Annotation can be a powerful way to improve comprehension and increase engagement, but its effectiveness can vary depending on how it's taught.
Reader's Workshop is an important part of elementary school! Learn how to organize the first week of reader's workshop for year long success!
This blog shares tips for how to successfully implement reading workshop in your primary classroom!
Reader's Workshop is an important part of elementary school! Learn how to organize the first week of reader's workshop for year long success!
What is a reading mini-lesson? Find out the key components of reading mini-lessons and how to get started using them in your classroom. Plus download the FREE planning forms!
Find out all about the Mini-Lesson in the Reading Workshop Model! What? Who? When? Where? Why? Get tips to start implementing TODAY and even a FREEBIE!!
*Teacher of Kindergarten *Sharer of classroom tips and resources *Creator of lessons for the culturally relevant classroom *Lover of all things Home*
Are you wondering the best strategy for introducing readers' notebooks to your students?
So many of the standards that we are required to assess are language standards - can the student speak audibly and clearly? Can our students form complete thoughts? And so on... One way that I promote speaking and listening in my classroom is through using Reader's Theater skits! Stick with me for a few minutes before you think this idea is crazy (and feel free to think it is still crazy at the end of this..but at least get through it!) WHAT: Reader's Theater in my room consists of simple scripts based off of books that children know. The students get a part (usually just a line) and a prop/character (usually a picture they wear as a necklace) and they recite their line. The scripts are retelling the popular story you have read a couple times to your kids! WHO: The kids are the stars! Each play features around 10 students. Each student has 1 line. It makes it quick to get the whole class involved and allows students the chance to participate in a variety of parts! WHERE: You don't need a stage to use Reader's Theater! Just use your carpet space! Go outside! Any space works! WHEN: I start with Reader's Theater at the beginning of the school year (YES, when my kids ARE NOT READING!). Why? The skits are simple enough, come from familiar stories, have a pattern to them, and include visuals to help the students. They can do these the first weeks of school! They are very kindergarten friendly. WHY: Students need practice "presenting" in front of one another. Reader's theater covers so many skills that are fabulous for our little learners: Retelling, Listening Skills, Print Concepts, Reading Behaviors, Characters and Setting, Speaking Skills, Following Directions, Expression and A Love for Reading! HOW: It is simple! Find a book you love! Think about the main ideas and create a simple script. I include a pattern in my scripts as well as images so that all the kids can succeed! Read the book to the kids (I like to spend a day or two on the book) and then spend the next day (or two) implementing reader's theater! If you don't want to spend time creating scripts, check out the ones that I already have made! I Love My Shoes - Based off the popular Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes I Love My Pants - A twist on the popular Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes Pig & Pancake - Based off of the book If You Give a Pig a Pancake Mouse & Cookie - Based off of the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Dog & Donut - Based off the book If You Give a Dog a Donut Moose & Muffin - Based off the book If You Give a Moose a Muffin (You can get all the Mouse & Friend Packs in a BUNDLE here!) The Itsy Bitsy Spider - Based Off of the Nursery Rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock - Based Off of the Nursery Rhyme Humpty Dumpty - Based Off of the Nursery Rhyme Jack and Jill - Based Off of the Nursery Rhyme Hey Diddle, Diddle - Based Off of the Nursery Rhyme Little Miss Muffet - Based Off of the Nursery Rhyme (You can get all the Nursery Rhyme packs in a BUNDLE here!)
