Increasing research suggests that to connect words with purpose, it helps to directly work with the hands; the connection between our hands and our words is a very old one. In his book The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture, neurologist Frank Wilson argues that the evolution of our hands shaped the evolution of our brains, not the other way around. And this perspective is particularly critical for language development.
Fill in the blank: "If I just had ten extra minutes in my literacy block, I would ." Here are your choices: A. not feel like I had to rush through everything. B. be able to meet with the groups I was actually planning to meet with. C. finally be able to fit in a brain break. D. not always feel like we were playing catch up. E. all of the above F. twiddle my thumbs.
If your answer is F, you may want to x-out of this post. Go ahead. The rest of us will wait. If your answer is A, B, C, or D, come on and saddle up. And if your answer is E, you may want to grab an extra cup of coffee. And a notepad. And a pen. Because we are goin
Let me be your sounding board as you continue thinking about setting up your literacy schedule, and I'll help you stave off the headache from too-much-to-think-about-at-once. So grab a blank sheet of paper this free planning template and a pencil and let's get started!
Master writers, otherwise known as authors of living books, are my go to resources for teaching excellent writing practices and styles. And, often, I use picture books by master writers to demonstrate particular writing strategies because they make for quick and clear mini-lessons.
Today, I’m sharing several picture books I use when teaching my children to write persuasively. Whether the end goal is a persuasive essay, a speech, an editorial, or even an advertisement, these books can point my big kids in the right direction of writing persuasively.
Sometimes, when you assign students a writing task, they immediately balk. For students, writing assignments can be overwhelming – there are so many components for them to keep track of that they often don’t even know how to start. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Technology makes it easier than ever for students to work through the writing process and to know what they need to do and how to stay organized along the way.
Here are some tips for supporting students through the writing process:
Google makes your life as a teacher easier every single day, and it can make reading more fun for students. Using integrated 3rd party apps along with native tools like Google Sheets and Google Classroom, students will be excited to read more, talk about they’re favorite books, and work on collaborative, reading-based assignments.
1. Suppose you had invented a time machine. Write a story about what you did with it. 2. Write to tell of a day when you were the teacher. What did you do? 3. Write a story about trading places with your favorite TV, movie, or rock star. 4. One day…
Supporting students in the writing process involves explicit instruction, modeling and utilizing resources to support their development. Sharing high-quality, digital resources with students will increase accessibility and independence in all student writers. Writers, professionals, and adults use digital and non-digital resources to improve their writing, so why wouldn't we provide the same experience and guidance to our own students?…
This is a partial reprint from Writers Digest 7 Simple Ways to Make a Good Story Great Here are seven ways successful authors make their stories crackle with authority and get the gatekeepers on their side. These techniques will work on any kind of fiction: literary, romance, mystery, sci-fi, you name it. What’s more, you…
Reading comprehension is one of the most complex skills to teach. It’s also arguably the most important. Students will only succeed in other subject areas (and make it a lifelong habit to read for pleasure) if they understand what they are reading on an ingrained level. Many factors go into the development of reading comprehension, including building an extensive vocabulary, asking questions, making connections and visualization.
Below, you’ll find 21 anchor charts that tackle some of the trickiest parts of teaching comprehension. Use them as models for your own teaching and pass them along to a teacher friend!
One of the most important times in my classroom is our read aloud time. It is known to my students as a non-negotiable time. It’s a time to summon your alter ego and get lost in the story. It’s a time for students to find a comfortable spot in our classroom. It’s a time to celebrate the written word by demonstrating passion, admiration, and respect for it. Reading aloud is a lost art in many schools, and it’s time to resurrect this sacred time.
"When Kip Glazer taught English at Kern High School last year, she wanted to reimagine the traditional way of teaching “Fahrenheit 451” by turning the experience of developing English literacy skills into a game. She broke up elements within the book into game components: imagine a game board depicting various scenes (Guy Montag’s house, the fire station, the old woman’s house), characters within that book (Montag, Clarisse McClellan, Mildred Montag, Faber, etc.) and the things with which they interact (books, television screens, fire, medication). Then Glazer introduces new situations and characters, charging students to use the gamified book elements to create new narratives.
When the story’s elements are liberated from a linear text, students are able to apply their creativity and critical thinking skills to manipulate the story based on a deep understanding of the book. And, as with any game modification, students must understand the existing story thoroughly before they can start playing its elements."
We need structure to give us a big picture view and so our students know what to expect, but we also need flexibility to allow us to be responsive and to make changes without causing a flood of other problems.
For a long, long time, tracking the progress of my readers felt like a ride on a huge swinging pendulum. I was always looking for a method that would work for me, yet I always settled on something either too complicated and fussy, or too open-ended and random, or just plain meaningless, all of which created this Bermuda Triangle of short-lived attempts at tracking my students as readers. Where I write from today is where I landed after finally sliding my way off the pendulum, somewhere (I hope) near the middle of its swinging arc.
Close reading is a hot topic that’s just getting hotter! Here are 21 anchor charts, bulletin board ideas and other resources that you can bring into your classroom to turn your readers into even closer readers.
It’s important for kids to read not only to develop their literacy skills, but to enhance their growing vocabulary, be exposed to different ideas, and develop their own learning. After all, how can a student read the social studies chapter if she refuses to practice her reading skills in general? The question surfaced on the We Are Teachers Helpline this week, and it turns out that Anna is far from alone with this issue. Here are some of the advice that teachers from all over the world offered to their colleagues on dealing with the question of: How can I cultivate a love of reading in my students?
Reading is one of the most important things we can do with students. Make sure that you are finding time during your day to read to and with students. Try these activities to ensure that reading is happening for your students every day.
The release of the Oscar-winning film Inside Out last year prompted many Mighty Girls and their parents to start thinking more about feelings: what feelings they have, how they interact, and how to manage them in positive ways. Whether you have a preschooler struggling to name how she feels, a tween wrestling with newly complex emotions, or a teenager who needs to find ways to incorporate her emotional life into adult decision-making, parents can do a lot to help kids navigate their emotional world. But sometimes, it’s hard to know where to begin. Fortunately, there are some great books out there to help parents and kids learn about their feelings — and how to express them appropriately. In this blog, we’re sharing some of our favorite books that help kids name, tame, and manage their emotions. These books for toddlers to teens are funny, poignant, and heartfelt, but most importantly, reassuring that no matter what you’re feeling, you can come out the other side.
You can never really have enough writing prompts, right? Enjoy! Imagine you had a hundred dollars, but you couldn't keep it. You had to give it away to a person or charity. Who would you give it to? Why? Imagine you woke up and saw a dinosaur in your backyard. Should you keep it or…
Earlier this summer, NPR's Backseat Book Club — our book club for young readers — asked you to weigh in on your favorite books for kids age 9-14. We heard from more than 2,000 of you, and our expert panel has whittled your hundreds and hundreds of nominations down to a list of 100 great reads.
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