Adding Details in Writing One of my biggest pet peeves in writing is when a student will rewrite the exact five sentences from their graphic organizer, call that a paragraph, and tell me they’re finished. Getting students to elaborate and add details to their writing has been extremely challenging. It’s
It’s all about the setting when teaching how to write historical fiction narratives. Generally I like to teach this type of unit after exploring the elements of historical fiction (read about that activity here) and completing a novel study (more here). During the novel study, we start to truly see
I’ve always been into tech while teaching. Usually I’m part of the tech committee or volunteering to learn new tech to share with faculty. I used Google Classroom and apps before the pandemic, pretty regularly. Switching to ALL digital everything was still a challenge. We were virtual for almost a
Combining subjects is a great way to gain more instruction time and help students to have a deeper understanding about a topic. It’s also going beyond just written response paragraphs to text based questions. If you have a limited time for teaching each subject, this integrated approach to reading &
It’s Wednesday night. I’m sitting at my kitchen counter, not-so-patiently waiting for my white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies to bake. The timer says 6 minutes left. You know the tricky thing about baking? You put all these ingredients together, step by step mixing carefully measured ingredients. Then you toss it
This post may contain some affiliate links, which means if you click on one of the links and make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission. You will never incur a fee or charge for this. Point of view can be a tricky topic to teach for reading and writing.
It’s all about a dog. I mean, how can you look in those eyes and not fall desperately in love? This is why I loved creating a poetry unit for elementary around Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. First: gratuitous picture of my dog! 😍 Okay, but really, I’m here
Teaching anything virtual is a challenge when you’re used to teaching in person. There’s the crazy will-they-or-won’t-they scenario for going back in person, scrambling to reinvent everything we’ve ever taught/used, and, well, you know. One subject that is especially challenging has been writing. Writing is a crucial skill, but it’s
In this new world of teaching, are there even early finishers? What does that look like? How can I implement this idea? For context, my school is completely virtual (right now). We have 4 synchronous learning blocks- math, language arts, science/social studies (alternating weeks), and flex (time to pull small
I hope you’ve been following along with the great journey through our entire mystery unit. First, my Detective Mission got my students engaged and excited. Then we watched a little Scooby Doo to reinforce our detective skills. Most recently, my class was split into two groups, reading mystery novels while
The first FIVE days of lesson plans for the beginning of the year.Visual, clickable resource grid.Free & delivered to your inbox. 
