Often, graphic organizers are simply   viewed as a glorified worksheet, but ask any teachers who use them yearly, and you may find that graphic organizers are much, much more.   In my own experience, I have witnessed graphic organizers improving comprehension and understanding of the text, improving student engagement with the text, helping students develop vocabulary skills, as well as helping students better understand text structure. 1. Improves Comprehension When students write about the text that they are reading, comprehension improves. Graphic organizers can be a key component in students organizing their thoughts and writing about the text. Rather than assigning students an essay about a text that they have read, a graphic organizer can enable students to break apart and write about the main elements of a story. Graphic organizers also help guide a young learner to organize his/her   thinking. By having this visual guide, learners are le......

Reading teachers cover a wide variety of  genres: realistic fiction, folktales, fairy tales, mysteries, historical fiction, etc. One genre, tall tales, may be considered by most a genre only for lower grades, but there are many wonderful reasons to use tall tales in upper grades as well! Using tall tales to teach reading in upper grades can be fun and beneficial for our students. My Favorite Tall Tale Books There are many wonderful tall tale picture books that are perfect for upper grades. These books contain wonderful stories with rich characters that make perfect read-alouds to model many types of reading lessons. Some of my favorite tall tales for upper grades include Swamp Angel, Thunder Rose, John Henry, Dust Devil, and Dona Flor. Swamp Angel is a tall tale set in the Appalachian Mountains. The main character, Angelica, is larger than life, literally, and encounters many problems. This a fun read-aloud, especially using a Southern accent. Kids love the extr......

For the past several years, instead of posting a list of rules in my classroom, I have used motivational posters. Not only do they make a pretty bulletin board that can be left up year around, there are several other reasons why using motivational posters in your classroom can be a benefit to your students. 1. Motivational posters provide students with a positive message. Rather than posting a list of behaviors that students should not do, motivational posters provide students with examples of positive behaviors, and these posters can help to reinforce the positive behaviors that students should strive to have. 2. Motivational posters make a great morning routine. Simply choral read, or have a student in charge of reading the motivational posters each morning. This is another way to motivate students each morning to be their best. 3. Motivational posters can be used as a reference. When students make mistakes, motivational posters are a great reference to remind st......

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......

Although we may only think of using fables in lower grades, using fables in upper elementary can be very beneficial. Not only are fables an excellent genre for teaching morals and themes in stories, but because they are short, they are wonderful to use when comparing and contrasting the treatment of similar themes and topics. Using these short stories can be both beneficial and fun, even for our older students. Finding Free Resources Finding free resources for teaching fables is easier than you may think. One wonderful resource can be found at Library of Congress.  This website contains a list of classic Aesop fables that you can print or display with your overhead projector for your entire class to use.  Another website is Aesop's Fables that also contains a large list of fables. A Fun "Fable Strip" Activity Recently, my students read a variety of fables that I printed from Library of Congress. The students discussed the morals of each fable, compared f......

If you are an upper elementary reading teacher, then you are already well aware that in order for students to improve reading, they must... well... READ. And while our classrooms may be full of independent readers engaged in a plethora of books from our well-organized book bins, simply reading is not enough for developing comprehension. Explicit instruction of key reading strategies is vital for helping our young readers develop their comprehension, and so is another aspect that is sometimes overlooked: responding in writing to reading.  Providing students with a variety of opportunities to respond in writing to reading helps improve comprehension by enabling students to connect ideas, analyze, summarize, and interpret key ideas from the text. Even by simply providing students opportunities to write personal reactions to text, comprehension can be improved.  Although answering questions is one way for students to write about their reading, why not provide stude......