Lemme just tell you. This lesson is amazing for lots of reasons. It gets your kids up and moving. They want to move. Hence, fidget spinner mania. It gets your kids collaborating with one another. It forces your students to "out smart" one another, in the friendly spirit of academic excellence of course. (Duh.) It forces your… Continue reading Text Analysis Lesson
Determining importance is a critical skill that students must understand before they analyze any element of text, specifically main idea or central idea.
I am so excited to share with you one of my favorite books to teach Asking & Answering Questions with 3rd-5th graders. I love using all Chris Van Allsburg books in my classroom. They spark interest, intrigue and most of all, cultivate rich, deep discussion and questions. With that being said, pretty much any one of his books would be great for teaching students to talk back… Continue reading Asking and Answering Questions
The first topic of conversation is close reading. Close reading is a "hot topic" across the education spectrum and can sometimes be used as a "buzz word" instead of an actual strategy. Let's just jump right in. Close reading is reading with intention and purpose. It's a relationship between the reader, the text and the author as the reader gets to know the text.  It is looking… Continue reading Close Reading
