Here's My Take... Walk into any upper elementary classroom—grades 3 through 6—and you’re likely to see students sitting in small groups with a text in front of them, being asked to “analyze the author’s purpose,” “infer meaning,” or “cite text evidence.” These are valuable … [Read more...]
Helping Struggling Writers
This past year was particularly challenging. If you are currently in the classroom, you know what I mean! Two areas where my students struggled were grammar and writing mechanics. I found that I had to backtrack and review some writing basics before I could expect them to dig … [Read more...]
Have you heard? ELA Next Generation Learning Standards are Here!
Change is inevitable in education. However, it often seems the changes we want are slow to come and the changes we can do without are numerous and frequent. Am I right? If you're a teacher in New York State you're probably aware of the changes being made to our learning … [Read more...]
The Great Sticky Note Challenge: Improving reading comprehension, one sticky note at a time!
Engaging with text is a goal of many ELA lessons. The last thing any teacher wants to hear are moans and groans when a new passage is handed out or a new reading assigned. After all, if they are turned off from the very beginning, students will unlikely engage in any meaningful … [Read more...]
Why I Use Rubrics In My Classroom
When you hear the word rubric you think grading, right? Most times that's exactly what rubrics are used for, grading assignments or tests. Using rubrics for grading is absolutely a solid idea, but it isn't the only way to use these time saving tools. Rubrics can be used to … [Read more...]
