Paragraph writing is a big challenge for many students. This post includes a step-by-step method to help your students write great paragraphs in no time.

Use engagaing videos to teach the elements of narrative writing. Students can analyze the genre by using short videos as they prepare to write their own.

To teach writing to college students without the 5-paragraph essay is the dream. Here's what I use to show students the complexity of writing without...

My students are always using and referring to different writing tools. I created these individual writing toolkits with lots of free writing resources.

This hands-on family activity gives your child practice creating compound sentences, while teaching him skills that will help him become a better writer!

Unlock the layers of meaning within texts with our versatile SOAPStone Graphic Organizer. Created on Google Slides, this resource offers the perfect blend of digital assignment and traditional printing. It serves as an invaluable tool for students to analyze and interpret texts effectively through the SOAPStone acronym, deciphering Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Significance, and Tone. Key Features: Structured Analysis: The SOAPStone acronym provides a systematic framework for students to follow, guiding them through a comprehensive text analysis. Digital and Printable: Accessible via digital platforms or traditional print, this resource adapts to diverse learning preferences and environments, ensuring accessibility and convenience. Textual Insight: This organizer prompts students to delve deep into texts, fostering a profound understanding of the author's perspective, context, and intent. SOAPStone Breakdown: Speaker: Students will investigate the source's creator, their background, and point of view, considering social status, job, gender, religion, and more, to understand how these factors may affect the source. Occasion: The organizer encourages students to explore the time and place of the source's creation, along with significant events of the era, illuminating the context's impact on the source's meaning. Audience: Students will delve into the intended audience of the source, recognizing how this affects the source's meaning. Purpose: The resource prompts students to analyze the source's purpose, uncovering its intent and objectives. Significance: Students will contemplate why the source is important, considering its broader implications. Tone: The organizer challenges students to discern the author's attitude and emotional sense toward the subject, fostering an understanding of the piece's tone. Why Choose Our SOAPStone Graphic Organizer: Structured Learning: This resource provides a structured framework for students to analyze texts, making it accessible to learners of all levels. Digital and Printable: Designed for both digital and print use, this graphic organizer adapts to various learning environments, enhancing accessibility. Comprehensive Analysis: By guiding students to consider the SOAPStone elements, this organizer fosters a comprehensive understanding of texts and their nuances. Empower your students to become proficient text analysts, uncovering the layers of meaning within documents, speeches, and literary works. The SOAPStone Graphic Organizer is an invaluable tool for promoting critical analysis, interpretation, and deep insight into texts. Elevate your teaching and inspire your students with a resource designed to deepen their text analysis skills and broaden their understanding of complex writings, preparing them for academic excellence. Transform your classroom with the SOAPStone Graphic Organizer from History and Literacy for All! Welcome to History and Literacy for All, your go-to resource for engaging and educational materials designed to enrich the history classroom experience. Our store is dedicated to providing a wide range of resources, including graphic organizers, literacy tools, and history-focused content that empowers both teachers and students. Key Features of Our Shop: Graphic Organizers: Explore our collection of meticulously crafted graphic organizers that are tailored to support students in visualizing and comprehending historical concepts. These visual aids enhance learning and critical thinking in the history classroom. Literacy Enrichment: We understand the importance of literacy in the history classroom. Our materials integrate effective reading and writing strategies, designed to boost students' literacy skills while engaging with historical content. Digital and Printable Resources: Whether you prefer digital teaching tools for a tech-savvy classroom or traditional printables for a hands-on approach, our products are available in both formats. Our Google Slides-compatible materials make online teaching a breeze. Why Choose History and Literacy for All: Our products are created by an experienced educator with a passion for history and literacy in the classroom. We offer an array of resources suitable for various grade levels and teaching styles. Every item in our shop is designed to foster a deep understanding of historical events and inspire a love for learning. Discover how our graphic organizers, literacy tools, and history materials can transform your history classroom. Explore our shop today and equip yourself with the tools you need to engage, educate, and empower your students. Thank you for choosing History and Literacy for All as your trusted resource for history and literacy education. We're committed to helping you make a lasting impact in your classroom.

