Mentor texts are pieces of literature that are read (and re-read) in order to be understood, studied, and used as models. A good mentor text should serve many purposes. My most favorite (and most suggested) types of mentor texts are picture books. Why picture books?… [continue reading]
Help Your Primary Students Track Their Thinking While Reading
Annotation in the lower grades will look a bit different than it does in the upper grades. It definitely won’t be quite as detailed, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t as important! How should students annotate a text? We know that close reading is the… [continue reading]
Do You Make This Frustrating Test Prep Mistake?
When I first started teaching, I would sit down at the beginning of every school year with a blank calendar, and I’d map out what unit I’d be working on each week in every subject for the entire year… except it never failed… I would… [continue reading]
Higher Order Thinking Questions for Grammar and Writing
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… [continue reading]
3 BIG Reasons Why You Should Throw Out The Vocabulary List
Give a list of vocabulary words to look up in the dictionary, write a sentence, and then take a quiz on Friday…… these practices have come and gone! Not only do the students not enjoy this process, it isn’t a best practice. Research has… [continue reading]
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… [continue reading]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- …
- 57
- Next Page »