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
A good teacher should try to say as much as possible in a lesson to give as much information as possible… right? WRONG! In this article we will look at why limiting teacher talk time in a class is a…
Get your students back into writing with these awesome August Writing Prompts!! Great opinion ideas, fictional narratives, and relatable informative topics.
Musical key characteristics are something that are never talked about for some odd reason. It's not like professional songwriters choose a random key...
Are you looking for Writing lesson or bulletin board ideas? These no prep writing crafts are ideal for your literacy lessons!
Ready to rock teaching beginning of year writing in first grade? These early days of writing instruction must be targeted and on point. Click to learn more.
Have you been struggling to find a way to engage your students in writing activities? I was too until I found these daily writing journals!
Today I'm sharing one of my favourite tasks for building community in the classroom. Students are able to share an important aspect of themselves (the story of their name) with the class and with me, their teacher. Through this task we are also working on important skills, like reading comprehension, writing, and reflection. Day 1 To begin, I asked my students to write any name they wish they had on a sticky note. They then placed it in a mason jar. I read my class the story "The Name Jar" by Yansook Choi. We stopped at several points in the story to predict, make connections, infer, and ask questions. At one point, we paused in the story so that students could journal about the name they wrote down on the sticky note earlier: - Did they choose their own name? Or another? - Why? - If you chose another name, where did you hear that name before? Day 2 At the end of Day 1, students were given homework. (Stick around to the bottom of this post for a chance to get your own copy of this sheet.) I make it very clear, that while names all have meanings, your family may not have chosen your name for that reason. They might not know the meaning, and you can choose to look it up with your family if you wish. I also focus a lot on nicknames and your own feelings about your name. While I've never taught a student in foster care, or one who was adopted, I do think it's important to mention that this could be a touchy task in those situations, so be sure to know your students first, and modify as needed. Students use the homework task, and the journal write from the previous day, to write "The Story of their Name". Some possible options to include are: - who you are named after - the meaning of your name - a name you'd rather have - your feelings toward your name - nicknames you may have - the person (or people) who chose your name - how your name was chosen This piece of writing is then self, peer, and teacher edited, and a "good" copy is made. Day 3 I found this excellent step-by-step self-portrait from "Art Projects for Kids". I modified the task so that instead of drawing the left or right side of their face, they would draw the top half. Students find that folding their page into quadrants as she suggests is very helpful. Under the document camera I demonstrate each step, and students copy, adapting to their own facial features. Each student gets a mirror to look in to help them personalize. The final pieces are put on a bulletin board for display. Students also coloured in a bubble letter version of their names to complete the display. (I used the font KG Red Hands Outline for this.) Day 4 Once we've completed the task, the last job is to reflect on our work. I pulled some elements from our Arts Education curriculum (very relevant regardless of where you teach) for students to self-assess on. I've used the proficiency scale language our school has moved to for all reporting. A few students found it helpful to complete their reflection while looking at the finished product on their bulletin board, but most didn't need this. Want a copy of both my homework and reflection pages? Follow the image or button below to grab your copy. Take Me to the Free Download Pin this post.
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
We loved making this brain hat (UPDATE: if that link won't work for you, try this : Go to the link here: https://ellenjmchenry.com/ and...
I've previously written about the Developmental Stage of Drawing as I find these stages in development endlessly fascinating. I recently discovered the Developmental Stage of Writing. I love this chart below as it isn't about what age your child is, but rather where your child is developmentally. It can help us understand where our child is at and what stage they are going into. Source: First seen at Destination Kindergarten, also available at West Hartford Public Schools. My child has just turned four (48 months) and is Pre-Literate. He is in the Symbolic/Mock Letters stage but is also close to...
Conference talks and Ensign articles are a good start for your sacrament meeting talk, but when you're stuck, you might need a little something more to make your words more engaging, spiritual, and memorable.
This worksheet contains 18 conversation cards and an individual interview task. The cards can be cut out if desired and be used as conversation questions. Can be used with both young learners and adults (elementary to intermediate). Very useful with new classes/students to get to know each other. - ESL worksheets
Inspiring TED talks for songwriters from legendary songwriters and performers. Press play and get inspired to write your next amazing song. SongFancy gives songwriting tips and inspiration for the contemporary songwriter.
Check out these 5 ESL Speaking Activities that can be adapted for different grade and proficiency levels to get your English learners talking
You’re welcome! Here are 15 TED talks for the classroom that are sure to prompt discussion, writing, and reflection...
Looking for esl task cards to use with your english language learners? Try these picture cards that are perfect for quick and effective language practice!