So you’ve taught your students to write sentences. Now what? In the beginning of my career, we worked HARD on writing sentences. When it came time to take the next step into writing paragraphs, I found this was even harder for my students. We were able to write 2-3 sentences about a topic or picture, ... Read More about How to Scaffold Paragraph Writing for Special Education

It seems like there's a new program, app, or Chrome extension for the classroom popping up every day. If you're looking for a tried and true guide to helpful teacher tech that will make life easier in your classroom, read through this quick post today.

Hi bloggy friends! Here's a quick post with two freebies for you. The first is what I called "Spooky Suffixes." We used these in a literacy center and the kiddos basically played Concentration with the cards. You could easily use the cards to play Suffix Go Fish or just a simple matching game. Spooky Suffixes The next is a graphic organizer that I typed for my students to use with the Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then Summarizing Strategy. I was introduced to this strategy by Kathy Bumgardner (http://kbumreading.com/) six or so years ago and it's the best thing I've found to help my students summarize fiction stories. Some of my students don't need the actual organizer and create their own but others benefit from the help of the premade organizer. Hopefully, some of your kiddos can use it too! Summarizing OrganizerIf you download either document, please leave a quick comment on how you plan to use (or even improve on my idea). I love to hear feedback! Thanks and have a terrific week!

Last week I posted some Common Core English Language Arts ideas. I've come back for more! :) When I get to unit 3, in a few short weeks {according to my district's pacing guide} I should start to teach my kiddos narrative writing. I wanted to see how ready they were so I started it a little bit. I've started to make some things to help them understand the sequence. I also use the who, what, when, where cards I posted about before {here}. We started talking about narrative stories because we were reading them everyday! After we read a book, I would ask what happened in the beginning, middle, and end. When they mastered that, we moved on to first, next, then, last. Then, I told them we are going to write our own narrative! AH! Or perhaps you need these: Oh narrative writing. Why do you hate me? By the end of the year, they should be able to:Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure. *NOTE: I DID A LOT OF MODELING AND SHARED WRITING BEFORE I LET THEM GO OFF AND TRY THEMSELVES!!!! It's all about modeling! For this activity. I just read a book about a haunted house {you can do any topic} and I had my kids pretend they knocked on the door of a haunted house {sorry, I forgot to take pictures}. They drew a picture of what would happen: Then, they took what they drew and wrote one or two sentences {rough draft} to go along with the picture: Finally, they wrote a final draft after I had a mini-conference with them about their rough draft. They will finish up the "writing process" by publishing their work in the classroom! :) My kiddos did ok on this, but we were all exhausted by the end! I get exhausted by narrative writing! What do you do that WORKS for teaching narrative writing? Do you do writers workshop??? Frames by: KPM Doodles Paper Pixels

I love my job. I really, really do! One of the favorite parts about my job is that I get to network with a whole bunch of very talented teachers. I love hearing about and seeing them implement creative strategies to improve student learning. During the past several years, many of our local school districts have focused on improving writing instruction. All of […]

