Teach descriptive writing skills with these five writing activities that will allow them to practice "showing not telling."
Goal setting is helpful for students to reflect on their learning. Students can set goals at any point in the year. Setting language goals for ELLs is particularly beneficial at the beginning of the school year, at the beginning of the calendar year, and before beginning WIDA or other language testing. For English Language Learners,
A range of free printable SEN teaching resources used with Autistic pupils aged 4-18, literacy, numeracy, topic and themed resources.
If you have been following our blog, you might have seen our post about our favorite teacher hack, earlier finisher packets! If you missed it, don’t worry, I will sum it up real quick for you. Essentially, despite teaching different grade, Emmy and I realized we were both having the same Issue. Kid
Check out these great ideas to bring some fun winter activities for Spanish in your middle school or high school classroom!
Are you teaching creative writing? Here are some tips and suggestions to help you plan a successful, fun creative writing class.
It's the middle of your writing block and you sidle up to a student to have a writing conference. And it goes great. You feel like you made a difference with that kid. You feel like you accomplished something. But then you start doing the math... "Let's see, I just spent 8 minutes with this student, so at this rate it'll only take me... hmmm... 9,000 years to meet with everyone." It quickly gets overwhelming and you may start wondering, why even bother? Holding one-to-one writing conferences with students is a really effective way to help them grow, but conferences that last 8-10 minutes a pop just aren't sustainable. Even 5-minute writing conferences are tough. So are 4 minute writing conferences. 2 minutes. That's where we want to be. Now, before you start rolling your eyes telling me you'll never get anything out of a two-minute conference, hang on. Let's just for a second assume that you CAN have a meaningful, productive writing conference with a student in two minutes. Okay? If that's the case, what would that allow? If we had two-minute conferences with a class of 30 students, it will only take us four 15-20 minute writing sessions to meet with every student one-to-one. Less than a week to see everybody! That's motivating. Now I need to prove to you that two minutes is enough. That with two minutes, we can scooch a student writer forward. So let's dig into how to have a worthwhile two-minute writing conference. We'll break our time into three sections: Learn, Show, and Push. I want you to keep in mind this isn't meant to be a formula, but I also recognize that it can be really helpful to see exactly how those two minutes might get filled. So let's meet with one of our students, Leroy, and see how a two-minute conference might run. "Hi Leroy." And boom... our two minutes have begun. With the first thirty seconds or so, we LEARN. We check our notes for the focus of recent conferences with Leroy. (We do this quickly, like 5 seconds quick: Okay, I met with Leroy about leads and setting details recently.) We orient ourselves to what Leroy is working on right now in his writing. (We do this quickly, like 5 seconds quick: Okay, Leroy looks to be drafting his personal narrative about losing his gerbil.) We scan a chunk of Leroy's writing, preferably what he's been writing today and/or yesterday, looking for something to focus on with him: We're looking for progress related to the focus of one of our recent conferences. (In Leroy's case, we look at his lead and how he describes the setting. We might also ask Leroy how he's doing with one of these skills.) Do we need to revisit one of these skills? Or, Can we build off one of these skills, either by taking the skill to a more sophisticated level or by choosing a related skill to focus on? We're also open to a glaring need, unrelated to a recent conference, that we think should be a priority to address and therefore trumps the skills we were focusing on before. What if nothing jumps out at us? As a default, we'll use the writing skill/strategy we taught in a recent whole-group minilesson as the focus for this writing conference. With the next sixty seconds or so, we SHOW. This is the meat of the conference: the teaching part, the coaching part, the modeling part. We've chosen something to focus on, so let's do it! With Leroy, let's imagine we noticed him describing his setting, and we think he's ready to take it to the next level. So we're going to first show Leroy what we noticed: "Let's look at this little part you wrote here, Leroy. I see that near the beginning of your piece you wrote two details about the setting, one about being in your house and one about it being a Saturday morning. I can tell you are trying to think about that part of your writing. Then we model something new for Leroy: "So Leroy, when writers are trying to establish their setting, they do what you did: they describe the place and the time. But to really be successful, they use sensory details that really help the reader imagine the setting. For example, I see that most of your narrative so far is taking place in