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. ......

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......

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......

In upper grade classrooms, students spend a great deal of time responding to the texts they read. Over the years I have found that no matter what grade level I teach, students have a difficult time writing thorough and meaningful reading responses. At the start of every year my students need quite a bit of guidance when writing their responses. One of the best ways that I have found to teach students to write meaningful responses is by providing them with sentence frames. I like to encourage students to follow three simple steps when writing reading responses, each with sentence frames and prompts to use: Step 1: What did you read? While reading... In chapter __ of... On page __ of... During today's reading of... Step 2: What happened in the text? Tell what a character said. Tell what a character did. Tell what a character thought, felt, or learned. Describe the setting.  Describe an important event that occurred. Explain a problem that was encountered. ......

Hi! This is Kelly , from Teaching Fourth . Journals are such an effective way to engage students in thinking and responding to reading for both literature and informative texts. They help students think about and reflect on lessons and on their reading. Even before Pinterests and blogs, I used journals as part of my instruction. Although those journals were not picture worthy, they were still great tools to use in my classroom. I have to admit, I love a well-organized journal with cut-and-paste entries, but sometimes, there is just not time to do all of that cutting and pasting. On these days, I don't abandon them, I just simplify a bit with one of these ten easy prep journal response ideas. Label the title of the page "So What?". Below, students write the main idea of the text. Then students explain why it is important in three sentences. Students list 5 most intriguing, interesting, or memorable ideas found in their reading. Include page number a......