Achieving successful lifelong readers to have a love of reading before they leave your classroom, you really need to be a reader yourself. That’s the first rule. If that is a struggle for you, maybe teach another subject. I once knew a reading teacher who told her students almost every day how much she hatedContinue reading “How to encourage classroom bookworms! Steps to successful readers.”
Category Archives: small groups teaching tip
Valentine’s Day Classic Poetry quotes that can be taught elementary and up! Make the holiday educationally rewarding.
“Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,Unwind the solemn twine, and tie my Valentine!” -Emily Dickinson “The Sunrise-Sir-compelleth Me-Because He’s Sunrise-and I see-Therefore-Then-I love Thee-” -Emily Dickinson “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.” -Elizabeth BarrettContinue reading “Valentine’s Day Classic Poetry quotes that can be taught elementary and up! Make the holiday educationally rewarding.”
Friday Quotes for Introducing a text from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
“It is never too late to be wise.” “Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.” “Thus we never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.” “AllContinue reading “Friday Quotes for Introducing a text from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe”
Titanic-A Night To Remember – Teaching descriptive language, word choice, and other objectives
A Night to Remember is a great text to add to a paired-text group for focusing on objectives as the fiction piece added to a non-fiction account of the same event. Whether using an excerpt or entire novel, here a few pieces in the book to get you started.Word choice taken from Chapter 2 ofContinue reading “Titanic-A Night To Remember – Teaching descriptive language, word choice, and other objectives”
Small Group “Switch-a-roo” day-Gathering several related topic short stories for a round robin quick study-Dystopian
Students like the Dystopia craze. They like the idea of standing up for what you believe in. They like the underdog getting to go at the big wigs. Then even like when the odds are against them and losing, then winning, then doing it over again. Anything’s possible. Impossible odds. Oh, the possibilities. Try puttingContinue reading “Small Group “Switch-a-roo” day-Gathering several related topic short stories for a round robin quick study-Dystopian”
Neverending Story-Motivating students to free write with Neverending Story and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg Year-Long Project DOK 2 and 3
Over the years, freewriting has been a must have in the classroom to foster creativity and love of writing, but it has the possibility to do much more. Here is just one idea of how to foster the creativity and incorporate higher order objectives into what I call the Neverending Story. Yes, it is based off theContinue reading “Neverending Story-Motivating students to free write with Neverending Story and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg Year-Long Project DOK 2 and 3”
“I Have A Dream” that Goals and Dreams can be separate but equal-Literature Spotlight
Dreams: “I Have a Dream” speech excerpt by Martin Luther King Jr. Eldorado by Edgar Allan Poe Montage of a Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes Dream Within dream” by Edgar Allan Poe Goals: “The Fringe Benefits of Failure” speech by J.K.Rowling “If” by Rudyard Kipling “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelo Quotes: “If you wantContinue reading ““I Have A Dream” that Goals and Dreams can be separate but equal-Literature Spotlight”
Small Group Team Tasks Jobs- Many listed, choose what works with your students
Here are job descriptions and ideas for when doing small groups in ALL grades. When able, in younger grades, try to have consistent groups for a time period. (suggestion: rotate groups every 9 weeks.) This allows the students to acquire the job at hand and be more proficient within the groups. Try not to: rotateContinue reading “Small Group Team Tasks Jobs- Many listed, choose what works with your students”
Poetry Surprise Endings Unit and Paired Texts
Poems with surprise endings are great ways to motivate students to love poetry. Turn it into a song in small groups and perform it. Remember that poetry is open to interpretation so the quick description can be analyzed differently from person to person so is best not to give a theme or hint–let them analyzeContinue reading “Poetry Surprise Endings Unit and Paired Texts”
Teaching Context Clues Steps
Context Clues are never to be set aside and disregarded in any grade taught…yet so often we give and “give” the definition rather than leading them to discover it on their own. Try making yourself overdo it for a week. Stop after every decent vocabulary word and have students search:1.words 2. phrases 3. sentence meaning 4. paragraph meaning …around theContinue reading “Teaching Context Clues Steps”
ELA On The Move 