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Teacher Truth- I used to despise teaching Writer's Workshop. I understood the structure of the workshop model and the focus of each grading period, however, I didn't really know WHAT to teach each day during my mini-lessons. Fast forward a couple of years, and I had an amazing opportunity to visit an amazing teacher's classroom and observe her in action and I fell in love with her writing instruction! And then the next year, my amazing team and I decided to each tackle one subject and share our plans. I chose writing (even though it still wasn't my favorite) so I could spend more time learning about teaching writing and *hopefully* fall in love. It worked! Now that I LOVE writing, I wanted to share what I currently do to launch Writer's Workshop! I've taken pieces from what I love from different resources to make what works for me and my students. This post is a little peek into my mini-lessons, anchor charts, and mentor texts that I love! I posted them in the order that I usually teach each lesson, however you can change them around to make it work for you and your group of writers! For each lesson I shared an example of an anchor chart! In my classroom, I always prepped the anchor charts with the title and an image first, but added the content WITH my students during the mini-lesson! The books that I have posted are linked to my Amazon affiliate store. If you purchase them through the link, I will receive a small commission! This might just be one of the most important lessons to launch Writer's Workshop because it explains exactly what it is and what students can expect from their teacher and their own expectations. This is always the very first lesson that I teach when beginning Writer's Workshop and I love using the pie chart as a great visual! I begin this mini lesson using the book Arthur Writes a Story to get my little writers thinking about writing! After we complete the large anchor chart together, my students completed their own mini-anchor chart to glue in their writer's notebooks! I love using these mini-anchor charts because my students can reference them at anytime, even if the large anchor chart is not visible in our classroom anymore! After this lesson, I continue to follow this model for our writing instruction each and everyday! The independent writing time is always the most important and longest part of our writing time! For the next mini-lesson, we discuss WHAT writers actually write! Some groups do a great job at brainstorming different types of writing, while others need a little push! This would be a great mini-lesson to bring out different types of writing to show your little writers! Think cookbooks, Christmas cards, printed e-mails, grocery lists, newspapers, magazines, etc. You can put all these items in a basket to have your writers explore independently, or pull them out while you are making your list as a class! After creating a list as a class, students can either create their own list OR they can simply glue in a similar list into their writer's notebooks or folders! This is another important mini-lesson! It really allows your little writers to think about WHY writers write and why they should write! I love using the book Author A True Story by Helen Lester because it is a story from an author's point of view and allows writers to hear why an actual author chose to write! In my experience, sometimes writers have a difficult time determining WHY they write and might need some guidance to brainstorm ideas for the anchor chart! This particular mini-lesson sets up your expectations for HOW students behave during Writer's Workshop. Using the book Ralph Tells a Story, you can show students what not to do during writing time. This really allows them to brainstorm ideas of what they should be doing during writing! I always teach this lesson right after the {What Good Writers Do} lesson because it always focuses on writing behaviors. For this particular lesson, I reference back to Ralph Tells a Story to help my writers determine what writing should look like, sound like, and feel like in our classroom! For this mini-lesson, I always ask my writers what our classroom would look like, sound like, and feel like if one of our administrators walked into our classroom during writing time. Depending on your class and group of writers, you could complete this in one lesson or split it up into three different lessons! This particular mini-lesson discusses the tools that writers need in order to write. I'm going to be honest, if I'm struggling with time this is probably the first lesson that I would cut out because you could also discuss it in the What Good Writers Do mini-lesson. But, this is a good lesson to go over all the tools that your students can use in your classroom and your expectations for using them. Writing journals or folders? Pencils, erasers, pens for editing? Extra graphic organizers, writing pages? Writing prompts? Word wall or personal dictionaries? There are TONS of writing tools for the writers in your classroom! It's really important to talk about your expectations and even discuss with your writers how they should set up their writing journal or folder! It's common for little writers to not able to keep their belongings organized, so this is a great lesson to really focus on that! Using the book The Day the Crayons Quit is a fun book to use for this lesson because you talk about what would happen if you didn't have access to certain writing tools! "Mrs. Dills, I'm done!" If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that statement, I would probably own my own island! I don't know what it is, but at the beginnin writers always think they are completely finished as soon as they finish with one writing piece! This anchor chart stays up in my classroom for a very long time and I reference it A LOT! This book is a great story to read for this mini-lesson because they are SUPER short stories and allows you to discuss how writers could add lots of details to complete their story!. Then, you could discuss what else writers could do when they think