I have so much to share with you about writing interventions, but first things first: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW BLOG DESIGN?!?!? Please share your thoughts! Every year, I meet lots of middle schoolers who struggle with writing. And every year, I play around with lots of different interventions to meet their needs. Last year, I made establishing sound writing interventions one of my big goals. I spent lots of time (and money!!) on resources that I could use, and by about March, I had something that I thought I was pretty happy with. This year, I'm starting off with those interventions that worked so well last year and I couldn't be happier with the results! In fact, I'm so pleased with how they are working, I feel confident enough to share my practice with my blog readers. I can say that these are definitely KID TESTED, TEACHER APPROVED!! Creating a Time and Space for Intervention within your Classroom I teach by myself. There are no aides, special ed teachers, BSI teachers... just little, ol' me! So, when I want to create and manage small groups, I'm on my own. This is hard. It would be so much easier if there was another adult in the room to help, but there is not, so I just have to deal! It's work, but it absolutely can be done! A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Power of Bell-Ringers. Establishing a quiet and smooth transition into writing class is a great way to get started, but it also provides me with a window of time where I can pull a small group! By mid-October, my bell-ringer time gets extended to 15 minutes. The kids get started immediately and are clear on the expectations during this time. Now the environment for working with small groups is set: the room is quiet and engaged, allowing me to focus my time on the handful of kids in my group. I pull my kids to a table that I have set up in front of our classroom library. I have a "teacher station" at one end where I do my instruction. I usually stream some jazz or piano music during this time so my group doesn't distract the rest of the class. Establishing Interventions In my district, by middle school, there are no longer district-mandated interventions in place. There are no clear resources for teachers to use or personnel to help. So, when we have a struggling reader or writer in 7th or 8th grade, it's the job of the classroom teacher to meet their needs. In my tenure of working with middle schoolers, I've found that there are two types of students who need more support than my writing curriculum provides (and please remember... I am not a researcher/specialist/writer of books/etc. I'm just a teacher, like you, who loves my job, tries to do the best by my kids, and is compulsively reflective about what I see happening... to me, teachers are the best EXPERTS, but I know that we are hesitant these days to trust a "lowly" teacher and rather find ourselves relying on big publishers and educational researchers to show us best practices... I don't have lots of "data" to support what I'm sharing with you... just my actual observations I've made while working with real, live kids in an average classroom setting!!). Type One: Students Who Struggle with Structure The first type of students who need intervention are those who struggle with structure. These are the kids that can't organize their thoughts in a way a reader could follow. They simply write whatever their brain thinks at the time. They can generally stick with a broad topic, but because they are just writing whatever pops into their head at the time, there are lots of places where their writing veers off track and becomes confusing. Here is an example written by a former student struggling with structure: My dog Henry is my most special treasure. He is always there for me whenever I need him in sad times and happy. In many ways, he's my best friend. He has brown fur and a white chest. He is such a good dog to have around when you are sad because he always knows just how to cheer you up. His eyes are brown, like a Hersey bar. His favorite toy is a yellow tennis ball. Once he almost got hit by a car chasing the ball down the street. I have loved him ever since he was a puppy and we first got him. I was only 4-years old when that little ball of fluff was brought home by my parents to be best friends. His soft fur is always so smooth and warm when you pet him while watching TV on a cold night. He is my best friend and that is why he is my special treasure [sic]. This student is clear about his topic - his dog, Henry - but he cannot organize his thoughts. He is thinking about his dog and writes down everything he knows about his buddy exactly as it comes to his mind. Clearly, he has mechanical and conventional skills, and you can see evidence of where he is practicing what we learned in our mini-lessons and from studying our mentor pieces. But, because there is no organization, it is too difficult to follow and all of the skills he has are lost to the untrained, teacher-eye. Kids who write