As you know, the purpose of a graphic organizer is to help students (or adults!) make sense of information and organize it into a visible, usable fashion. Sometimes using an organizer is all we need from students—a way for them to represent the information we are asking for. Sometimes, however, we want students to organize information for other reasons…like to do a piece of writing. I wanted a way ... Read the Post
Studying Dialogue to Improve Reading AND Writing
Today is my day to post over at Upper Elementary Snapshots, and I hope you'll head over to read about a lesson I did last week to help slow down my readers and get them thinking more deeply about the books they read. I am excited to see if our dialogue studies transfer to their writing next week--so stay tuned! Want to learn more about what we did? Just click the image above and ... Read the Post
3 Best Books about Teaching Reading!
Today is my day to post over on Upper Elementary Snapshots, and I hope you'll stop by to check out my post about 3 "must read" books...just click the image below to take you there! I'd love to hear what you think...and watch tomorrow for my Monday Made It post--with a brand new multiplication resource that has taken me the better part of a year to finish! WHEW! ... Read the Post
Close Reading: What is it really?
So...I have read a lot of professional books over the years. A lot. I am always happy when the information I read supports my beliefs about best practice or reinforces what I do in my classroom. Even better is when I find a new nugget of information that I can take and try for myself. When a book changes me as a teacher, it's something I just have to share. Nancy ... Read the Post
“Eggcellent” Close Reading!
We are working hard at our close reading in our room, and I truly see my students become better thinkers and "discussers" about the texts we are reading. I have been looking for more and more short texts to use with them...even first pages of novels, articles, and so on. This week we are going to use a short story by Cynthia Rylant called "Slower Than the Rest"--you may be familiar with ... Read the Post
Loved That Lesson! February “Close Reading”
It's time once again for "Loved That Lesson" and I think we are going to have some new bloggers linking up again this month! During the last month, my fourth grade team has been working to learn more about "close reading". We have been using the A-MAZE-ING book by Nancy Boyles. If you want a realistic, helpful resource to get you going on close reading--I really recommend it, ... Read the Post
Loved That Linky! December!
It's time once again for "Loved That Lesson" linky! This month I wanted to share a lesson (actually a "type" of lesson) that I am using for a reading intervention group. I have a group of boys who I would say are "gray area" readers. They do "ok" on everything we do...but I can tell they are just not comprehending at the level I want them to--or that they will need in upcoming ... Read the Post