Writing a novel (or a story, for that matter) is confusing work. There are just so many characters running all over the place, dropping hints and having revelations. So it’s no surprise that many authors plan out their works beforehand, in chart or…

Preschool through 3rd Grade NO PREP Packets! February is such a FUN month! Kids LOVE Valentine's Day and using that holiday to teach core skills and

Use this page to help you understand the “tone” for any article or story that we read in class. If you understand the author’s tone, you will most likely understand the main idea …

This packet includes everything you need to teach the Hamburger Paragraph! lesson ideas craft directions craft templates graphic organizers {blank, lined, and primary lines in black and white and color} sample writing prompts for narrative, informative, explanatory, and opinion writing "My students really grasped this concept when using the hamburger. It was a lot of fun for them and I enjoyed teaching it!" -Emma S. "Just what I was looking for when introducing paragraph writing! The students loved using the organizers." -Emma N. "Great resource to help my students organize their thoughts and then organize their writing!" -Peaches and STEAM "Everything you will need is in this package. This will be so helpful to teach my students how to write a paragraph. Love it!" -Alison BoagSoalcito I added a color and blank and white page to the TpT Easel Activities tool if you would like to try a digital version with your students. If you haven't tried this yet, it puts a digital overlay on pdf pages so they can be typed on. You can also make your own version if you would have picked a different page. The craft won't work digitally, of course, but you can send it home or save until we are in person again. Be the first to know about new products, freebies and discounts : *Click on the green star to become a follower of my store *my blog Finally in First *Instagram *Facebook *Boom Store *Pinterest *Twitter Get TPT credit to use on future purchases: Go to your My Purchases page. Click on the 'Provide Feedback' button to leave a rating and a comment. You’ll earn TpT credits, which you can redeem on future purchases! Copyright © Jennifer Bates. All rights reserved by author. Permission to copy for single classroom use only. Not for public display. Please purchase additional licenses if you intend to share this product.

Discusses, not only how to avoid the potential pitfalls of in medias res, but how to take full advantage of its awesomeness.

I wanted to make some charts for Author's Purpose that would appeal to my first graders. I went with the P.I.E acronym (Persuade, Inform, Entertain) but took it to the next level by actually using Pie as the text examples. I then added some Other Examples so the students would get additional visual examples of the different purposes. I have these up on my Teachers Pay Teachers site for only $2.00! ***UPDATE - I had a few requests to add an additional, optional 4th poster for "Explain". I have now included this in the download too. This is also available in a money saving bundle with my Reader's Tool Box: Click on the picture to see it! Save With A Bundle: Author's Purpose Anchor Charts and Reader's Toolbox of Reading Strategies Click here to go to Teacher's Pay Teachers to get them :) While you are at my store, check out some of my new and best selling products including: My Original Writing Center - My best selling product! CVC Clip The Sounds Print Your Own Teacher Subway ArtPerfect for Gifts! Don't Get "Frozen" - A Sight Words Card Game Read It, Build It, Write ItAll 220 Dolch Sight Words Included The "Blue Cat" Daily Five Posters Reader's Toolbox of Reading Strategies Marzano (Kid-Friendly) Rating Scales Polka Dot Behavior Clip Chart with Daily/Weekly Behavior Reports and Punch Cards Chevron Behavior Clip Chart with Daily/WeeklyBehavior Reports and Punch Cards Word Family HousesCVC and CCVC Words Included The Ultimate Writing Center: Chevron Sight Words Superhero: Everything You Need to Motivate and Reward Sight Word Recognition Sight Words Superhero Add-On Pack: 130 Pages of Sight Word Games and Activities! Mighty Minions Sight Words Card Game Mighty Minions Read It, Build It, Write It Author's Purpose Anchor Charts Letter AND Sound Picture Mats Interactive Word Wall Books The Scientific Method Posters and Activities Awesome Adjectives with "The Blue Cat" Check out these MONEY SAVING BUNDLES: And MUCH more - click here to see more great products! And, don't forget to follow my store to get a free kit each month!!! Past "Follower Freebies" include" Click here to see how to get free kits each month: Mrs. Gilchrist's Follower Freebies