like this need an intervention that focuses on structure and organization. Typically, I LOATHE teaching step-by-step process writing, but in cases like this, I'm left with little choice. The lessons that I put together for kids in need of this intervention consist of learning how to write a well-organized paragraph. Together, we will work on writing topic sentences, creating strong and clear supporting sentences, and finish up with writing a closing that sticks with our reader. My favorite plans for this type of writing come from Michael Friermood. His Fact-Based Opinion Writing products are geared toward teaching elementary students (grades 3-5) how to write a good opinion paragraph, and they are PERFECT for my struggling 7th graders. They also lack a lot of the "cutesy" images that you find with products for this age group, so my big kids don't feel like I'm making them do "baby stuff." (I do not use the stationary he provides for the final writing piece... it's adorable, but it would be pushing in with my kids! So, we just do our paragraph writing in our intervention notebooks!) My plan is to pull the intervention group for one week (at 15 minutes a pop, this comes to 1 1/4 hours of learning). Long before I ever pull a group, I work hard to make sure that my lesson is broken down into five succinct 15-minute increments. Since time is so precious, you need to make sure not one minute is wasted! I can say that it takes me much longer to plan for a small-group lesson than a 50-minute whole-class lesson because efficiency is so crucial. The first few times you plan a small-group lesson, don't be surprised if your timing is mess. It definitely takes practice to be an effective small-group instructor! After their week is up, then I send them back to completing the bell-ringer at the start of class. I will watch them closely and conference with them lots to make sure that I am seeing a transfer of skills. If I don't, then it is likely that I will put them back in an intervention group in a few weeks to practice again. This intervention model will continue all year. Right now, I have 8 intervention students in one writing class, and 6 in another. By the end of the year, those number should reduce to 3-4 and 2-3. Never in all my years of working with small groups, have I had 100% of my intervention students "graduate" from small group. Don't be frustrated if this is the case! If you can improve 50-60% of those kids, then consider that a huge success!! Type Two: Students Who Struggle with Motivation The next group of kids that I work with are those who struggle with motivation. These are the students who complain a lot about not having anything to write about, spend more time doodling or coloring in their notebook than writing, and who will write the absolute bare minimum for any writing assignment. Many times, these kids produce too little for me to gauge whether or not they also need help with structure. But typically, once I can get them writing, they will likely find themselves in a small group for structure work :) Come October, after we've spent lots of lots of time list writing, the kids who are still struggling to get their pencils moving find themselves using a very special Interactive Writer's Notebook called "Musings from a Middle Schooler." This product contains loads of interactive writing pages that will motivate even the most reluctant writers. The pages can be printed out and glued into a marble notebook. (Most often, I'll have the kids create their own... I don't always have them use all the pages, rather I let them pick and choose the ones they like!). Cover Table of Contents page Table of Contents cont. and an "All About Me" page "My Life Story in Two Pages" My Favorite Thing Comics I created this project just last school year and it's been an absolute smash! The kids (especially my boys!) LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! In absolutely no time, they are writing like crazy. And once I can get their pencils moving it doesn't take me long to get them producing some actual pieces. I don't necessarily pull these kids and work with them in a small group. The first few days, we will assemble our books all together at the back table, but then they go right back to the big group. Rather than do the bell-ringer with the rest of the class at the start of the period, they will work in their "Musings" notebooks. Fifteen minutes of that is usually enough to get them into writing mode for the rest of class. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * So, that's how I make writing intervention work in my classroom. Phew!! That was long, folks!! I apologize for my wordiness and I am grateful if you stuck it out until the end! Also, I'm sure that I've left out some crucial details of my practice, so please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you still have! Do you have any good intervention tips or strategies that work for you? I'd love to hear about them. Drop me a comment and share! Happy Teaching!!

