Most writing curriculums encourage teachers to use mentor text and modeling in their writing workshop. Why? Because they are effective instructional strategies that promote student engagement and give students powerful tools to apply in their own writing. Learn about these writing strategies, why you should use them, and tips for teaching them in your classroom that will help even your most reluctant writers! MENTOR TEXT and MODELING are both effective strategies to use when showing students examples of a writer's craft. That is why I chose to discuss them together.  Prior to using these strategies with a new writing lesson, provide students with an anchor chart explaining the meaning of that particular writing skill or writer's craft. Then use mentor text as well as modeling to show students how to apply the lesson in their own writing. Using both strategies will provide your students with two explicit examples. First, let's look at the definitions of mentor...
Developing vocabulary is crucial in children's growth as readers. In order to understand the text, students must first have an understanding of the words they are reading; therefore, vocabulary instruction is an important component to reading comprehension. Three important instructional practices in vocabulary instruction include: 1. Providing a student-friendly definition as well as examples of using the word correctly in sentences.  2. Giving students an opportunity to apply the word to their own experiences and make connections with the words. 3. Practicing using the word through engaging activities. Practicing using the words can be an opportunity to add some fun and excitement to your lessons. Here are 10 tried and true activities that my kiddos love, and hopefully, yours will too! 1.  Fly Swat Yes, this game is on every vocabulary idea list that you find, and it is there for a good reason. I have used this game in my classroom for over 20 years, and student...
Creating a positive classroom culture is the first thing every classroom teacher should do the first week of school. But it shouldn't stop there. You should continue to work on class culture the entire school year. We are hear to offer some tips, advice, and activities for you to use in your classroom to build on what you started the first month of school. Interest Inventory If you have not yet given an interest inventory to get to know your students you should. We have a simple one that we have created that you can download here for free . It contains thirteen questions that will help you to know your students better. You may be surprised at some of the answers! Use the surveys throughout the year by incorporating students' interests. Your students will be excited to see that you are interested in what they like. Cooperative Challenges Another way to build a positive classroom culture is through cooperative activities. One of our students' favorites is the Ma...
Teaching using a guided math model does not mean you have to say good-bye to whole-group instruction. In fact, it's very important to start with a mini-lesson before you begin your small groups/math centers. Here are some reasons why: > You set a purpose for the day. Students will know the learning goal and will stay on task. > You help build background knowledge. You can introduce vocabulary words students will interact with during their math centers. > You can quickly see how well students have mastered the concept and adjust math groups as needed. Let me share with you 4 ways you can start your math workshop block. This whole-group instruction should be no longer than 15 minutes.  It is very important that you teach math vocabulary to your students. Not only will they see these words in math problems, but you should expect students to use these math words as they explain how they solve their math problems.  Our math text book has vocabula...
You've just finished teaching a writing mini-lesson to your class, and now you send them back to their seats to dive back into the drafts they've been working on this week. You look at the clock. You smile. You've actually managed to keep your mini-lesson relatively "mini" today, which means your class has a nice chunk of time to write independently. You walk over to your desk and take a swig of your room-temperature coffee to celebrate the moment. Ahhhhh. Now what. What are you going to do? It's easy to let this time slip away drinking room-temperature coffee "supervising." But you have this nagging desire to... well, teach. So how can you make a difference? How can you use this time, be it twenty-five minutes or five, to help students become better writers? Here are five ways:   #1 CONFER AT A STUDENT'S DESK Holding one-to-one writing conferences is powerful and a classic component to any writer's workshop model. Whether...
Let's face it... teaching about themes in literature is hard! It's so difficult, in fact, that teachers don't seem to have a unified approach to teaching it. If you do a quick search on Pinterest, you will soon realize that there seem to be two approaches. Some teachers teach their students that the theme should be stated in one word (honesty, friendship, etc.), while other teachers stress that the theme should be stated in a complete sentence. I struggled with this for years, constantly second-guessing whether I was teaching it "right". I finally decided that I needed to choose an approach and be consistent. I chose to embrace the "complete sentence" philosophy because it appeared to best match my state's standards.  Last year, I ran across this blog post by Bonnie of Presto Plans that made me feel more confident in my decision... but it also challenged my thinking a bit! I realized that I was guilty of confusing the MORAL of the story w...
Here on the Upper Elementary Snapshots blog, we're always working hard to bring you the best teaching ideas and resources for upper elementary! This post is all about our most highly-rated resources for the school year. Read more about us here , and then check out our recommended resources below! Classroom Management & Growth Mindset When you're starting a new school year, classroom management is always on your mind! We have some wonderful resources to help your students grow into hard workers this year! As a classroom teacher you are under constant scrutiny by administrators, parents, and the general public. How you manage your classroom impacts not only your students' academic growth and happiness, but also your teacher evaluations and in many cases your pay and job security. A poorly managed classroom results in avoidable behavior problems, decreased motivation, general feelings of stress and uneasiness and lost time on task. Investing the time to shar...