Prepare yourself for back to school with these "all about me" fingerprints! Each student can showcase how unique and wonderful they are! Choose 1 of the 3 fingerprint templates. (loop, whorl, arch). Students write about themselves on the lines of the fingerprint. This is perfect for the first week of school. This can be used in English, Art, Science, or any other subject. Students can share their fingerprints to find out how awesome their peers are. Bonus: includes 8 writing prompts! UPDATE! There are now 2 digital options! 1) Google Slides - students add text over a fingerprint image 2) Google Slides - students add text next to a fingerprint *Students can choose the font style, size, and color! There is also a fun version of a Venn Diagram to discuss uniqueness with a partner! And as an extra BONUS, there's a link in the PDF for a FREE editable pixel art activity! Let's Stay Connected! Follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers Follow me on Pinterest Follow me on Instagram

Students can struggle with reading for a variety of reasons: rich vocabulary, lack of background knowledge, the author's writing style. To scaffold difficult texts, teach students to annotate through the gradual release process.

Learners will practice identifying the author's purpose in eight sample paragraphs, using text evidence to support their choice.

“What has been my prettiest contribution to the culture?” asked Kurt Vonnegut in his autobiography Palm Sunday. His answer?

Writing a short story can often be intimidating, even if you've finished a novel recently or some other grand project. Despite it's brevity, a short story is much looser in its structure and up for a lot of interpretation. Because of this, if you're struggling with short fiction, it becomes difficul

Help your students master identifying the author's purpose with these fun and interactive Author's Purpose Activities for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-grade students. Students will determine if the author is trying to Persuade, Inform or Entertain by reading the short passage on the task card. These Author's Purpose task cards are perfect for a whole class game of Scoot, a small group activity, a partner or an independent center activity. Also included in this resource is a cut and paste author's purpose worksheet for review or reinforcement. Engage students with these interactive activities instead of another reading passage or just more author's purpose worksheets. Your students will love working on identifying the author's purpose with these fun and engaging author's purpose activities. Get the Author's Purpose Bundle here>>> AUTHOR'S PURPOSE BUNDLE Author's Purpose Task Card Activities includes: 12 Author's Purpose Task Cards Student Response Sheet Answer Key Cut and Paste Author's Purpose Worksheet See What Teachers Are Saying: This was a fun hands-on visual activity that allowed students to think about the author's purpose. It was also a great and quick way to assess student understanding of the author's purpose. My students were struggling with Author's Purpose and this resource made it so easy for them to understand the concept. Students were engaged and loved the activities. This helped students determine the author's purpose. I always prefer interactive activities and this was so helpful! More Fun and Engaging Author's Purpose Activities: AUTHOR'S PURPOSE AUTHOR'S PURPOSE (THANKSGIVING) AUTHOR'S PURPOSE (CHRISTMAS) AUTHOR'S PURPOSE (WINTER) AUTHOR'S PURPOSE (FEBRUARY) ⭐ LET’S GET CONNECTED! ⭐ TEACHING SECOND GRADE BLOG TEACHING SECOND GRADE FACEBOOK TEACHING SECOND GRADE PINTEREST TEACHING SECOND GRADE INSTAGRAM HOW TO GET CREDIT TOWARDS FUTURE PURCHASES! Go to your My Purchases page. Next to each purchase, you will see a "Provide Feedback" button. Click on that button and it will take you to a page where you can leave a rating and a comment about the product. Every time you provide feedback, you will earn TPT credits. These can be applied to future purchases to save you money! Yay! FOLLOW MY TPT STORE Click the green star beside my name at the top of this page or Click Here. By doing this, you will see when I add a new product or have upcoming sales! >>> TERMS OF USE <<< All rights reserved. Purchase of this item entitles only the purchaser the right to reproduce the pages for classroom use only. Duplication for an entire school (system) or commercial purposes is strictly forbidden without written permission from the author. Copying any part of this product and placing it on the internet, in any form (not even on a personal / classroom website) is strictly forbidden. This is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright ACT or DMCA. These items can and will be traced back to the publishing site.

