We don’t often think of using higher order thinking questions, or Bloom’s Taxonomy above level 1 and 2, within grammar and writing instruction. In fact, when looking at sample higher order thinking question stems to use within your classroom, many of them specifically relate to reading and math! For students to reach their highest potential, […]
Jivey shares ideas and lessons to make literacy accessible for all.
Subscribe now to get an exclusive FREE mentor text unit delivered to your inbox! Select your grade below:
What’s New on the Blog
Enrich Students’ Reading, Writing, and Speaking Vocabulary
Teachers are aware that understanding vocabulary is crucial to reading comprehension, but we want students to do more than just “know it when they read it.” We hope our students can adopt these words into their repertoire and improve their writing and speaking vocabulary as well. As I mentioned in this past post filled with […]
What Should I Do During Each Close Read?
Honest talk here. Close reading turns those mini-lessons into MAXI-lessons if you try to fit in all that you want to do with a text in one day. Let’s look at why: Even though close reading is done with short texts, the time it takes to dig deep shouldn’t be short because… the texts should […]
Diversifying your library should include more than historical fiction or nonfiction books about the Underground Railroad or the Civil Rights Movement. It should be about representation and helping students see themselves AND OTHERS (whether or not you have a student of a specific race does not determine if you should have books featuring them):
“The stories that children read at a young age tell them who matters and who doesn't matter, who's human and who isn't human," explains Philip Nel, professor of English at Kansas State University.
"A story doesn't have to tell us that explicitly. It can tell us that by failing to represent certain groups of people -- omission tells us that these groups of people are not important," Nel adds.
Can diversity in kids' books tackle prejudice?
cnn.com
Just 9% of children's books published in the US in 2017 featured African or African American characters, according to the Cooperative Children's Book Center. Campaigners want to see more diversity.Use one of my favorite mentor texts, Thank You Sarah by Laurie Halse Anderson (affiliate link for book: amzn.to/2O4yByR) and this mentor text pack to integrate ELA while also reading about the woman who saved Thanksgiving!
Thank You Sarah - Thanksgiving ELA Lessons for grades 3-5
teacherspayteachers.com
By request, I have pulled the Thank You, Sarah lessons from Volume 3 for those who love using mentor sentences and mentor texts and wanted to add just this one lesson to their rotation. PLEASE do not purchase this if you already own all of the Volume 3 sets! (If you do, you already own all of these....