they are done! Because of course, they've really just begun! In my first and second grade classroom, it was very common for my writers to freeze when they couldn't spell a word correctly- especially at the beginning of the year! Some would ask how to spell the word and some would just sit there and not write anything else! This mini-lesson really focuses on stretching out their words the best that they can instead of focusing on spelling the word perfectly. For this mini-lesson, I don't read a mentor text but instead I really focus on modeling how to stretch out words by listening for each sound and then writing them down. I go over each step with the students and then model writing my own story using this strategy. There are times that my writers still have a difficult time stretching out words for their writing, so during this lesson I also give them a personal dictionary. I didn't have a word wall in my classroom, but instead each of my students received a personal dictionary to keep in their desks. I like printing this 2 pages to a sheet and allowing them to keep it in a pocket in the back of their writing journals or folder! And FINALLY, it's time to really dig into story writing! I absolutely LOVE hearing from my little story tellers and I really look forward to teaching them HOW to write a story! This can definitely be broken into multiple days if you want to focus on modeling each step! However, it can easily be taught in one lesson! A Squiggly Story is such a fun little book about a little boy that is learning how to express himself, just like your writers as they learn how to write a story! This is another important anchor chart that I refer back to a lot during my writing instruction. A lot of times writers want to skip right to the writing part, but it's important for them to realize that there is a process! This is a great introductory lesson to the writing process for your little learners! I model this a lot in my classroom! This lesson really focuses on allowing students to come up with their own ideas for writing. I teach this after the {How to Write a Story} lesson because then I can really focus in on the first point, which is thinking of an idea! I like to reference the book Ralph Tells a Story again because the character in that book really struggled with thinking of an idea to write. The character in The Best Story has a similar problem, but she figures out that she should write from her heart! After reading the book, we talk about what is in our heart. Then, we talk about maps and their purpose. It would be really great to show students a picture of an actual map during this lesson! Then, I begin creating my own heart map and have students create their heart maps to keep in their writing journals to use throughout the year! Oh my goodness! I always, always, always have writers that get stuck or frozen and just don't know what to do! Stuck is the cutest book about a little boy whose kite gets stuck in a tree and he is determined to get it out! For this mini-lesson, I really like having my students brainstorm ideas for what they can do when they get stuck during writing time! So the anchor chart will look different each year because it really depends on the ideas that the group comes up with! Then, during independent writing time my students get to practice using those ideas if they get stuck! This might be one of my FAVORITE writing mini-lessons, which is crazy because not a lot of writing actually takes place! This mini-lesson shows the importance of illustrations and having them match your words! All of these book options are great because they have very little or no words at all, and students have to look at each illustration to tell the story. For this particular mini-lesson, I did not create an actual anchor chart with the students. Instead, I drew a simple picture and had students tell me what was happening in MY story! Then, my writers had to do the same thing! I had their return to their desks and they drew a detailed illustration. Afterwards, in pairs, students had to look at each other's illustrations and try to explain what was happening just from their drawings. This really helped them see the importance of their illustrations! To introduce the Writing Process, I like reading the book Rocket Writes a Story and discussing each part with my writers. Of course, this is truly just an introduction and students will not go through the entire writing process in one lesson! However, it is good that they have an understanding of each component and are aware of the process as they begin their writing units! I allow my writers to glue this mini-anchor chart into their writing notebooks so they always have a visual reminder of the writing process even if it is not currently displayed in our classroom! After students have an understanding of the writing process, we spend more time on how writers can fix or "fancy" their writing using the book Fancy Nancy! Although we go over editing and revising in a mini-lesson, this is definitely not the last time that my writers are introduced to this concept. I model editing and revising throughout the entire year and they have A LOT of practice working independently, with writing partners, and during writing conferences! For these lesson ideas in one easy FREE document, click here or the images below! For the mini-anchor charts click here or the picture below! For the personal dictionary click here or the picture below! For the FREE writing notebook cover and dividers, get the password to my Resource Library here! Or click on the image below to get the password emailed to you! Send it my way! Powered By ConvertKit For all of the subject covers click here or the image below! For the books click here or the image below for my Amazon Affiliate storefront! How do YOU launch Writer's Workshop in your classroom!? I hope this post gave you some ideas for your classroom! If you want to save these ideas for later, make sure to pin the image below!
I found this Character Book Report Project on Pinterest, It was all kinds of amazing & I knew I had to give it a try! It was created by R...
