Teaching students how to write argumentative papers can be a challenging task. From teaching students how to include and refute the counterclaim to ensure students find the most relevant evidence to support their claims, teachers have their work cut out for them. This blog post will go over exactly how to teach argument writing in the secondary ELA classroom.
Planning to tutor over the summer? Here are tips for quick and easy planning! Hi there! It's Sarah! I've been tutoring kiddos for the last year and have developed a routine that makes my planning easy and my session flow smoothly. All of the kiddos I tutor are grades K-2 and in need of a boost in their reading skills...fluency, comprehension, and phonics. Warm-up I like to start with some reading that is simple or familiar. I'll either have the kiddo re-read a text from the previous session or read fluency sentences. I have my kiddos keep a composition notebook with past passages to go back and re-read. I use lots of guided reader books to find the just right text for my kiddos to read. These are also great books to leave for kiddos to practice between sessions. Fluency sentence strips from The Moffatt Girls are a GREAT help to boost fluency and confidence! They are also super easy to leave for practice between sessions. Fluency Reading Practice My kiddos have all had good sight word recognition and really need fluency work. I switch between leveled readers and text passages. I usually have kiddos read the text themselves first. After reading, we go back through the text and find words that were tricky and read them. Next, I have the kiddo read through the text with me or by themselves if they are confident. Using a leveled reader Using fluency passages and recording words read per minute (the kiddos love to see their growth!) Find these fluency passages HERE! Using text evidence passages. Grab these passages HERE! Comprehension After some fluency practice with the selected text, I move into comprehension work. In our district, kiddos need to do a written response comprehension question as part of their reading assessment. I have my kiddos practice a written response question with every text and in every session. Comprehension with level reader I use these question stems to develop questions based on the text. Grab the question stems HERE! Completed written response, kiddos write in their composition journal Comprehension with text evidence passages. Grab these passages HERE! Here I use a reading passage with several comprehension tasks for a 2nd grade kiddo. Find these reading passage + comprehension packets HERE! Phonics After the reading and comprehension tasks are complete, I work on some phonics task with my kiddos. One of my favorite tasks is doing a word family word splash. I select a word from our text. I like how this tasks shows kiddos that if they can spell a work like bat, they can also spell cat, mat, sat, etc. Writing short sentences with words from the Word Family Splash Word building and sounding out Extras I like to use phonics poems as an additional fluency tool. The kiddos glue them into their composition notebook so they can go back and re-read between sessions, continuing to build fluency with familiar texts. These phonics poems are from Susan Jones. I use our Literacy Bags in between reading tasks. Literacy Bags break up the rigorous reading and fluency practice we do for much of the session. You can find Literacy Bags HERE! I'm working with a few Kindergartners who need sight word practice. I use the K version of our Differentiated Reading Fluency passages. In K, the passages start as reading letters, then sight words fluently. It perfect support for my K kiddos! You can grab these HERE! Additionally, our Print a Standard packs have been a great support for targeting specific skills students need to work on. Each pack contains tasks for one standard and has several activities for that standard, so there are a lot of opportunities to help the student learn, practice, and master standards based skills. You can grab Print a Standard packs for ELA AND MATH HERE! Connecting with students and parents on a more personal level is the best part of tutoring. I love giving kiddos instant feedback and celebrating their successes! I also love that I can give them more choices to foster a love of reading. In the picture above, I'm showing several text selections. The kiddos I'm working with is able to choose the book he'll read with me for the session. I also love being able to help parents foster learning at home. I've found most all of my parents did not really know about their kiddo's reading level or reading abilities. This makes it difficult for parents to find the best "just right" books for reading at home. After I work with a kiddo, I leave the text piece we worked on for that session (a passage or a book) so the kiddo can re-read it with parents. I leave their composition notebooks with phonics poems for the kiddos to go back a re-read. I also leave the fluency sentence strips for practice between sessions.
Miss Carole of Macaroni Soup beating the bongo here! Let's talk about drumming with Pre-K and K children! You don't have to be a...
Filler Activities for ELA (blog post) What can you do with five extra minutes in secondary ELA? Here are a few ideas to engage students until the bell.
Finding your name is a great way to introduce letters and strengthen pencil grip—a hands-on alphabet activity for toddlers and preschoolers.
This quick post will give you some creative and engaging ideas for your first fall ELA unit that is adaptable for those times when you're facing unknowns. Click through for some fun ideas that are sure to engage your secondary ELA students.
Teaching resources that engage and delight Foundation (K) to Year 3 students.
