Before you start speaking or writing, you must consider your audience. We adults understand this and automatically do it without giving it a second thought. Students, on the other hand, sometimes don't realize that there is a formal register and an informal register in English. Therefore, teachers must explicitly teach students how and when to use the two registers. In this post, I'll be giving you some tips and sharing some freebies you can use when you introduce this topic to your students. Introduction to Formal/Informal Language I would begin this lesson by using my document camera to display the posters below. After students have read the two speech bubbles, I'd direct them to compare and contrast the two characters' speech with a partner. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THESE POSTERS FOR FREE! Following this partner discussion, I would state that there are two types of English: formal and informal. After defining formal and informal, I would ask stude......

In our district we have witnessed how teacher morale can be impacted by high stakes testing, district mandates, increased teacher professional requirements, and lack of funding for public schools. Not to mention, increased class sizes and lack of special education funding as well. But day in and day out educators show up for their students. They still want to be the best they can be in the face of all these issues that make teaching more difficult. We want to offer some tips on what educators can do in their buildings to change morale and bring back some joy on a daily basis. Below we have listed 10 ways to help increase teacher morale in your building. We hope you begin to implement some of these to bring some joy back into your building. Music Who doesn't love a little music to sing or even dance to? If you have a PA system think about pumping some upbeat music at the end of the week on Friday into the hallways and classrooms, or even make it a part of every morning as th......

For many of us in education, it's closing in on that time of year. You know the time I'm talking about... testing season. Just hearing the phrase uttered causes a feeling of anxiety to wash over me. So much pressure is placed upon teachers. Even more upsetting, though, is the pressure and anxiety that many of our students experience when the time to take standardized tests draws near. Too often, our students feel powerless when it comes to standardized tests. Therefore, when I spotted a book called The Anti-Test Anxiety Society as I was scrolling through Instagram one weekend, I had to check it out! It is written by Julia Cook, author of A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue and My Mouth is a Volcano . Before becoming an author, she was a school counselor and teacher. She lives in a small Nebraska town not far from my hometown, and she spoke to students at my elementary school several years ago. She was a phenomenal speaker! Anyway, when my book arrived, I read it immediately. ......

This year is year four for me using Google Classroom, and every year I learn a little more and do a little more!  A few months ago, I took the plunge and took the exam to become a Google Certified Educator and am glad that I did so. Whether you are just getting started with Google Classroom or have been using it for a while, there is always something new that may come in handy! Below I have compiled 10 ideas that you can start to use in the Google Classroom today. 1.  Create Classroom for Subjects I teach 3rd grade, so I have 6 separate classes set up.  I have a class set up for each subject:  Reading, Writing, Word Work, Math, Science, and Social Studies.  This allows me to easily include links, assignments, and post questions for each specific subject.  For example, when we are doing Math, my students know that all related resources are found in the Math classroom.   2.  Exit Slips Take the paper out of exit slips.  After......

When teachers mention the term "persuasive writing" some students already fall down for the count. But we are here to teach you how to pack persuasive writing with a P.U.N.C.H. P ick a topic that matters. The most effective persuasive essay will be the one in which you allow your students to choose the topic that matters most to them. Do not tell your students that they need to pick from a list of your teacher-selected topics. That immediately takes away ownership and investment of the students in their self-selected topics. Instead help them brainstorm topics that are important to them. It may be bullying in school, picking up trash in the neighborhood, or as complex as finding ways to stop animal abuse. The point is to allow them to select a topic that they truly care about. U npack the evidence. In order to have an effective persuasive essay, there has to be evidence to back up students' claims. You will need to provide students with the resources that......

If you're like me, you've read your share of rough drafts that were vague and difficult to follow. Student-authors often forget that the reader was not present when the event took place, and the author fails to develop important details that will help the reader visualize the scene. Over the years, I have come to realize that most students will benefit from receiving explicit instruction on how to expand dull, short sentences in a way that will help the reader picture the event they are describing. Today, I am going to outline a minilesson that focuses on expanding sentences. #1- Outline the problem. We stood outside for twenty minutes. After writing that sentence on the board, ask students to judge whether it's a strong sentence or a weak sentence. You'll likely receive a mix of answers, as some students will rate it as "strong" because it doesn't contain any misspelled words or errors that need to be edited. Other students, however, w......

When it comes to reading comprehension , it can be difficult to know if your students truly understood what they read. It can also be difficult to know if your students are reading the entire passage, or if they are going right to the questions and skimming the passage for the answers. Teaching summary sentences is an excellent way for teachers to see what their students are taking away from the different sections of the passage, which can lead you to see how well they understood the passage, from start to finish. WHAT ARE SUMMARY SENTENCES? Summary Sentences are sentences used to summarize different sections, or parts, of a passage. These sentences can be used with every text, whether it be long or short, fiction or nonfiction. The point of taking the time to write summary sentences is to help students quickly see what each section was mostly about, which will help when answering comprehension questions.  The summary sentences wi......