I’ve been spending some serious amounts of time this summer leading conversations around the country focused on the integration of social studies and literacy. And for the last few years, I…
There's no excuse not to blog - I am sitting at home on a snow day :) I was called with the cancellation yesterday just before 5:00...it was so nice to know early! I've been thinking about what I could share on this blog, and pondering what has really worked in my ELA classroom. I realized after my students took their first "Common Assessment" test created by the district that I could not just tell them to "write a complete short answer". I had to teach them how to do it by breaking down each step and setting expectations. This is not my original idea, but if I've learned anything as a first-year teacher it's to not reinvent the wheel! The acronym, RACE, stands for each part of a complete constructed response. There are a few versions out there, but I like this one best: R - restate the answer A - answer all parts of the question C - cite evidence E - explain how your evidence supports your answer. We've practiced this by writing responses to whole-class texts, stand-alone prompts, and even questions like "what was the best part of your weekend?" Of course, the "citing" would have to be examples from the weekend instead of text evidence. Now that my students know how to use the RACE response, I can just say "don't forget the RACE method!" when we are taking a test :) I have seen such an improvement in their responses from the beginning of the year.It makes me so happy to see my students scrawl "RACE" at the top of their answer page, or even to see them planning out their response with each letter before they write it. There are a few products I've used for this that have been really successful: These strategy cards are great for responding to any prompt! Each part of the response is broken down for the students. I think this would be great to use when you are first introducing this strategy. Here is a free writing response that has students responding to a Henry Ford quote using the RACE method. We did this activity shortly after I introduced the acronym. Here is a great explanation of the strategy (complete with a rubric) from Mrs. Sol's classroom. I love this resource for the visual of setting up a notebook page! Oh, and I've had a few students tell me that they've used this short-answer method in other classes, too! Yay for cross-curricular connections! Because I love things to match, I've created a version that you can use in your own classroom to match some of the neon chalkboard items I've made. Click on the picture to get this FREE download at my TpT store. Do you use a constructed-response format in your classroom?
They're instantly recognizable — mostly for their color. We're talking about yellow legal pads. So who decided they'd be yellow, anyway?
If you are unable to integrate Halloween spookiness into your curriculum, think beyond the ghosts and ghouls! My recent post on wombats and the many comments and emails I received about how utterly fabulous wombats are, got me thinking. There are so many wonderful wombat stories, and one of my favourites is 'Wombat Stew' by Marcia K. Vaughan. Wombat Stew Wombat Stew is the story of a dingo who captures a nice fat wombat, with plans to cook him up in a stew. Various other Australian bush animals happen by and offer Dingo suggestions as to what he should put in his stew before adding the Wombat. Dingo follows their advice, adding all sorts of weird and wonderful bush ingredients. In the end, Dingo is encouraged to give the stew a taste test, and let's just say that our lovely plump wombat friend is saved! The text has a lovely, captivating rhythm and the illustrations are very entertaining. A Non-Spooky Halloween Alternative The billy can that is used to make the stew, looks a lot like a cauldron! It would be great to read to your class in the lead up to Halloween along with, or instead of stories of witches, spells and cauldrons. Meg's Cauldron is one you find find appropriate for kindergarten. After reading Wombat Stew, you could possibly follow it up with a writing lesson on procedural texts. Talk with your class about the purpose of procedural texts and the organisational features of them. Procedural Text Project My daughter and I jointly constructed part of a procedure for Wombat Stew (see photo above). We just did the first half - 'what you need' part. In the classroom, I might have done the what to do part as well. We cut a simple billy (cauldron) from black paper, and a worried looking wombat from brown paper. I then helped her recall the text and find the ingredients that were needed to make wombat stew and wrote each of a different piece of coloured paper. Making an enlarged version of the procedure will help students to understand the organisational features of the text type. You can have it in your classroom to not only talk about and discuss, but as a decorative display. Here is a writing worksheet that you may like to use in conjunction with Wombat Stew or another story in the upcoming weeks. Your students can decide what they will make in their cauldron and list the ingredients they will need. I'd love to share it with you from Google Drive: Wombat Stew Writing Page
This is a writing activity for novice Spanish students who have learned to talk about who they are. The concepts covered are description, age, likes and dislikes, and origin. The activity guides students to write about themselves in detail. In addition there is a peer feedback form so that students...
If you have an extra-chatty class, check out this post with tips for how to get your students to stop talking in just one week!