I finally nailed teaching symbolism! Using candy was both engaging and efficient - a major win that students remembered all year long!
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Ted talk "The Danger of a Single Story" is such a moving speech that it deserves to be taught in every class, and here's why.
Upper elementary classroom tips and ideas with a focus on classroom management, student engagement, & cooperative learning.
Our state test places a large emphasis on the difference between the structure of a summary for fiction and nonfiction texts. As a result, I developed this lesson to help my fifth grade students with this challenging concept. I used this anchor chart to introduce the basic differences between the two types of summaries. Students glued a smaller copy of the anchor chart into their reader's notebooks for future reference. We discussed that all summaries include the main idea of the text, the most important ideas, key words, and must be in our own words - no copying! To begin, we focused on the nonfiction summary, which seems to be easier for the students to grasp. I selected several great nonfiction articles to practice this skill. For the first article, we read and discussed the text together. Then I showed the students an example summary I had written. We went through the summary and identified the main idea and a sentence explaining each subsection. Then, we circled all the key vocabulary words that I used. For this part, I used the article "Masters of Disguise." This is an article from Scholastic News that I found at www.infohio.org. I love using articles from Scholastic News because they have clearly labeled vocabulary words and divide the article into labeled subsections. For the next article, we completed the summary together in students' reader's notebooks. We used the article "Bionic Animals." This is another high-interest article from Scholastic News, which can be found at www.infohio.org. Students completed the third summary independently. For this part of the lesson, I used the article "I Use a Robot to Go to School." (You guessed it! Another article from Scholastic News that can be found at www.infohio.org.) Students wrote their independent summaries in their reader's notebooks. Once students had proofread their summaries, they switched with another student. This student used a post-it note to evaluate the other student's summary. They wrote about strengths and weaknesses within the summary and then placed the post-it in the student's reader's notebook. When finished, I reviewed all the summaries. Stay tuned for fiction summaries!
In this post, I'll talk about why teaching schema is important, give some ideas and tips for teaching about schema to your young readers, and discuss when we
If you are looking for some high-interest activities, try using animated shorts to teach inference. Free handouts focus on student learning.
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
Use these resources for effective curriculum planning in the Australian classroom. Keep organised by using these Australian Curriculum planning documents.
How to create a retell literacy center in kindergarten. Plus a list of 20 famous stories and retell props (with printables) to complete this center.
When I was teaching, I often had a tricky time getting my prep students to line up in an orderly fashion. It was even harder to get them to walk sensibly around the school. That’s when I made my mystery walker cards! All you need to do is print off enough cards for your whole […]
Learn all about what syntax is and how you can support your students reading comprehension with syntax activities.
Wondering how to sequence grammar instruction? You'll want this list that scaffolds grammar lessons so that one skill builds upon the next.
Exit slips are a great way to quickly assess your students on reading skills and standards that you are teaching. Grab free reading exit slips on this post.
Students come to us on all different levels, which can be a challenge- 3 great ideas on how to teach a mutli-level class.
In the Collaborative Model, struggling students are never left out or left behind.
When I was in college, I had a class with a girl whose entire American literature experience revolved around Transcendentalist texts. She went to a private school and had most of her classes outdoors. I found her and this outdoor learning concept fascinating. I would bring up the topic any chance I got so she ... Read More about English Outdoors: How to take your ELA class outside
Here is a printable pre-writing notebook. Great for teaching the basic strokes of handwriting in a fun, no-pressure way.
OK. I was mildly obsessed over meeting Mr Slope Guy for the first time. I was observing two novice teachers, and they were using Mr Slope Guy as a mnemonic for students in analyzing slope. But I think he could be fated for bigger and better adventures. Since my son Xavier is a budding comic book artist, we put together the following (PDF of the whole comic), with some inking support from Ysabela. The problem was whether MSG was a hero or villain, and he wound up needing to be defeated. He is a personification of algebra. Be interested in your feedback. Only one more thing to say: Marvel, please don't sue! Spider-man is a wholly owned trademark of Marvel, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and starring in a major motion picture this summer.
