The Blog
Tips for Teaching Narrative Writing in Upper Elementary
Narrative writing is my favorite unit to teach with upper elementary students because it’s a chance for students’ creativity to really shine! Every year, I get to read some truly great stories from my students. While I love that my…
How to Teach Descriptive Writing in Upper Elementary
If you’ve ever read your elementary students’ writing and felt that something was missing, it’s possible that your students are lacking descriptive writing! Before we teach descriptive writing to students, stories often feel flat and bare. But with the help…
3 Tips for Teaching Synthesis
During a planning session one day, I was reviewing the standards for my upcoming unit. I read one of the standards to a teacher next to me: “How exactly do we teach students to ‘synthesize information to create a new…
Advanced Chapter Books for Elementary Readers
It’s the best feeling when you have a stack of book returns for the library. The pile of books gives me hope that many of my students will continue on as lifelong readers. With that joy of reading, however, can…
Literacy Choice Boards
When I first started using novel studies, I felt like I had to have elaborate packets of text-specific comprehension questions for each book we read. I was concerned about comprehension, accountability, and assessment. However, time and experience has taught me…
Engaging Novel Projects for ANY Book
I love using authentic texts to supplement our basal, so I almost always use novel studies where most small groups are reading different books that relate to our current unit of study. It’s important to have accountability and meaningful engagement…
4 Activities to Teach Fact vs. Opinion
In a world where news and information is at our students’ fingertips, being able to distinguish fact vs. opinion has never been more essential! The great news is that teaching fact and opinion to upper elementary school students doesn’t have…
Nonfiction Comprehension Guide
At this point in the year, I have covered a lot of nonfiction strategies and skills with students. The next step is to begin spiraling these skills, so students have consistent practice. Here are some of the consistent strategies and…
Using The Week Junior In The Classroom
Have you seen The Week Junior? I started seeing it pop up on my social media feeds last year, quickly ordered it for my own kids (whom I was homeschooling at the time), and fell in love with the rich…
Beyond the Book: 3 Ways to Supplement Textbooks
Textbooks often get a really bad reputation. When I first began my teaching career, I worked at a school that didn’t have ANY textbooks that we followed with fidelity. The only textbook we had was for math, but we weren’t…
Martin Luther King, Jr. Activities: Teaching Perspective and Main Idea
While I firmly believe that Black History should be taught all year long, January is the perfect time to embed some of this learning with crucial reading skills. With Martin Luther King. Jr. Day coming up, you may be looking…
How To Teach Sequencing In Upper Elementary
I LOVE teaching sequencing in the elementary classroom. There are so many ways to make the skill of sequencing fun, engaging, and meaningful. Sequencing sometimes feels like it should be a natural skill for students. After all, humans are natural…
