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Teaching Summarizing: If It's January, They Must Be Writing "About" Summaries
Outside, the snow is falling, and our classroom feeder is attracting many beautiful birds. Students are learning to observe and ask questions about these birds, noticing the small differences in...
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Understanding Narratives: Story Events
Supporting all learners in a mixed ability classroom can be a daunting challenge. Over the years, I've found that having the right materials makes a huge difference! When I'm teaching narratives,...
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What to do with a classroom bird feeder
Choosing Feeders For the widest variety of birds, think about your levels. Some birds like to eat from the ground, others from hanging feeders, others from suet, and still others from elevated...
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Paper Airplanes and STEM: Getting Started
Looking for a fun lesson set that incorporates STEM, writing, reading, and data collection? Try a paper airplane challenge! I'm on my third iteration of this project, and each time it just gets...
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Introducing a Poetry Unit
This week I started teaching my poetry unit, which is both exciting and scary! It's exciting because I love poetry, and I love the chance to immerse my students in poems. It's scary because each year...
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How to craft a text-dependent analysis prompt
Text-dependent analysis essays! From the moment that I first saw these forms of writing on our state tests I have both dreaded and admired them. On the positive side, text-dependent analysis...
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Teaching Grammar: A Content-Rich Approach
The teaching of grammar has always been fraught with peril. Since I started teaching in 1997, the general consensus seems to have been this: "Whatever you're doing, you're doing it wrong." Using...
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Take your class to read outdoors
Did anyone else have such a beautiful Friday as we did in Pennsylvania? By March standards, it was the perfect day: windswept blue skies, bright sun, and warm temperatures. After lunch, a...
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Build STEM Enthusiasm with a Microscope Center
Spring is a fantastic time to add a microscope center to your classroom. For students in grades 3-8, microscopes are a gateway to science: awesome, amazing, and irresistible. Spring brings vernal...
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ELA Test Prep: Picture Book Literature Circles
The week before state testing has a strange tension in the air. Students know that something different is coming, but aren't sure how to express their worry. Teachers fret by the copier, making packets...
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Reading Comprehension: The Qualitative Reading Assessment
If you're looking for a quick and easy reading assessment that yields a great deal of information, you can't go wrong with the QRI. Short for the Qualitative Reading Assessment, this assessment is my...
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Classroom Jobs for Sixth Grade
When I first moved from middle school to elementary school, I debated whether or not to have classroom jobs. Aren't assigned jobs a little too childish for sixth graders? Would they roll their...
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Reading and Writing Handbook
Papers can quickly become overwhelming in the ELA classroom! I've learned that if I don't have a plan for where students will put their papers and when these papers will become obsolete, folders...
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Reading Activities for Distance Learning
Reading activities for distance learning should be more than just glowing worksheets! In fact, distance learning offers us some fascinating affordances in terms of what kinds of activities we can...
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Classroom Libraries and COVID
The coming school year will be different from any other. As teachers prepare physical and virtual classrooms for the start of the year, many questions loom.One of my favorite rituals for a new school...
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Why You Should Teach Emily Dickinson's Poems in Sixth Grade
In looking for poems to share with students, I love to go with the work of Emily Dickinson. Here's why!Her life story is intriguing to studentsToday's students find Emily Dickinson's life fascinating....
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Looking Back: Classroom Libraries and COVID
This year has been tough! My school was face-to-face with the entire class for almost the entire year. Last year, I wrote about plans for a classroom library in the face of a pandemic. Now, I'm at the...
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Setting up a classroom for collaboration
It's that time of year again...when pictures of perfect classrooms start to show up on Pinterest and Instagram! It's also the time when anxious and perfectionist teachers start to feel very, very...
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Reading Survey for Students
This year will pose so many challenges for classroom teachers! Whether we are teaching remotely or (gulp) face to face, one of the more pleasant challenges will be how to get books in the hands of...
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Returning to In-Person Instruction: Creating a positive environment
Planning for this year is turning out to be especially challenging! Teachers will have students who haven't been in a classroom for over a year, students who have been in socially distant...
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