Hi there! It’s Deb Hanson from Crafting Connections , and I’m going to share a free character traits lesson with you today. This lesson is based on one I did a few years ago for a formal observation. My principal at the time loved the lesson… I hope you will, too! If you do decide that you want to try this activity with your students, be sure to click on the following image . Everything you need for this lesson is FREE! (Well, almost everything… you’ll have to provide your own anchor chart paper and cups!) Part 1: Anchor Chart I almost always start my ELA units with a PowerPoint presentation to introduce the topic . Therefore, the lesson I am describing would occur on Day 2 of our character traits study. Prior to class, I would create the base of my character traits anchor chart. To start the lesson, I would use the anchor chart to review how good readers analyze clues provided by the author in order to infer character traits. Next, I would read four short passa......

Do you know how you have favorite lessons that you look forward to teaching each year? I certainly do. Today, I'm going to share with you my favorite lesson in my Teaching Points of View reading unit! This one is a favorite for two reasons. First, it features a skit, which I rarely do, so my students tend to be extremely engaged during the lesson. Second, students take on the role of author and write the same short story three times, using the three different points of view. I truly believe that when students become the author, this abstract concept becomes more concrete for students. Let's rewind a few years. I'm sitting in my closet- as an ELL teacher who spent most of her day coteaching in upper elementary classrooms, I was fortunate to have my own tiny windowless room that was just big enough to house my desk, a table, and a few filing cabinets- racking my brain trying to think of a point of view activity that would be meaningful for our fifth graders. We had......

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......

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. ......

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 I attended classes to earn my ESL endorsement, one of the first ELL-friendly strategies I learned was to employ graphic organizers. However, teachers who use graphic organizers with their students will attest to the fact that graphic organizers are beneficial tools to use with ALL students, not just English language learners and students with disabilities.  Why are they such powerful tools? Graphic organizers provide visual representations of cognitive processes. These visual cues help students organize concepts in a way that will aid in retention. Students can actually SEE relationships and connections between facts and concepts. Graphic organizers improve comprehension. Students are able to break down bigger concepts into smaller, more understandable chunks of information.  Graphic organizers increase student engagement. When filling out a graphic organizer, students are actively participating and contributing to the learning process. Because of these benefi......

As teachers, we all have favorite topics to teach... and a few topics that aren't quite so enjoyable. For me, teaching figurative language is like sinking my teeth into a cream-filled donut topped with sprinkles. (How's that for a simile?) Introducing Similes When I began writing this blog post, my intention was to make it short and sweet (just like my experience eating that donut!), but my love for figurative language enveloped me, and I got sidetracked. I ended up making a 13-slide PowerPoint that introduces the topic of similes to students. After five introduction slides, I included 10 practice slides where students must determine whether the given sentence is a simile, a metaphor, or neither. This is available for FREE in my TpT store. Just click on the image below to download it to use with your students. Using Similes to Inspire Higher-Level Thinking The other idea I want to share involves using similes in order to prompt higher-level thinking ac......