One of my favorite units to teach is my historical fiction unit. I love it for SO many reasons! Historical fiction is a new genre for many elementary students, so they get super excited! There are SO many great comprehension strategies to teach as you read. Fortunately, there are TONS of amazing books to share with students--from picture books to chapter books. I love being able to ... Read the Post
Teaching with “I Survived” Books: Encouraging Reluctant Readers
Why I love "I Survived" books There are so many reasons why using the "I Survived" series is such a great way to engage readers. I'm going to try to showcase a few of them here! Let me start with the obvious--there are SO MANY to choose from! Whether you are a history buff or prefer action stories from more recent times, there is something for everyone! Speaking of history, let's be ... Read the Post
10 Ways to Create a Culture for Reading
Developing a love of reading seems to come naturally for some students, but for some--it takes a loving teacher to make the magic happen! Check out these ten tips for getting started building a culture for reading in YOUR class! 1. Share YOUR love of reading. Whether you are in a "grown up" book club of your own or can simply model your love with HOW you read, how MUCH you read, or your ... Read the Post
Responding to Literature: Thinking Deeply
One thing I have noticed about my students is that they LOVE to listen to me read aloud and are getting better and better about picking just right books and reading with amazing stamina. What we really need work on (and I bet I am not alone in this!) is thinking deeply and writing about our reading. How did we start thinking deeply about texts? We've worked on a number of things like ... Read the Post
Novel in a Day? A Collaborative Reading Comprehension Lesson
I am always looking for ways to keep reading interesting and exciting for students while still working on comprehension skills and reading behaviors and processes. I have done this novel in a day activity for more than 20 years, and I thought I’d finally put it in a more useful format! What is it? Novel in a Day is a way to take a chapter book, divide it into sections, assign a section ... Read the Post
More Than a Graphic Organizer! Written responses to reading
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
Responding to Reading Character Prompts: Gradual Release Model
I often hear teachers stressing out about how they can get everything they need ready for all their book groups, standards-based grading, and so on. Sometimes I think we work WAY too hard--and I always work to try to do best quality instruction without driving myself into the ground. We focus on characters throughout the school year. The easiest way I do this is that I have a bank of resources ... Read the Post
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