Opinion writing lessons can be fun for students and teachers. Opinion writing gives children something they can really get excited about, because they ALL have strong opinions! In this post I share some of my favorite opinion writing lessons and activities. I typically begin teaching opinion writing lessons after my informational writing unit, which you […]
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When I first started teaching, informational writing was one of my least favorite units to teach. I could spend months on narratives but would have been happy to skip informational writing altogether. Part of my problem was that I misinterpreted writing workshop training and was under the impression that students should just start writing. I’d
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Phonics activities are not just for young students-they’re for older students too. Every year I have a couple students who need a little {sometimes a lot} of extra work on phonics. This can be quite a challenge, because that isn’t something I teach in a whole group lesson. This instruction is completed in reading group
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I don’t always include literacy stations in reading workshop, but when I do, I make the activities purposeful and authentic. Anyone catch the reference? In the spirit of full disclosure, there are years when due to scheduling requirements I can’t fit in literacy stations. Those are hard years, but I’ve learned to adapt. How I Incorporate Literacy
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Introducing paragraphs is never easy, especially at the beginning of the year. I always struggle at the beginning of the year with determining how long to spend teaching rules, procedures, and various classroom management lessons. These management lessons are essential for a smooth school year. I’ve tried to skip some of these lessons in the
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Reading for fluency is an important component of reading instruction. Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, with proper phrasing, and with expression. It is important for readers, because it allows students to comprehend what they read, rather than focusing decoding words. Fluent readers recognize words automatically, group words quickly, use appropriate
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I’ve got my visual pacing guide for language arts ready, and I hope you’re not disappointed! You’ll see that there are quite a few missing units in this pacing guide, and that’s because they’re still a work in progress. I’ve been working like crazy all summer, but these big product take me hours and hours
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I’ll be the first to admit that verb worksheets and activities were never appealing to me. I have memories learning about AND teaching parts of speech where my eyes were completely glazed over. I thought that it was almost, if not, impossible to make parts of speech fun and meaningful. This was definitely a difficult
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Narrative writing lessons are my favorite writing lessons! They are also a great way to get to know students on a deeper level. However, without highly structured narrative writing lessons personal narratives aren’t always easy for students to writ. Children have a tendency to write a list of events, rather than a fully developed narrative.
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When I started teaching writing to elementary students, I had no clue how to actually teach writing! In fact, I could barely remember receiving any writing instruction as a child! Those first few years, I made writing instruction the focus of my professional development. I soon found that writing workshop was my favorite strategy to
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