your bedroom. So we could try adding another setting detail that can help the reader picture your bedroom. If it was my bedroom, I might write, "The stench of my dirty socks strewn all over my bedroom floor almost knocked me over." Do you see how that helps the reader put themselves there in my room? What sense did I use with that extra detail? With the last 30 seconds or so, we PUSH. We transition from showing and modeling to giving the student an action step. "So Leroy, think about your own bedroom and how it was on that morning when your story took place. I want you to try adding a sensory detail that will help bring the setting alive for your reader." Now we feel out the student. Dots might be connecting. Or blank stares might be forming. Or anything in between: If Leroy gets started right away, we observe and simply be a sounding board for him. If Leroy struggles to get started, we might make a suggestion or ask a leading question to help him get the ball rolling. "I added a detail involving smell. You could do that too, or think about sounds, feels, or specific sights." If Leroy stares blankly at his writing, not sure what to do, that's okay. He might not be ready to make this jump, or maybe he does understand but this particular situation is just stumping him. Again, we might make a suggestion or ask a leading question. Depending on the student and the situation, we don't necessarily need to stay and continue to watch the student work. We leave the student with a closing push: "As you continue writing, Leroy, and your setting moves, I want you to think about those extra sensory details here and there that you can add, okay?" Our two minutes have ended. We make a quick note about the conference and move on. Here's a little chart that sums up the three parts of our two-minute conference: I highly encourage you to get out your phone, set it on the student's desk, and have the stopwatch running during the conference. It's the only way to really keep the timing a priority. There will be conferences when you think, this student needs more of my time, I can't just whisk along and move on here. I get it, that's understandable. Just remember though, if you do that very often, you're going to be right back where you started in this whole thing. Utilizing this two-minute outline with your students is one key component of a practical and effective system of writing conferences. But what about keeping all the interruptions at bay? And what about other types of interactions like strategy groups and check-ins? And what about the forms on which to keep records? And how does this change the big picture of my writing block? What does a week of independent writing really look like? Don't worry! Head over to my blog where I get deep into ALL of those questions in my post, How to Have Successful Writing Conferences with Student Writers. You can pick up all the forms I use there, too!
When teaching narrative writing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade, there are so many writing skills to cover. They range from creating a sequence of events (beginning, middle, and end) to more difficult
Got a reluctant writer on your hands? Adding some silliness can be a great way to liven things up and increase your child's interest in writing. Try this free, printable writing activity today and get ready to laugh!
FREE Pre-Handwriting Practice Pages
With the Common Core Standards in place, students are being asked more and more to use critical thinking skills to analyze literary and informational text. Inference is a prime example of a critical thinking skill used in classrooms today. Students are asked to read text and analyze it by
Use these kindergarten readiness activities to develop executive functioning skills. Great executive function ideas for adding to kindergarten lesson plans!
Have your ESL students create a one-minute long commercial and present it to the class. This resource is project-based learning for intermediate to advanced ESLs. Students will have a blast collaborating and researching a given destination. ESLs will practice reading, writing, listening and speaking as they share their commercials. This is also a great way to practice using idioms. What do you get? Teacher Directions Teacher Notes Project Introduction Project Requirements Sample Script Research Notes Handout Destinations (with a few blank ones so you can add your own if you'd like!) Rubric ESL teachers: This is the perfect lesson plan for when you're out. Print it off and it is READY-TO-GO for a substitute. See preview for product in its entirety. Everything you need is right here. Tip: Keep students engaged and practice listening by having them write down two facts from each of their peers' presentations. Bonus points for any idioms they hear and jot down! ***This resource is included in ESL Project Based Learning BUNDLE.*** Like this resource? Leave feedback and earn credit on future purchases!
Ready to create learning stations? They require a purposeful and strategic design in order for the experience to be meaningful. Start here!
A list of five no-prep Halloween activities and mini-units for busy teachers. Use these ideas in your upper elementary classroom around Halloween time!