So, you’ve written a story. What now? Well, must be time to submit it for publication, right? Before you do, stop and think about whether this story is really ready to be accepted. What makes me an expert on this topic? Over the past 15 years, I’ve submitted my work over 1,500 times. This has … Continue reading 60 Reasons Your Writing Will Be Rejected

In a celebration of the brilliant female authors of the past, we’ve collated a list of our top ten classic feminist novels.

Please note this was originally published via tweets by Emma Coates, a former Story Artist from Pixar. Eventually this lovely infographic was made. We've seen a lot of writing tips, but these concrete and approachable tips are some of the best we've seen.

La Enciclopedia fue la obra más representativa de la Ilustración. Editada entre los años 1751 y 1772, contiene gran parte del saber del siglo XVIII.

We just made this little infographic to visualize the breakdown of using our novel writing roadmap to write a novel in one year.

When you've decided on the traditional publishing route, the next step in the process is to query agents or book publishers directly. Here's a list of vetted children's book publishers that you can send your picture book without an agent.

Teaching theme is not an easy task! Not only do students need to have a strong comprehension of the story's elements (like plot, setting, and characters), but they also have to be able to make inferences to find the author's message, since most themes are not overtly stated by the author. So, what are some of my favorite activities for helping kids understand theme? I'll list a number of them here. 1. Make an Anchor Chart Anchor charts are a great way to make learning visual and to have a record that kids can refer to when they need a bit of extra support. Theme may be defined in a number of ways. To me, the theme is the author's message or what he/she wants the reader to take away/learn from the story. It is a BIG idea, with a real-world or universal concern and can be applied to anyone. Besides talking about what a theme is, you'll also want to go over what it isn't. For example, some kids confuse the main idea of the story with its theme. To help students understand the difference, it's helpful to use stories that everyone in the class knows, like previous read alouds or classic stories like The Three Little Pigs. You can take each story and discuss the main idea (what the story was mostly about - specific to the story) vs. the theme (the lesson the author wants the reader to know - not specific to the story), to contrast the two ideas. The second area of confusion for some kids is that the theme is not specific to the characters in the story. In the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, for example. The theme would not be that...A little mouse named Chrysanthemum learned to accept the uniqueness of her name. The theme would be larger than the book and would be something like...It's important to accept oneself. Also, you'll want to explain to your students that often times, a book has multiple themes and there are several answers which work equally well to describe a book's theme. Since theme is very subjective, I tell students that I will accept any answer, as long as they have the text evidence to prove it. For example, in the book, Wonder, by R.J. Palacio, one might argue that the theme is about friendship, another might say family, or even courage, or kindness. Any one of these themes would be right, and counted as such, since they each fit the story and could be supported by text evidence. 2. Use Pixar Shorts to Practice Theme Besides the sheer enjoyment which comes from watching these mini-films, your students can learn a lot about reading concepts from these. They're great for ELL students or for struggling readers, and for all readers really since the text complexity piece is removed. You can find these clips on YouTube, but you'll want to make sure to preview them first, so you're more familiar with the plot and are able to focus on theme questions. Here are some of my favorite Pixar Shorts for teaching theme: Piper Partly Cloudy Lava Boundin' 3. Use Mentor Texts Mentor texts are one of my go-to teaching tools as picture books are able to portray examples of just about any reading concept you need to teach. One thing I like to do when using mentor texts for theme, is to vary the types of questions I ask. Rather than always saying What is the theme?, I might ask... What is the deeper meaning of this story? After reading this book, what do you think matters to this author? Which idea from the story do you think might stay with you? What did the author want people to learn from this story?... Once kids answer, you might say, Ah...so that's the theme! Some of my current mentor text favorites for theme include the following: Ish by Peter H. Reynolds I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe Journey by Aaron Becker (a wordless book) Beautiful Oops by Barry Saltzberg The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed If you're looking for more titles, I have a FREE Mentor Text List for Literature which includes a page on theme which you can download from my TpT store. 