Teaching character traits and characterization through mentor texts is always fun. After I teach basic comprehension strategies, I begin teaching story elements. You can read my post on teaching setting here. Upper elementary students are typically familiar with story elements, so they already know the basics. That greatest challenging is typically explaining their thoughts with […]
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I’ve worked on A LOT of resource updates this summer, so I wanted to share my corresponding pacing guides with you. You can read more about how I develop these pacing guides here. As always, it’s important to remember that this is just a guide. I try to never let the pacing guide dictate my
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Teaching setting is one of those reading topics that is so much fun. It’s relatively easy for students to understand, and there is so much great literature that can be tied into upper elementary setting instruction. My greatest challenge in teaching setting is having students use text evidence to support their ideas about the setting
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Reading assessments can have a tremendous impact on the upper elementary classroom. However, it’s imperative to understand what assessments we’re giving and the purpose of those assessments. Otherwise, we fall into the trap of over-assessing, which is when we assess for the sake of assessing. This post shares some of the most common forms of
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Novel studies are the perfect addition to any elementary classroom. I LOVE children’s literature. I love picture books and chapter books, and I’m always torn on which I should use for my mini lessons and small group lessons. When I originally created my reading units, all of the mini lessons were based on picture books, and
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Reading comprehension strategies are the focus of my first reading unit. Even though not all of these reading comprehension strategies are specifically mentioned in state standards, they’re still an essential component to reading instruction. It doesn’t matter how good of job we do teaching complex skills such as main idea and integrating information from multiple
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To introduce reading workshop, it is essential to start the year with procedural lessons, rather than jumping right in to your curriculum. This may initially seem a little time consuming, but this will make reading workshop flow smoothly throughout the year. This post shares my first five procedural lessons for intorducing reading workshop and the
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This post shares some of my favorite strategies for teaching vocabulary. As a reading teacher, the quote below certainly hits home. These are such powerful words concerning the importance of upper elementary vocabulary instruction, which is often neglected in today’s classroom. “Vocabulary is the best single indicator of intellectual ability and an accurate predictor of
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Grammar worksheets and activities don’t have to be miserable and boring for students-or for you! Teaching grammar appears to be a something teachers either love or hate. There are a lot of polarizing opinions on how to teach grammar, punctuation, and parts of speech. Some say it should only be taught in the context of
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Teaching poetry can be a rewarding experience! Most upper elementary students love learning about poetry. It’s new, different, and a genre where all students can find a style of poetry they enjoy. The easiest place to begin teaching poetry is to simply read poetry to students, whether it is of a silly or serious variety.
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