When I first started teaching, Speaking and Listening meant student speeches and presentations. Unfortunately, assigning students to give presentations took a great deal of class time, and I often only assigned presentations once per quarter. Even then, I still found them extremely difficult to fit in, with all the other subjects that needed to be covered. I wanted a way to assess students' abilities to meet speaking and listening standards more than once a quarter. In recent years, I started using Conversation Cards to engage students in conversations and the practice of speaking and listening to their peers. They really helped me to address some of the Common Core standards for Speaking and Listening. According to the standards, students should engage in collaborative discussions with their peers, based on grade-level topics and texts.  One of the best ways to do this is to provide students with opportunities to discuss the texts they are already reading in class. Why not ...
Grammar practice is one of those things most teachers just don't have time for.  Our intentions are pure, but our schedule is packed.  Teaching and practicing grammar standards always seem to take a backseat to other subjects.  However, our students are in desperate need of grammar instruction and practice.  With social media and texting, kids are picking up bad habits every day.  If you want to incorporate more grammar practice into your daily classroom schedule, this is for you. Here are a few simple tips for getting in some grammar practice every day. 1. Morning Work or Warm-Ups Grammar practice in the morning (or as a warm-up) can be as simple as writing a sentence on the board and asking your students to diagram the sentence.  You could also use a sentence or question that is more specific to a skill you are focusing on. For example, you may write, "The football player played with his friends and drinks lots of water."  You could then ask students to ide...
I'm always looking for ways to build a community within my classroom.  A couple of years ago, I began using memory makers.  My students love it! It's very simple to create and keep going.  So, what is it?  Students write down events that have occurred in the classroom.  These events can be funny, sad, exciting, you name it.  For example, if a student masters being able to skip count by 3s, that can be very exciting for them and a memory worth keeping.  The student writes the memory down on a memory slip, and places it in the memory maker box.  Maybe YOU did something that the students thought was funny, that could be a memory to write down too!  Memories are endless! What makes this really fun and the most exciting for the students is when you go back and read the memories.  They love to reminisce!  I typically share the memory slips about once a quarter.  We spend a bit of time reading the memory slips and do a little reminiscing at the same time.  I then give th...
With school starting back for many teachers, lesson plans is at the top of the to-do list, and planning creative and effective lesson plans is a high priority. One important component to any lesson is checking for students' understanding. A quick and simple formative assessment can be beneficial not only to the students, but to the teacher as well because this quick assessment can help the teacher know what the students understand and what they don't. Here are 10 of my favorite ways to quickly check for understanding that will work for almost any lesson. Thumbs up/Thumbs down. Use this strategy by simply asking questions. If the students agree or think the answer is correct, they give a thumbs up. If they disagree or think the answer is incorrect, they give a thumbs down. Individual White Boards. Students can write a simple answer on the white board and turn it around. This is a great way to quickly see who understands the concept and who does not. This is great for m...
We teach about slavery and discrimination in American history.  Sadly, intolerance still exists in today's society. Now it is more important than ever to teach students about building good character and getting along with others.  Learning good values will help children become better citizens and also help build a positive classroom community.  So what can you do to help students build good character? There are three simple steps to use when helping students build good character. 1.  EDUCATE -  How do you educate children on good character?  Gather mentor texts related to character education.  Read the mentor texts and discuss the character trait(s) that are evident in each book.  Discuss these good character traits and their meanings.  Then brainstorm examples of how they are demonstrated in every day life.  Focus on one trait a week or month.  Click HERE  for a free poster with character traits and their meanings. 2.  IDENTIFY- Identify good character traits in s...
Most of us are either back at school or thinking about it!  Today I thought I'd share 10 tips to help us really create a classroom culture that celebrates and nurtures our readers.  See what you think! 1.  Share YOUR love of reading. Whether you are in a book club of your own or simply model your love with HOW you read, how MUCH you read, or your excitement about new books--make sure your students know that you value reading and you are excited to help THEM find the books that will captivate them.  I talk to my students about trying to get into the reading "zone" where you are so into your book that you lose track of time and the world around you.  When that happens IN our class, we totally celebrate it! 2.  Make sure students have access to books. Whether you have a complete classroom library or need to beg, borrow, or steal visit the library  (school or public), make sure you have plenty of books at a variety of levels with tons of different interest le...