reading: The Last of Part 1 – What is Close Reading?
I'm back with the second post about WHAT is close reading. If you want to start reading this blog series from the beginning, click HERE to go back to the first post: Understanding Close Reading: Part 1 - What is Close Reading? In the first post, I broke down the definition of close … [Read more...]