Love podcasts? Check out this post in the form of a podcast episode on The Classroom Commute Podcast :
Even my students who “don’t have time” for homework spend 2-3 hours a day on Facebook, YouTube, and Netflix. Our students consume media in amazing quantities, and it’s said that traditional advertising doesn’t work on their generation. As advertisers become more and more savvy in an attempt to break through to their younger listeners, it’s important that students understand how to identify the ways in which a speaker could be manipulating their emotions and instincts. Here are some activities for helping students develop an awareness of persuasive techniques. You can use these to start a larger conversation about being an informed viewer (and citizen!) in today’s media-driven climate. 1. Introduction to Rhetoric Use this activity to introduce (or refresh) ethos, logos, and pathos. Students watch two videos and complete a Doodle Notes worksheet, eventually synthesizing the concepts. My students really enjoy watching these short, animated videos a couple of times in order to make sure they “get it”, and the Doodle Notes provide a nice visual to help them remember the important ideas! You can grab them here. 2. “Buy My Pencil” In this activity, students try to convince each other to buy a pencil. They will employ a variety of persuasive techniques, even if they do not yet have the names for all of them. This is because students absorb persuasion constantly, and demonstrate various techniques on a hunch. After a few minutes of letting them try to sell a partner their pencil, call students back together and have them describe the techniques they used. To extend this, you can have students perform these impromptu skits in front of a larger group or in front of the class. This is a great way to get some informal public speaking practice, and I’m always a proponent of making public speaking less intimidating. 3. Introduction to Persuasive Techniques I use this interactive PowerPoint will help students put names to the techniques they’ve grown up hearing and using. Students will be able to identify techniques in context and apply their knowledge of ethos, logos, and pathos. To break up the term-definition monotony, I have students “buzz in” to identify the techniques in some example ads. I also include Think-Pair-Share to get them to generate more examples of various techniques they’ve seen in recent commercials. 4. Persuasive Tweets A fun bellringer or exit slip activity for practicing persuasive techniques is Persuasive Tweets. In 140 characters or less, students can use one persuasive technique to sell something. I’ve had success giving all students one item (similar to “Buy My Pen”) and having them draw a persuasive technique from a hat. You can download my list of persuasive techniques for this activity here. 5. News Literacy Project The News Literacy Project is a new tool that I would like to integrate into my curriculum throughout the year to help students determine the credibility and levels of bias in various news reports. I’m still in the early stages of exploring this project, but they have online modules that take students through the steps of developing media literacy. According to their site, “As students progress through the checkology™ platform, journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, NBC News and other news outlets are joined by experts on the First Amendment and digital media to guide them through each lesson’s core concepts. These e-learning experiences use real-world examples of news and information that test students’ emerging skills and lead them to mastery.” This has huge potential to help our students become informed, discerning citizens! Wow! 6. Commercial Analysis My students really enjoy applying their new knowledge to commercials! This is a perfect activity to use in this post-football time of the year. Students are still talking about commercials aired during the Super Bowl, and you can find a “top ten” list of commercials to bring to class (vetted first by you for content). Have students choose a commercial, and follow this step-by-step analysis of persuasive techniques. They can complete this alone or in pairs, and can present in small groups. For an added bonus, let them show the commercials in class. Persuasive Techniques are a great way to get students engaged and thinking. You can help develop their media literacy and challenge them to consider the incoming messages. 7. Pop Culture Analysis I LOVE implementing short texts, like music, songs, video games, and more. I simply can't stand the hours of research it entails to find the right short text...so, we've done that part for you with a Pop Culture Analysis Bundle that features... 🎵 15 short texts (see the titles below) 📽️ 15 easy-to-implement standards-aligned lesson plans 📺 Options for discussion strategies 🎮 Editing capabilities to personalize & differentiate This resource also includes the first digital escape game of Terminus and a week of Poetry Bell Ringers. Each Pop Culture Analysis lesson plan includes… ✨ Background information on the short text ✨ Any pre-knowledge (if applicable) ✨ An objective to guide their learning ✨ An anticipatory activity ✨ A group analysis ✨ A wrap-up activity ✨ Extension ideas to continue the learning You can learn more about this resource and even find a FREEBIE of one lesson over at this blog post! Check out these great resources by other Coffee Shop authors: Logical Fallacies by The Daring English Teacher Media Literacy/Advertising Activities by Addie Williams Analyzing Music Videos by Stacey Lloyd What are your favorite resources and activities for teaching persuasive techniques? Pin this article for future reference. :)
I had such a great response from my Writing Rubrics Pack a nd a request to make a Reader Response Rubric pack . I'm so excited about this ...
effective strategies for launching reading workshop, what is reading workshop? how do I start reading workshop? strategies for starting reading workshop in upper elementary classroom
Learn how to plan and master your reader's workshop mini lesson so that you can boost readers with solid teaching points.