Check out Narrative Writing Prompts & Worksheets for kindergarten-4th grade! There is a variety of prompts & worksheets to use in your room!
Are you ready to create a life that makes more room for what you love? Check out these tips on how to live like a writer.
This is a guest post written by Barbara Dewey of Waldorf Without Walls in which she describes learning to read the Waldorf way.
Learn about the benefits of monthly writing prompts for kids. This article gives examples for each month as well as a free writing calendar.
Use these free writing journals with your kindergarten students. Comes with front cover, back cover to explain writing process, and scaffolded, lined paper.
Get organized with a daily and weekly ELA plan so that you feel confident and prepared. Planning the structure of a class period varies by unit. Start here!
If you have been following our blog, you might have seen our post about our favorite teacher hack, earlier finisher packets! If you missed it, don’t worry, I will sum it up real quick for you. Essentially, despite teaching different grade, Emmy and I realized we were both having the same Issue. Kid
How does a visual processing disorder affect your child? Get some answers to your questions here!
How to writing is one of my favorite writing units to teach. My students just get it and they enjoy writing many, many pieces! Maybe it’s because my students think they know how to do everyyyytthiinngggg. 😉 If your students are like mine, let them run with the idea that they know it ALL and have […]
Here are some tips and strategies on how to teach reading fluency in your homeschool or in your classroom literacy centers.
How to set up and organize a writing center in your pre-k, preschool, or kindergarten classroom. See pictures of my writing center and material suggestions.
Teaching writing can be a stressor for a lot of primary teachers! Engaging Writing is a HUGE help! Simple, effective and quick meaningful writing lessons!
1st Grade English Worksheets are a great way to get your little ones off to a great start in reading. Worksheets are fun and perfect for little learners. We have all kinds of fun themes to keep them interested. Help them with reading comprehension, spelling, word sounds and more. Print all all of our worksheets […]
I can't believe this school year is almost over! I have only 5 days of school left, Friday is our last day. I will miss my kiddos dearly but am super excited to start my summer vacation. Next school year will bring so many changes for me~~new partner teacher (SUPER excited!!), best friend coming back to teach at my school (YAHOO!!), my baby girl is starting 8th grade at another school (BOO HOO!), and 3rd grade will switch classes next year (SCARED!!)!! I will need the summer to get ready for my 27+ new students next year. I love planning over the summer and will need this summer to prepare for switching classes. Switching won't be so bad, I will teach religion to 2 classes. I am really happy about not teaching science and social studies too!! I always have a hard time fitting these 2 subjects in on a daily basis. My students have been really busy these last 2 weeks doing my favorite all-time writing assignment~~~My Favorite Summer Vacation! I just love this writing and really LOVE how the finished essays turn out. Check them out below. You can click (HERE) to download the sunglasses template. You need to make 2 copies and tape them together. See below!! This year I decided to give out Candy Awards. I literally ran all over town looking for each type of candy. I even had my honey helping me (He was so cute going from store to store!)! I had the hardest time finding Lifesavers (Who would believe that?!). You can download your own set of Candy Awards from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits. I found these awards during the summer and have been saving them all year. Check them out below! I can't wait to share them with my students tomorrow!!! Here is just a taste of what the awards look like! They are precious!!!! Here is a fun project I did with my class last week. I found this idea on Pinterest and just HAD to try it with my class! Look at the pictures below and try to see the shape! I am in LOVE with this!!
