Ten years ago when I first entered the classroom, we started prepping for the state test a few weeks before. That has slowly crept back every year until this one, where test prep was mentioned in January. That's right, January! It's definitely important to prepare our students for the state test, but weeks or months of multiple choice test prep questions is a surefire way to get students burnt out on the test before they even take it. In my experience, students that struggle academically don't benefit from the traditional test prep questions. These students struggle as it is during the regular lesson, so they are bound to get frusterated when given random questions that they have to decide which process to use in solving the problem and then get the answer correct. There are ways that you can prepare your students for the test without frustration. Here are five ideas to try during this year's test prep season! 1. Play Games Instead of giving students mu...
Modal Auxiliary Verbs ... I have to admit, when I first ran across this term in the 4th grade Common Core language standards, I had no idea what modal auxiliaries were.  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.1.C  Use modal auxiliaries (e.g. can, may, must) to convey various conditions. Other than the three examples, the standard itself didn't provide much information for me, so I had to do an Internet search on the topic... and I quickly became overwhelmed! I knew immediately that it would be difficult to teach the subtle nuances between these words in this special class of helping verbs- especially to my English language learners!  Ultimately, I decided that students will gain proficiency in this area if they are introduced to the modals, and then have plenty opportunities to interact with the modals themselves. Today, I'm going to share my modal auxiliary verbs anchor chart and a followup activity that will help your students understand how to use modal auxiliary verbs. Fi...
One thing I have really tried to do this year is help my students understand that "faster isn't always better"--and this is particularly true when reading challenging texts. We are in the midst of our historical fiction unit where are reading historical fiction now--and will be writing it next.  We've done all the important work of studying different eras to help us understand our settings...and now I want my students to really dig into their characters to help us with our writing next week--where we will rewrite a key section of their book club books as if they were a different character telling the story.  It's a ton of fun! In the interest of true "close reading", we dug into a few pages from a recent read aloud to see what we could learn about WHAT the characters were saying--HOW they were saying it...and what we could learn about them or the story from their words.  Again--I reminded students that sometimes reading is more than merely finding ...
So I had this really incredibly elegant post that I was going to write all about the intricacies of writing. Seriously, I was planning on making it this period piece that would stand out more than any other writing idea that’s existed since the invention of parchment. But then something happened. I got distracted. I decided not too. Besides, writing is not fun. It has to be incredibly structured. I need to have main ideas. I needed to have topics and reflect on the structural differences between personal narratives and persuasion. So I didn’t do it. Instead, you get this... How do I get my reluctant writers to write? How do I get my kids that struggle to write a single sentence in 20 minutes to be a better writer? It’s a problem that many teachers face. It’s a problem that I actually have myself. I don’t like writing. It takes time, effort, practice, revision, and sometimes it actually makes my brain hurt. Would it shock you to know that some of these sentences you...
Valentine's Day and the days leading up to it can be a fun time for lower grades, but why should lower grades have all of the fun? This can also be a fun-filled time for upper grades as well. Here are just a few ideas and activities that your upper grade students may enjoy that will also keep them engaged and learning. Write Valentine's Day Poems Holidays are a great time to read and write poetry, and Valentine's Day is no exception. Poems about love for their parents, grandparents, pets, or even friendship are perfect topics for Valentine's Day. I personally enjoy having students to write a haiku or an acrostic poem (to spell V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E). For years, my students have written these in their writing journals and have drawn pictures to go along with each poem. This year, I'm excited to have my student try this Haiku Poem Interactive   from Read, Write, Think . This is a free interactive page in which students can brainstorm, compose, customize, and publis...
I have always found writing to be one of the most challenging subjects to teach. More specifically, informative, or explanatory writing has always been my biggest nemesis!! My students often come to me with varying levels of writing background, their own unique styles, and a variety of topic interests. It has taken me many years to fine tune my craft for teaching informative writing. Over the years, I have developed mini-lessons to help my students to better understand this particular genre of writing, and to be able to effectively craft informative essays of their own. Today I would like to share 4 mini-lessons that I use in my classroom to get my students started with informative writing. Understanding the Genre First off, it is important that students understand the genre of informative writing. They need to be exposed to a variety examples of what informative writing looks and sounds like. I like to start off my unit of informative writi...