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GUIDED READING WARM-UPS: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Last week, I sent a survey out about my Guided Reading Warm-ups and am so thankful for all of your responses! There was a LOT of positive feedback (thank you!), as well as suggestions, and a whole lot of questions. I wanted to answer as many questions as I can, as well as let you…
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Tips for Making a Unique End-of-Year Memory Book
There’s not much I remember from my first-grade class and end-of-year memory books weren’t really a thing back then, but I SO wish I did have one to look through now that I’m older! Nowadays, there are all kinds of wonderful end-of-year memory books and most teachers I know have their students complete one each…
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Phonics-Based Sight Word Activities
For years, kids have been taught to memorize high-frequency sight words because they don’t follow phonics rules. I’m guilty of having done this, but changed my practices and learned how to really make sight words stick, using phonics. Now that we know that kids need to learn words by orthographically mapping them out (learn the…
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How to Teach Making Inferences: Comprehension Strategy
There are few lessons I love to introduce more than making inferences! Kids love to be detectives so when I come out from behind my desk in my trench coat and detective hat, holding my oversized magnifying lens, and hum the Mission Impossible song as I furtively sneak up to the board, it’s always a…
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How to Teach the Chunky Monkey Reading Strategy
By now, I think all educators can agree that phonics instruction is key in teaching kids to read. Decoding strategies should be phonics-based to ensure kids focus on the print first, rather than pictures or context clues. This will help them later on when pictures disappear with more advanced text. I’ve written about decoding strategies…
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How to Use Guided Reading Warm-ups
If you teach kindergarten through 2nd grade, you know that guided reading is an essential component of literacy instruction. The way I’ve conducted guided reading has changed over the years and some people aren’t fond of the term guided reading, but small-group reading instruction is essential in order to differentiate and meet your students’ needs…
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Spelling Strategies for Beginning Writers
“Teacher, how do you spell (insert any word here)?” If you teach kindergarten or first grade, it’s a question you likely hear all. the. time! I know we wish we could clone ourselves during writing time so we could sit with each student and help them with their spelling, BUT of course we can’t. If…
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Activities to Teach Self-Monitoring Reading Comprehension
In my previous post, I discussed using pictures as a comprehension strategy using Eagle Eye. As I mentioned, the more advanced kids become at reading, the fewer pictures their books will have. So, it’s important to teach other self-monitoring reading comprehension strategies. I’ll share some easy lesson activities you can do to model and teach…
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Using Eagle Eye as a Comprehension Strategy
Can you believe he was picking his nose?? Not what you thought? Pictures are a huge help to beginning readers when monitoring comprehension! Even when decoding accurately, factors such as figures of speech and background experience can affect a student’s comprehension. Some kids can decode an encyclopedia (do they even have those anymore??), but if they aren’t monitoring their…
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Step-by-Step Decoding: When Kids Get Stuck on a Word
I had a student my first year teaching who had a habit of waiting for help before making any attempts on his own. He would start a sentence, get to a tricky word. . . and just stop. As I sat by him one day while he read, he got stuck on a word and…
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Personal Narrative Writing Mentor Text
This book makes a great mentor text for a personal narrative genre writing unit! Kids can relate to Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe and use some of the strategies she uses to revise their writing workshop stories. Read this post for mini-lesson ideas, an anchor chart, and freebie for Show, not Tell! Great for kindergarten and…
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Strategies for Supporting Struggling Writers
Getting kids to love writing can be difficult sometimes, especially if they are struggling writers. It’s normal to dislike something you’re not good at (or think you’re not good at). I dislike bowling because I have terrible aim and usually end up in the gutter. But, I’m sure if I had the patience took the…