If you are looking for some high interest teaching activities, try using animated shorts to to teach the reading skill problems and solutions.
Are you looking for decoding strategies to teach your young learners? I am going to share five decoding strategies that are helpful for teaching children to read. These skills and strategies will help your students to attack those unfamiliar words with confidence and ease! Before I dive in, I also shared this information in a […]
I receive a lot of questions about how I run my literacy block. At my school, our schedule is blocked out, but I have freedom to arrange my own blocks (if that makes sense). So my literacy block is 9:40 – 11:15, and this is what I’ve decided to do with it: We start right ... Read More about My Literacy Block
Teaching theme will be engaging for your students with videos! Find the 5 Best Videos for Teaching Theme in your ELA classroom.
Are you classroom teacher looking for engaging ways to teach your students to comprehend stories? Read this post for primary ideas on how to get children to learn to visualize and build reading comprehension.
Do you teach how to write realistic fiction in your first or second grade classroom? See how this first grade teacher has students creating characters,
hold students accountable while they independently read with these easy to implement reading tips and tricks and strategies
If you love the book Enemy Pie, here are some great reading and writing lessons that go great with this story. Enemy Pie is one of my students' favorites.
Today I'm going to share with you how to best use a clean rotation system for a math workshop or ELA centers to maximize your teaching time.
This is week 2 on our Stayin' Alive Unit! We are digging deep into inferring the main idea from non-fiction text! We started by charting main
Today we are going to provide two brand-new strategies for discussing and identifying the main idea. Before we begin, though, let’s get on the same page.
Looking for ideas on how to teach students how to find evidence in reading? Check out the three mini-lesson statements and watch the video to get more ideas on how to find evidence as they read three specific books. Here is a chart with three mini-lesson statements and examples of how to frame your whole
Understanding characters is an essential part of reading comprehension, so today I’m going to share part one in a two part post on how to teach character traits. Watch the Facebook live video about this topic here. (Click here to skip to part two.) Like many lessons, I start with a hook. I ask my students to partner up…
I mean...why WOULDN'T you use cootie catchers in your reading block? It makes perfect sense. Ok - remember last week how I was talking about doing a little spring cleaning with some of my TpT resources? Well, I did a little spring cleaning in my file folders on my computer as well. Yikes. Now THAT'S a bit of a rabbit hole. I got in a little deeper than I wanted to, but I figured I might as well finish the job. I got rid of a lot (a LOT) of cringe worthy products that just didn't make the cut anymore, and I got some major organizing done as well. BUT - you know what I found? THIS >>> It's a reading comprehension cootie catcher that I TOTALLY forgot I made! And since it resurfaced for me - I thought I'd resurface it for you! I'm sure I made it for you guys in the first place, but I can't for the life of me find it anywhere on the blog. There's actually 3 different versions. They have different comprehension questions that can be used with any fictional book. They work great as a quick partner review game. You can download them here! Find any long-lost things in your spring cleaning, lately? Pin and Share this freebie:
Celebrate each young author in your classroom with an end-of-year portfolio presentation and party to showcase all their hard work.
When it’s time to teach my students to summarize, I love to use the Somebody Wanted But So Then (SWBST) strategy. Today I want to share a few tools you can use when teaching this reading strategy.
10 Activities to Increase Reading Fluency for your first grade students. Ideas for small groups instruction and stations.
Are your students struggling with word choice and writing? Use these 8 types of poetry to unleash their creativity and engage readers and writers.
Have you seen this fabulous book? (Click the picture to see it on Amazon!) Wow! What a treasure trove of fabulous ideas to make co...
A third grade teacher's blog with a ton of teaching freebies, advice, lesson plans, and everything else teacher related.
Setting up reader's notebooks can set your students up for reading success. Your students will refer back to the information all year long.
Reader’s theater scripts perfect for supporting Kindergarten learners. These reader’s theaters help Kindergarten students retell their favorite stories and get them excited about reading.
It can be very overwhelming, especially for my struggling readers, to focus on using multiple reading comprehension strategies with a piece of text. For this reason, I always take time in at least the first