Hi guys! I have been doing writer's workshop in my classroom for the past year and have been working on perfecting our writing folders. I think I got it right this time! I used offices last year, and while I liked them...they were a bit cumbersome and it did not have folders to actually store our writing in! Take a look: If you're interested in purchasing, there are editable covers and word walls in the packet so you can customize it to suit your students' needs! Check them out HERE.

I’m not a betting girl . . . but if I were, I’d bet that many of you start the year with a unit about paragraph writing. Am I right? I thought so. It’s pretty common to begin your writing instruction with a unit on “how to write a paragraph." Typical lessons include what a

Use these free printable Road Letters to help your child learn the alphabet. Your child can trace letters by driving a toy car on these road letters!

Use these middle school writing lessons to help your students enjoy writing.

It's time to go back to school! With the back-to-school season upon us, it is time to start planning back-to-school activities for the first week of school.

Do you want to transform your reluctant writers into ROCKSTAR WRITERS®? This printable 5TH GRADE WRITING UNITS BUNDLE is filled with our signature STEP-BY-STEP WRITING® lessons with INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOKS. It is a COMPLETE WRITER'S WORKSHOP PROGRAM with all the tools needed for the entire year. You will find simple yet engaging writing mini-lessons for Sentence Writing, Paragraph Writing, Narrative Writing, Opinion Writing, and Informative Writing.

Using music in the secondary classroom is a great way to engage students, so here are some songs to use in ELA, and some ways to use them. (Blog post)

Are you looking for creative ways to incorporate arts integration into your secondary ELA classroom? Read through this quick post for some creative and practical tips to integrate the arts and increase student engagement in your classroom.

When setting up a classroom or homeschool writing center, there are FIVE things that I found useful for writing success. These items provide your students with the necessary tools to get ready to write effectively throughout the year. Below, I've put together 5 essential things every writing center needs!

Do you have elementary students in your homeschool? If so, you will find this FREE Elementary Reading & Writing Bundle so helpful! It’s full of useful homeschool printables for writing and reading assessment as well as reading comprehension. This limited time freebie will end on 4/26 so you will want to be sure to grab the...

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

Reflection is a useful tool in our classrooms, offering students the opportunity to think deeply about their learning. Reflection is also important for teachers, too! Facilitating an end of the year reflection with our students can help us refine our curriculum and our teaching practices. This blog post explores some of the many benefits of end of the year reflection. It will also offer you some end of the year writing prompts and activities that you can use with your students.

Providing writing feedback to students should not overwhelm. With a few clear objectives, writing feedback will make more sense.

Can I be really honest with you? Don't judge me, but I really hated teaching reading, writing and grammar during my first few years of teaching. I dreaded my ELA block every day. I found it boring to teach! I LOVE to read and write, but I felt like my lessons were causing my

Writing lesson plans for the entire year! Complete writing units to help you teach writing in kindergarten and 1st grade.

Need to know how to help students write summaries? These lesson ideas and summarizing ideas and tips for the upper elementary classroom will help you teach summarizing and help your students write summaries as they read.

Happy Saturday everyone! Today, I wanted to share a new writing rubric that I created with my students this week for their personal narrativ...

Today I'm going to to be talking all about setting up a Writer's Notebook, which can be easily implement at the beginning of the year...

Wondering How-to-Use Writing Journals in Kindergarten? Read the tips and get the FREE writing card to get started now!

This Kindergarten Assessments binder has all of the math, ELA, and writing assessments you will need to get you through the ENTIRE YEAR!

Use this idea of giving students a clear explanation of the structure needed for their writing, by sticking a strip of information alongside their work!

I've been a special education teacher for 6 years now. Actually, we're all special education teachers, as my first principal liked to say (and she was right). The thing I always struggled with the most

Are your students disinterested and tired of the traditional ways of learning characterization? Have you been searching for a really fun, student-centered, interactive way to eliminate their boredom? Well, look no further! I present to you a wonderful student-collaboration activity that will get your students involved and excited for a character analysis for any novel, […]

Isn’t writing challenging to teach? I think so too! To help, I worked on incorporating some writing activities into my interactive notebook pages this year, Maybe this freebie will come in handy for you and your students! You can grab this writing freebie from my Second Grade Language Arts Interactive Notebook. It will help your kiddos ... Read More about Interactive Notebook Freebie – Writing

