I love to have my kids work in small groups…not all the time of course, but often, frequently…okay, almost every day for some task or another. I think it’s so beneficial for kids to learn to work together, to communicate ideas, to problem-solve with one another, that sometimes, the “working together” part is almost as […]

Small groups are crucial in the elementary classroom. Aligning your small group instruction to science of reading principles ensures students will master their reading skills.

Listen to this episode from Shanahan on Literacy on Spotify. Teachers are often told that differentiation in instruction is important and in reading that tends to mean multiple groups of kids being taught different things. Is that a good idea for phonics? Why or Why not? This episode will answer those questions.

In early intervention settings, Structured Play Groups are a perfect, developmentally-appropriate evidence-based practice for autistic stude...

Here are some tips for setting up and effectively running guided reading groups in the primary classroom.

Here are some tips for setting up and effectively running guided reading groups in the primary classroom.

Here are some tips for setting up and effectively running guided reading groups in the primary classroom.

Here are some tips for setting up and effectively running guided reading groups in the primary classroom.

The partner to the Groups poster is this one: Group Roles.  The roles were "borrowed" from the cooperative learning groups information I saw on Pinterest.  Besides printed large scale posters for the classroom, I intend to put the two Groups posters back to back in some Ikea frames I already have.  There would be one…

How can you best plan for successful literacy learning in the classroom? This lesson planner, from Lori Jamison Rog's Struggling Readers, shows you how to use a carefully crafted 3-day lesson cycle to help your students get the most out of the texts they read.

We have previously covered many ideas on using schedules in the classroom including individual, group, and location-based schedules. These a...

Free printable PDF pages of school objects flashcards for teaching kids and ESL learners. These cards feature common things in the classroom.

Need lining-up strategies for your classroom? Here are tips and ideas to make this part of your day organized and, dare we say, enjoyable.

Half-way through the school year is the perfect time to take a step back and evaluate your mid-year classroom management strategies. Use a reset or refresh.

Teach your students to cook Gingerbread Cookies with this fun unit! This unit is a cooking based unit that teaches younger students to understand the basic of a recipe as well as the ingredients used. There are many other activities included in this unit that help reinforce other learning practices such as reading, writing, sequencing, and a fun craft! It is a great hands on activity to get students excited about cooking! This unit includes: - Photo posters (Introduce unit) - How to make it mini book (Reading and coloring) - Recipe card for students to write on (Writing) - Read it worksheet (Reading) - Fill it worksheet (Writing) - Order it worksheet (Organizing the steps) - How to make it worksheets (lined and unlined) - Recipe sequencing pages (Cut and paste) - Ingredient cards (Color and black/white) - My ingredients activity (Identifying ingredients) - Recipe for teacher or parents (full size and half size) - Fun craft (Cut and paste) This unit works well for guided reading, small groups, literacy centers or whole group. The mini book includes 14 pages, each page has two on it so you can save on ink and paper! One page will print two books! This unit is a total of 48 pages! Please be careful before printing! Many pages are available in color for your understanding of how the activity works or if you don't want the students to color the pictures.

Browse over 1,690 educational resources created by Reagan Tunstall in the official Teachers Pay Teachers store.

A presentation by Harriette Knight created with Haiku Deck, free presentation software that is simple, beautiful, and fun.

How can you run or improve your digital book clubs or guided reading groups? Tips & strategies for digital book clubs for distance learning!

Novel studies engage, motivate, and instantly hook students! Offer choice of text if possible, but certainly be able to differentiate the questions for each of your students with this novel study. There are more after-reading questions and activities than students could ever complete - so pick and choose what is most appropriate for each student or guided reading group. Your students will have age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate response to text activities, while administrators will be impressed with your ability to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners! Plus, once you have novel studies or literature circles or book talk groups set, they will last you quite a while - front load the work and then have the time to enjoy reading and working with your students! What's included? With 41 pages of student activities, you have everything you need to turn this novel into a mini unit of study for your students, while differentiating for individual student needs. For each chapter in Family Reminders by Julie Danneberg, there is one page for independent responses or to include in a book club, guided reading group, or literacy circle. This one-pager includes a frayer model-type vocabulary practice and one short response question. We have the RATTS strategy for responding to a short response question checklist added at the bottom of the page, along with a cheat sheet of effective and useful evidence statements, or sentence stems, for answering the questions in writing. ***I also included pages without the RATTS checklist for classrooms that do not use that model. At the end of the download, there are 4 pages of multiple choice questions. This is great additional practice for students, especially for ELA state test prep! There are 4 multiple choice questions on each page, created and based on released state test questions.

I love using games in the classroom but when I first started teaching I didn’t really know how to use them effectively. I knew their value but I don’t think