Today I'm sharing one of my favourite tasks for building community in the classroom. Students are able to share an important aspect of themselves (the story of their name) with the class and with me, their teacher. Through this task we are also working on important skills, like reading comprehension, writing, and reflection. Day 1 To begin, I asked my students to write any name they wish they had on a sticky note. They then placed it in a mason jar. I read my class the story "The Name Jar" by Yansook Choi. We stopped at several points in the story to predict, make connections, infer, and ask questions. At one point, we paused in the story so that students could journal about the name they wrote down on the sticky note earlier: - Did they choose their own name? Or another? - Why? - If you chose another name, where did you hear that name before? Day 2 At the end of Day 1, students were given homework. (Stick around to the bottom of this post for a chance to get your own copy of this sheet.) I make it very clear, that while names all have meanings, your family may not have chosen your name for that reason. They might not know the meaning, and you can choose to look it up with your family if you wish. I also focus a lot on nicknames and your own feelings about your name. While I've never taught a student in foster care, or one who was adopted, I do think it's important to mention that this could be a touchy task in those situations, so be sure to know your students first, and modify as needed. Students use the homework task, and the journal write from the previous day, to write "The Story of their Name". Some possible options to include are: - who you are named after - the meaning of your name - a name you'd rather have - your feelings toward your name - nicknames you may have - the person (or people) who chose your name - how your name was chosen This piece of writing is then self, peer, and teacher edited, and a "good" copy is made. Day 3 I found this excellent step-by-step self-portrait from "Art Projects for Kids". I modified the task so that instead of drawing the left or right side of their face, they would draw the top half. Students find that folding their page into quadrants as she suggests is very helpful. Under the document camera I demonstrate each step, and students copy, adapting to their own facial features. Each student gets a mirror to look in to help them personalize. The final pieces are put on a bulletin board for display. Students also coloured in a bubble letter version of their names to complete the display. (I used the font KG Red Hands Outline for this.) Day 4 Once we've completed the task, the last job is to reflect on our work. I pulled some elements from our Arts Education curriculum (very relevant regardless of where you teach) for students to self-assess on. I've used the proficiency scale language our school has moved to for all reporting. A few students found it helpful to complete their reflection while looking at the finished product on their bulletin board, but most didn't need this. Want a copy of both my homework and reflection pages? Follow the image or button below to grab your copy. Take Me to the Free Download Pin this post.
Preparing students for testing means preparing them for how to study. In this post, I share how students use RACES to compose constructed responses.
Fine Motor is so important in an Early Childhood classroom. Strong Fine motor skills help to strengthen those little finger muscles needed for writing stamina. Students without writing stamina will write less then their peers, not because they do not have the ideas, but because they will fatigue before they can write their ideas. They ... Read More about Fine Motor Tips and Tricks
Teaching patience from the beginning of the school year is so important! I have found that when my students are patient through the day, we accomplish so much more. To introduce the concept of patience, we complete this fun Patience Character Education Lapbook together! We begin by completing a KWL chart on our character wall about what we Know and what we Want to learn. Then, I send my students to their seats to color, cut, and paste their lapbook cover. At the end of our patience lessons, we will add what we Learned to our KWL chart.
It's Saturday, so it's time to link up with my BBB Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation! The weeks leading up to spring break were absolutely horrible with chattiness -- talk, talk, talk. I'm talking about the kind of talk when there shouldn't be talk. I know the kids were excited -- I was excited -- be we still had some learning to do! So I came up with this very simple, yet powerful, way to control all of the talking. I call it Beat the Teacher. It basically is a game of you versus the students, and who doesn't love a little friendly competition? The way it works is that when I need the class to quiet down, I start counting backwards from five: 5-4-3-2-1. Sometimes the count is quiet, sometimes loud. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes very slow. Either way, the students have to be listening... If I get to "1" and there is even one student talking, I get the tally point. If the entire class is quiet, they get the point. It is awesome to watch the students try to quiet each other down. Points accumulate through the day (or week) As you can see from our score above, I lost this day. :) (But did I really???) The prize is simply bragging rights....Or it could be a simple class incentive (brain break? extra 5 minutes of recess?) Either way, we are all winners! Before I go, I wanted to make sure that you knew about a wonderful fundraiser going on over at Tori's Teacher Tips. The blogger community has an amazing way of supporting one another, and Tori could definitely use our help right now. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the motivational ideas over at Joanne's blog. I hope to see you there! I also hope to see you back here tomorrow for my Sunday linky party, A Peek at My Week, and/or onThursday for Positive Thinking Thursday. Happy Saturday!!