Persuasive or Rhetorical Appeals are the building blocks for persuasive or argumentative essay writing. This complete lesson is designed introduce middle-high school students to the terms ethos, pathos, and logos. Student Experience: Students will step into the world of ethos, pathos, and logos with the mindset that these are the key pieces in argumentation. As you deliver the lecture with the eye-catching, no prep PPT, students will fill in their sketch notes. You will guide them through several models, examples, and then they will complete the guided practice. Next, students will identify the terms you just covered in modern examples and complete in an interactive vocabulary exercise. To further their application and understanding, students will participate in a gallery walk. Finally, the worksheet and quiz provided will provide you with the assessment you need to measure understanding. Included: Lecture in 100% editable PPT and Google format (with ORIGINAL print examples and video links) Sketch Notes for Guided Note taking (not editable due to font and style choices) Guided Practice Interactive, editable sorting activity in print and Google digital format Interactive, no-prep gallery walk for identify and analyzing ethos, pathos, logos with original ads and textual examples along with commercials Practice Worksheet Two editable quizzes Lesson plan and suggestion pacing Graphic organizer students can use with any text for success after the lesson Modern-style Classroom Posters Plus, be sure to check out my Ethos, Pathos, Logos Breakout game, not included in the bundle mentioned above! Ethos, Pathos, Logos Breakout Game Classroom success stories from teachers who have tried this resource: ♥ "Excellent for my 7th graders to grasp the concepts, thank you! Thank you for a concise lesson for these concepts." ♥ "This is the first time I've taught this topic and it was so nice to have this unit - it was a HUGE help!" ♥ "This was an excellent ppt with fun video links my HS students enjoyed. Thank you!" ♥ "I used this with my students before we evaluated texts and various other media for Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. This purchase is very student friendly. Takes away all of the extra explaining for me." ♥ "This seller seeks to create innovative lessons that truly engage learners. I have personally reached out, and she responds with great empathy. This resource is great, and the seller highly recommended!" ♥ "This was a lot better than what I had! Students loved the easy notes sheet, and it has been helpful!" ♥ "For introducing rhetorical devices this was a great pack. I have 9th grade students and need to expose them this year for next year. I found the examples great!" Each of my ELA skills-readiness "How to Teach It" Lesson Packs includes a teacher's guide lesson plan, an easy-to-use PPT lecture explaining the concept, guided practice, opportunity for collaborative and individual practice, and a form of assessment. See my other English standards skills readiness teaching packs, and teach the fundamental skills first for success! Summarizing Close Reading & Annotating Citing Textual Evidence Evaluate Credibility of Websites Propaganda and Logical Fallacies Allusions Setting Affects Plot Theme Development Symbolism Characterization Conflict Affects Plot Author’s Perspective Homophones, Frequently Confused Words Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and product launches. Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to FOLLOW ME. Voila! You will now receive email updates about my store. For more ideas and inspiration: Faulkner's Fast Five Blog Julie's Classroom Stories on Instagram Julie's Classroom Stories on Facebook Teaching Middle and High School English Facebook Group Yearbook and Journalism Facebook Group Pinterest Created 2014-Updated 2019 Terms of Use: Please one classroom use only. Not to be shared online without proper security. Additional licenses sold at a discount at checkout. **Images and art are documented on credits page in download.