We are starting our unit on Bears! Last week we read many versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Part of our work on the story included this story map. It is made for kindergarten students, but would be appropriate for first grade too. They drew pictures to show their ideas and then I labeled the drawing or wrote the dictation about what what happening in each part of the story. First, the kiddos worked on the setting and characters. I love this colorful busy picture that includes all sorts of details. She put the beds outside the house because she wanted to include some of the items from inside the house in the picture. This little boy drew just the house, but added the different sized bowls and had me label them. This was a great characters picture. So darn cute! Then on another day, students did pictures for the beginning, middle, and end of the story. First, we did an activity together where we ordered picture cards and talked about different parts of the story. It was great to hear the kids verbally retelling the story in their own words. That is one of the things that is great about doing an activity like this - a great way to really listen carefully to the oral language of students. I love the picture of Goldilocks in this one. Her hair is great! I was so excited when this little sweetie used the word "discovered" in her dictation to me. Woo hoo! Great language! I thought my sweet little students did a great job with this activity! And I was happy with how much they were enjoying the many versions of the 3 bears stories. And, now that they have done a complete story map with a very familiar story, I can start doing these with more challenging literature. OK, here is your freebie, just click on the link under this image to go grab it in my TpT store: Story Map FREEBIE by Katie Byrd I hope it is a big help in your classroom! Please leave some love in the comments if you are using it with your class. Happy Teaching!
This post was written on November 5, 2011. Our first year of Essentials has proven T-O-U-G-H. It would have been a challenge even if we hadn’t been battling all the noise from the ongoing construction. In the process of learning how to implement Essentials in our own home, I have discovered some ways to make […]
Save yourself time this spring with these fun, print and go May Preschool Worksheets. These pages are filled with flowers, bugs and other fun spring themes.
How do you find good FREE teaching resources online? There are hundreds of teaching resources online but how do you separate the good from the bad or the free from the paid? How many times do you see a great teaching worksheet online that reinforces the concept you have just been teaching.. hurray! Then you follow the links and it turns out it's paid after all.. boo hiss! There are several useful ways to check that a product is: a) free b) tried and tested (i.e. is going to be useful) I highly recommend one website for downloading free teaching resources - Teachers Pay Teachers is free to join and there are thousands of free resources. Firstly, go the https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/ and scroll down the page to see the Free resources button. As soon as you do this you will see all the free downloads available right now on TpT (Teachers Pay Teachers) and if you're not familiar with TpT this is where you'll probably get a pleasant surprise at just now many downloads are completely free. Now you can use the search function to search by key words, subjects or grades. But how can you tell if these products are any good I hear you ask? TpT has a great way of letting teachers know what works and what doesn't.. the rating system. A rating of 4 can be given by anybody who downloads the resources and even written feedback can be given. This way you can see clearly how other teachers have used it and if it was useful. When you've downloaded, don't forget to give the seller feedback. A rating of 4 out of 4 means you really enjoyed the free product and will encourage the seller to provide more freebies! Lastly, I know my fellow Aussie teachers (and New Zealanders) are saying 'Yes but TpT is mostly for American teachers, there is nothing much for us!' - WRONG. Over 12 months ago that might have been the case but there are hundreds of Aussie teachers on TpT and their resources are often tightly aligned to the national curriculum for Australia and New Zealand. Just to prove how many fantastic freebies there are I've asked my fellow Aussie and NZ teaching pals to list some of their freebies below in the comments section. You can also find TechTeacherPto3's freebies here.
Be a great social studies teacher with these use-tomorrow, science-backed teaching strategies.
Analyzing writing curriculums, planning writing workshop and teaching writing lessons can be overwhelming. You might think, how am I going to fit everything in and produce successful writers? Where do I start? What skills do they need? This post will share the 7 BASIC WRITING LESSONS that every teacher should teach! With this basic knowledge, students will be able to perform other writing assignments more effectively. The following skills are not only effective in upper elementary, they are often needed at the middle school level for review or the primary level for differentiation. So yes, every teacher should teach them! If you start with these 7 fundamental skills, it will set the expectations for your writing lessons and assignments throughout the year! Frequently Asked Questions What are the basic skills and what order should I teach them? Sentence Structure 1. Complete Sentences Lesson for complete sentences 2. Fragments Lesson for fragments 3. Run-ons Lesson for run-ons Paragraph Writing 4. Topic Sentences Lesson for topic sentences 5. Relevant Details Lesson for relevant details 6. Transition Words Lesson for transition words 7. Closing Sentences Lesson for closing sentences How much time should I dedicate to teaching these fundamental skills? I recommend one day for each skill. If you spend a whole writing block for each skill, students will benefit from the practice. How do I teach each skill? First: Start with an anchor chart explaining the skill. (See each lesson link above for effective anchor charts.) Second: Provide examples. Students can share examples too! Next: Students should take notes. I love using Interactive Writing Notebooks to take notes. Research supports the use of interactive notebooks through studies on multiple intelligences, the brain and note taking. Here are a few videos to Set Up Interactive Writing Notebooks. Click photo for the Upper Elementary Version. A Primary Version is also available. Then: Identify the skill. Provide practice sheets and task cards for students to practice identifying the skill in sentences and paragraphs. Last: Apply the skill. Students should have the opportunity to write their own sentence or paragraph to apply the particular skill. What if I can't fit the lesson in one writing block? If you can't extend the days to complete them, there are other ways to get the whole lesson in. You can put practice sheets or task cards in a center, or you can have students apply the skill for homework or morning work the next day. What if my students, some of my students, or absent students can't do interactive notebooks? Make a small anchor chart to put in their notebooks with the same information! If you don't have a printable poster, take a picture of the anchor chart you used in class and print them off! I hope you found this post helpful and your students become successful writers this year! Connect With Me! TPT Store Facebook Pinterest My Blog
Jumpstart your literary analysis instruction with these engaging and effective activities and mini lessons for middle and high school ELA!