4. Use Posters with Themes to Chart Book Themes I like to choose 8 - 10 common themes and place posters of them in the classroom. These are included in my Theme unit but you could easily make them yourself if you'd like. After we finish a class novel, a read aloud, or a mentor text as part of a mini-lesson, I like to have the kids discuss the theme of the book. Once we decide on the theme, I place a miniaturized copy of the book's cover (about 3 x 3 inches or so) under the correct theme poster. You can also make the posters more interactive by allowing kids to write titles of books they have recently read on sticky notes, under the posters as well. 5. Use Songs to Practice Finding the Theme I love to add music to the classroom whenever possible. Not only does it add instant motivation for some kids, but it is also just good for them in so many ways. There are lots of songs you can use to teach theme, from current pop songs to oldies, rap songs, and country songs. While all of these work well, I especially enjoy using Disney songs. Disney songs are easily recognized for some kids, have catchy, fun tunes, and have lyrics that need no censoring (yay!). You can easily find the lyrics online to project on a smartboard or document projector, and the song clips may be found on YouTube, Here are some of my favorite Disney songs which work well for theme: Hakuna Matata from Lion King Just Keep Swimming from Finding Dory Reflection from Mulan Let it Go from Frozen Something There from Beauty and the Beast A Whole New World from Aladdin 6. Introduce Short Texts Using Task Cards Using task cards for theme gives your students a great deal of practice in a short period of time, which makes them a perfect way to begin to practice finding the theme using text. I love the fact that students can read multiple task card stories and practice finding the theme 20 - 30 times, in the time it might take to read a story and find the theme once. You can do task cards as a center activity, to play Scoot, or as a whole class scavenger hunt. One thing I like to do for the scavenger hunt is to make sure everyone has a partner and to pair stronger readers with struggling readers. 7. Add Some Writing After students have worked on theme for a week or two, I like to have students create their own short stories which show a strong theme, without directly stating it. This changes each student's role from a theme finder, to a theme creator and gives students insight into how authors create a situation that allows a theme to unfold. When I introduce this project, we refer back to the task cards we just completed, as an example of story length and rich content. In a matter of 2 - 3 paragraphs, students learn that they can include enough information to let our readers know our message. After students are finished creating these short stories, it's fun to share them in some way, to give more theme practice. Sometimes I have students meet in small groups to share out, with group members guessing the theme. Other years, I leave a stack on my desk and grab several if we have a few minutes. Either the students or I read the short story out loud, and the class discusses the theme. 8. Move to Passages, Short Stories, and Novels. Once we have scaffolded a great foundation for the understanding of theme, there comes a point where kids have to move on to text which is more challenging. I like to use page-long passages which I have created, before using short stories, and ultimately novels. If you're looking for some ready made materials to help you teach theme, here's a packet I love to use which works well for 4th and 5th Graders. Click here to read more about the Theme unit. Want some more teaching ideas and activities to teach theme? Click here to read Teaching Themes in Literature. If you like this post, make sure to share it with a teacher friend! Thanks so much for stopping by! For more ideas and strategies focused on upper elementary, be sure to sign up for The Teacher Next Door's free email newsletter! Bonus, you'll also gain access to my FREE Resource Library which contains exclusive upper elementary freebies that you won't find anywhere else! I'd love to connect with you! The Teacher Next Door's Website Pinterest Facebook Instagram TpT Store

Teaching summarizing? Try using story element examples. When kids learn to pick them out, writing a summary is easy.

This is a tool students can use to work through Non-Fiction texts. It has: -Previewing -Prediction -K-W-L Chart -Text Features -Responding to Text Features -Main Idea and Details -Text Structure -Responding to Text Structure -Fact/Opinion -Author's Purpose -Responding to Author's Purpose This is also a great visual for students to help them remember what to think about when reading Non-Fiction.

Having devoted a large portion of my life to tennis, I am quite familiar with the idea of creating a ritual before a match or a serve to help me get into the mindset for the game, and as I began to become more dedicated to writing, I carried that practice over with me. One of the most difficult part

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Inference is an important skill for students to learn in order to really dig deep into a text. People use inference every day to make sense of the things people say and do. Students use inference all the time, but they need some guidance in learning how to use the strategy with a text.

Creative and hands-on Tomie dePaola book activities for teaching author's viewpoint, problem/solution, cause and effect and more.

14 Literary quotes about life 1. “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” 2. “Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.” 3. “There is nothing like looking if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”