When I started at my new school last year, I came into a new reading program. I was used to doing almost all of my reading instruction WHOLE CLASS, but my school uses a guided reading model all the way up to 5th grade. I definitely had to rethink my reading block! I had done centers in the past, but wanted a really clear way to maximize the time and make the transitions clear for the students. Here's how I do my guided reading block! ROTATIONS We have Guided Reading/Centers Monday-Thursday from about 1:10-2:00 and I rotate through four groups. This means each center is 12 minutes long, with about 30 seconds for a transition. 12 minutes can fly by, so the students have to work on getting those transitions DOWN. I found a FANTASTIC resource by my friend Kristen of Chalk & Apples, and it has made centers SO easy. There are tons of different icons that can be easily swapped out on different days or weeks. I change mine up all the time! In a typical week, I do guided reading with leveled passages on Monday and Wednesday, and we do literature circles on Tuesdays and Thursdays. GROUPS My students are grouped according to DRA levels, because that is what my school uses. You might use AR, Lexile, or another measure. I have four groups: Low, Low-Mid, High-Mid, and High. Each group has a number, but I assign the number randomly so it doesn't match up to skill level in any way. I have 24 students in my class this year, so there will be 6 kids in each group. If you have a larger class, you can still make it work by having your higher groups work on their own while you work with a lower group and just check in! GUIDED READING I LOVE this close reading resource from Fifth in the Middle. I bought the entire bundle so I have TONS of options. Each reading comes in four reading levels, but they are on the same topic and look the same so students don't notice. There is also a paired text that I try to use for morning work toward the end of the week. There are several pages of activities for each passage, and I often have the students start these at the table with me after we've read the passage out loud. When it is their turn for guided reading, the students come to me at our back table with a pencil and a highlighter. I give them their sheets for that day and discuss what we will be looking for while we read (unfamiliar words usually) and we begin reading. I like to make sure each child reads, so however I have to break it up to make that happen. After reading through, I ask them to scan through again to find specific information. This changes week to week, so one time it might be looking for transition phrases, and another it might be looking for dates to create a timeline. Then, we talk about what everyone found and work on putting together the information on the worksheet. I, of course, provide a lot more scaffolding and support to my lower readers, while my high readers are able to do the activity on their own. LIT CIRCLES On the days that we have literature circles, the students still come to the back table with me, but this time they bring their lit circle book (which varies) and their lit circle binder. In their binder, they keep all of their jobs and their reading schedule. I have used about a GAZILLION resources for lit circles (including online blogs), but this one from Pocketful of Primary is my absolute FAVORITE: It is SOO easy to adapt to groups of different sizes and I found it very user-friendly for both the kiddos and for myself! I organize the jobs using a hanging file I found on Amazon. You can find it here: THE OTHER CENTERS So what do the kiddos do during their other blocks of time? Here's some options I cycle through: STAPLES: Partner Reading Each student has a partner from their reading group that they meet up with for this activity. I typically use "I Survived" books or similar short chapter books. I stock up through Scholastic! I have 6 shared books for the entire class, and I place a sheet inside the front cover so the students can write their names and where they ended each day they read. I always have new books ready to go for the students who finish. I do this strictly for fluency, so I don't do quizzes or worksheets. Silent Reading (KBAR) In my class, we call silent reading KBAR- Kick Back and Read. When we do a whole class KBAR, I sometimes take it outside. Spelling (Spelling City) I typically use Spelling City for centers, but sometimes do a worksheet instead. Vocabulary (Quizlet)Quizlet is AMAZING. I love using this for vocabulary! The students really enjoy it as well. Keyboarding (KWT) This is a tough one since monitoring the students' finger placement is so important. I don't do this OFTEN as a center, but throw it in now and again. Writing If we are working on a longer project (such as the state report), I have the students use this chunk of time for that. Otherwise, I sometimes provide a prompt or allow them to free write. Here's one of the resources I use: NoRedInk If you've never used this site, CHECK IT OUT! It's one of the best ways to get some extra grammar practice into your day! Be aware that the initial set up takes a bit of time because the students have to select a bunch of their favorites from different categories: books, tv shows, movies. What's neat is the site uses their preferences and their name + their friends' names when building the practice sentences. The kids get a kick out of it! Task Cards (small group) Students work with their reading group and record their answers on individual answer sheets. I have a huge selection of task cards that I keep in one of these bad boys from Michael's: Cursive (Can Do) I love that my school teaches cursive, but in fifth grade, we don't have a lot of specific time for it. To keep the kid's practicing, I assign pages from our cursive book during centers. Reading Comprehension (Reading Plus) We use Reading Plus, but there are many online reading comprehension sites. Use whatever your district provides or what works for your class! Games I will occasionally throw in a review game for the kids to play with their small group. The key is they have to be short and not too loud! Comment below if you have other questions or want to add some advice on running smooth ELA centers with Guided Reading!

Hi Friends! As teachers we have to collect lots of data on our students throughout the year. This data drives our instruction. I work...