I thought it would be fun to teach my kids about emotions by using these simple and easy Inside Out emotions game, and also making emotion cookies!
Do you want to know the secondary classroom procedure I can't live without??
How do you teach literary analysis? By using strategies that scaffold the process. Try these engaging classroom-tested strategies from Room 213.
Using Animated Shorts to Teach Perspective If you are looking for some high interest activities to enhance your lessons, try using animated shorts to teach reading skills. This post contains the anima
One of my first purchases from TPT was from Amanda Nickerson at One Extra Degree. I have to say, it has been my favorite and most used purchase. (You can check it out by clicking the picture.) Each comprehension strategy is tied to a tool. This is the toolkit I made using Amanda's instructions. (I added the caution boarder. I also labeled each of the tools.) My students loved to use the toolkit. It was great for my visual and tactile learners. I ended the year with synthesizing. We learned this cute poem I found on Pinterest. (The link no longer works. =( So if this is your's, please leave a comment so I can credit you! ) I also recreated the toolman. He's from Scrappin Doodles. The kids helped label and define all the strategies. We read a few poems and charted our synthesizing on this. Then to show what their synthesizing, they read a poem and completed their own graphic organizer. At the end of the week, and after much practice, the students selected their own text. They used this graphic organizer to show their thinking. I have gone back and tweaked it some. I added some anchor chart statements to help the students create "I am thinking" statements. Grab your copy here!
So all this talk about anchor charts really got me thinking about my to do list. Last week I started mapping out what I need to do to meet the curriculum maps for April till the end of the year in ELA. When I do this I make a list of books I need to gather, anchor charts I need to make, and any centers, writing prompts, or work pages I need to create. I decided to tackle the anchor charts first. So far I've only accomplished 1 of 4 that I need to create for April ... But I felt accomplished so I thought I would share it with you and give myself a well deserved break :) I decided that since I was going to share I would give you a quick how to based on my process for creating anchor charts. So here we go! Now, like I said before I just start whipping these bad boys out there is planning to do. The first step is to write down the topics on my first to do list. For April these topics included, finding key events in texts, predicting, writing drafts and revising, and writing summaries using temporal words. And yes folks, that's 1 topic per week - add in spring break that's already one week with 2 topics - OH MY! I decided to tackle predicting first, well, because it seemed the easiest to me. So I moved on to work with my trusty friend Pinterest! That lovely photo of my chicken scratch (not my normal handwriting!) is what my Pinterest research turned into. What I do is search my topic then I write down key words or phrases that I liked from various anchor charts posted on Pinterest by all of you lovelies. I then compile this mess into the anchor chart that you will see below. Now, this may not work for everyone, but this is the process that works for me. Next I sketch out my poster in pencil and then go over in Mr. Sketch markers (MY FAVORITE!!!). Now, here's what the finished masterpiece looks like. I choose two colors that are for key points. Here I chose purple and green. Here I used purple to highlight the topic, predictions, and I used green to highlight the steps and key vocabulary. Then I will go back through and highlight anything else important in yellow - usually sentence frames like here. I try to add as many visual pictures as possible because they help the students remember the steps quickly. If you are interested here is the link to my Pinterest page that contains many anchor charts that I have used to create some of mine. One last bit of information - I would highly suggest purchasing a good art eraser for your anchor charts. I use a Staedtler Mars Plastic one. This helps so that your marker doesn't smudge and there aren't pencil smudges left when you are all done. Hope this was helpful! Enjoy the week!
