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......

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......

I have not always taught complex sentences to my upper grade students. It was not on my curriculum standards.... So, I didn't teach it... Then, our standards changed! Complex sentences became a part of my language arts curriculum standards, and I was faced with the challenge of how to teach them to my fourth graders so that they would "get it." Truthfully, I was nervous and uncertain that I would be able to meet this challenge. To my surprise, my students exceeded my expectations and were not only able to recognize complex sentences, but more importantly, they were able to use complex sentences in their own writing. This was a game changer for me and such an eye-opener! I realized the potential that this skill could have on my students' writing! Teaching complex sentences became such a very important language arts standard to me that I realized that I needed to teach it early in the school year to have the most benefit for my students.  I want to share with yo......

Do your students have a tough time coming up with writing topics?? I love to give my students choice when writing, but I always find that one of their biggest struggles is deciding what to write about. At the beginning of any of my writing units, one of the very first lessons I teach is on generating writing topics. For OPINION WRITING, I thought I would share some of the categories I discuss with students when generating opinion writing topics of their own. Favorite Things For students who are new to Opinion Writing, writing about their favorite things is a good place to start. Each student has their own special interests, and we all know that they hold very strong opinions about their favorite things. I ask students to create a list of all of their favorite things, and provide topic suggestions, such as favorite sport, food, book, movie, school subject, and animal. Students can add any of their favorites to their lists, and after discussions with their classmates these li......

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......

Since writing is my jam, I have tried so many different writing strategies in my classroom over the years and found ones that truly work like a charm. I wouldn't teach writing without them. Each strategy sets the stage for effective writing. LEARN 5 TESTED WRITING STRATEGIES THAT WORK LIKE A CHARM! 1.  SCAFFOLD YOUR WRITER'S WORKSHOP LESSONS The writer's workshop lessons should be presented to students in a step-by-step progression. When lessons are planned out and in an order that makes sense for that type of writing, students' writing will undoubtedly improve. They will understand the writing process and see how a quality piece of writing starts from the beginning stages of prewriting to the end stage with a final copy. Learn from my mistakes. I used to teach different mini lessons, but until I focused on an order to take one piece of writing all the way through a series of mini lessons, I didn't see the same results. It may take a long time to finish......

If I were to complete a multiple-choice test about my 17 years as a classroom teacher, this could be one of the questions. Instead of staying home where I should’ve been, I ... A) taught 3rd grade while passing a kidney stone. B) drove to school with a bucket on my lap to put together sub plans in between episodes of vomiting. C) went through two+ boxes of tissues from the classroom donation supply in less than 6 hours. D) all of the above Spoiler alert: The answer is D. I left off the time I set off the silent alarm (that I didn’t know existed) on my portable which summoned the police, and my principal in her pajamas, in the predawn hours as I was writing sub plans at my desk for that day. You’ll be happy to know that I finally got my act together and went from being ill-prepared (pun intended) to being a Sub Plan Rockstar (Disclaimer: I awarded myself that title and it’s not a real thing...but it totally should be). I now love teaching other teachers how to be r......