Teaching writing workshop at the middle school level can be an extraordinarily satisfying experience: middle schoolers are ready and willing to think deeply about issues, they understand more, they…
Vocabulary folders are a convenient way to organize vocabulary pages. I used illustrated vocabulary sheets to help my English Language Learners speak and write about new vocabulary. They are also helpful for younger students with spelling. Some primary classroom teachers I supported had a set of these folders on student tables or in a writing
The end of the school year is such a busy time, isn't it? I know most of you probably feel like me... worn out by testing and ready for summer but still looking at a to-do list a mile long! Add to that student behavior that is, well, less than stellar. Ugh! I've been finding reading centers to be particularly hard lately. These third graders have nothing on their minds except socializing and acting like the fourth graders they haven't quite become yet. So I took the drastic measure of canceling reading centers. That's right... I canceled them. No more centers! So, what are these children doing for an hour every day? Research and writing. Wow, that sound boring... zzzzz. But check out some of their finished work and you tell me, does this look boring? These are the students' self-published "Time For Kids" magazines. After using TFK in our guided reading groups for awhile, I decided to use them as a way to get the kids writing. First, we brainstormed ideas for topics and created a "topic menu". They came up with things like the San Francisco earthquake, the Titanic, Pompeii, the New York Yankees, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Apollo Space Mission. They were all VERY excited to contribute to the menu. Then we closely analyzed TFK to figure out what makes them so interesting. The kids noticed that the paragraphs were short with text features to go with them. They noted that there were a lot of very interesting facts and that each section had its own heading. They pointed out the colorful illustrations and interactive features like links to videos. We decided it would be a good idea to use index cards for each paragraph or sub-topic. Next, we talked about how to conduct research including how to paraphrase, how to cite your source (which we've been working on for awhile), and how to take notes. I also made a list of acceptable websites that they could access on the computer or ipads. Finally, they were ready to go and boy, did they dive right in! Most of them chose to partner up for their first topic. They spent several days researching with some of them asking to visit the media center to find even more information. During reading groups, I looked over what they had done so far and offered guidance as needed. Some things they had trouble with at first were writing good headings for each paragraph and forgetting topic sentences. After our first round of TFK publishing, the kids decided they wanted to do more, so they all chose a new topic! Some decided to work on their own because they were excited to research something specific. It was great seeing them so absorbed in their writing. Most of them spent a full week doing research and another week writing, illustrating, and editing. Their hard work really paid off! Take a look at some of these finished pieces... Now that the school year is coming to an end, I wish we had more time for projects like these. But hey, I'm still ready for summer to start! Don't forget to check out TpT's big Teacher Appreciation Sale starting tonight at midnight!
Are you ready to start using a writing workshop in your class? Here are some tips to getting started, organizing lessons, and managing a workshop effectively.
Make the most of your writing block with these funny picture prompts! Go here:
Καλησπέρα σε όλους και σε όλες... Βρήκα επιτέλους την ευκαιρία να σας δείξω τους δικούς μας χαρταετούς...Δεν τους είχαμε στο πρόγραμμα αλλά δεν γινόταν να φύγουν τα παιδιά για Καθαρά Δευτέρα χωρίς τον μικρό τους χαρταερτό... Κατασκευή εύκολη ακόμα και για μικρές ηλικίες όπως τη δική μας,με την τεχνική της χαρτοκολλητικής.... Οι κυρίες βάλανε κορδονάκι και φιογκάκια και έτοιμοι οι πολύχρωμοι χαρταετοί μας.... Όμορφες χρωμοσελίδες... Φύλλα εργασίας από το διαδίκτυο... Από την Ανθή Ζήση... Από την Τάνια Μάνεση... Από το Los Ninos... Όμορφοι χαρταετοί συναδέλφων... πηγή:Κατερίνα Παπαευθυμίου... πηγή: Έφη Μπακή... πηγή: Μαρία Γιαννίκη πηγή:Αγαθή Παπαθανάση... πηγή: κλικ εδώ... Για περισσότερο υλικό επισκεφθείτε τη συλλογή μου στο pinterest κάνοντας κλικ στην παρακάτω εικόνα... Ακολουθήστε τον πίνακα kites-χαρταετοί του Fay στο Pinterest.
Worried about your child's Kindergarten readiness? Download this free 13 page Kindergarten Assessment to see where your child stands!
LEARN TO WRITE YOUR NAME It is so exciting when children become curious about how to write their name. I believe teaching them to write their name should be the first word they learn how to spell . It is personal, concrete and helps them realize that putting letters together in writing has me
