Engaging ELA Resources and Ideas to Help You Cultivate Critical Readers
Teaching poetry to upper elementary students hasn't always come easy for me. To be honest, I had no idea how to tackle poetry with my third graders when I first started teaching. I knew I needed to gather quality mentor texts for poetry to fully immerse my students in the genre. The trouble was, I… Continue reading 15 Mentor Texts for Poetry in the Upper Elementary Classroom
Distance learmomg/virtual teaching means bringing your reading interactive notebook to the digital realm. I have been getting a lot of questions about how to gradually build their notebooks with you throughout the year rather than assigning the entire reading interactive notebook at once. Luckily, Google Slides™ has an add-on feature that makes this super easy.… Continue reading How to Add to a Digital Reading Interactive Notebook
This is an old post that has been updated to reflect changes in the beginning of the year due to social distancing during in person and synchronous teaching. The first day of school is usually full of excitement and smiles. It also sets the tone for the entire year. This year should be no different.… Continue reading 10 Things to Do on the First Day of School
Starting the year with rich and engaging read alouds sets the tone for the rest of the year. These incredible back to school books will help you ease nerves, ignite excitement, build community, and promote a growth mindset. This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Back to School Books for the First Day First… Continue reading 16 Back to School Books Third Graders Will Love
You’ve been thrown into the deep end of distance learning and have been doing an excellent job of learning how to swim, even if you feel like you’re still drowning. Out of all the challenges presented by distance learning, I think differentiation may be the biggest beast. Nevertheless, it’s an important part of what you… Continue reading 7 Ways to Provide Differentiation During Distance Learning
Why Teach Test Taking Strategies? Teaching your students test taking strategies equips them with the tools necessary to be successful in the testing environment. By no means should you “drill and kill” or focus your teaching solely on the test, but you still have the responsibility of preparing them for test day. Students feel most… Continue reading 6 Reading Test Taking Strategies That Work
Proper test prep can increase student confidence, relieve testing anxiety, and improve test scores. These dos and don'ts will help you keep your test prep..
Vocabulary instruction is crucial to helping our students increase their reading comprehension and become better writers. That’s why I think it’s so important to make time for vocabulary instruction every day. Here’s an easy to follow weekly schedule of ideas to help you fit quick, simple, and meaningful vocabulary instruction and practice into each day.
Context clues has always been something that I've needed to spiral throughout the entire year with my third graders, so finding fun and engaging activities has been a huge priority. I figure a lot of you are in the same boat so I've decided to share some of my best go-to context clues activities with you.
How to teach your students to identify the plot’s main events, sequence main events in the story, and understand how events influence future events and help develop the plot. These tips will ensure a deeper level of understanding of plot structure. Great read for second grade, third grade, and fourth grade reading teachers!