Have you been searching for a quick reference of mentor texts to support you in teaching comprehension strategies? Take a peek here...
Hello again! Thanks for joining me for another Book Talk Tuesday! This week I would like to share this little gem! This is Building Our House by
Find 25 mentor texts to teach grammar that are the perfect way to introduce your lessons and make teaching grammar more fun!
Not too long ago, I had to write a script for our holiday program at school. "Me?" I asked. "You want ME to direct the Christmas...
In this blog post, read about my best teaching strategies to teach writing narrative endings. Grab all the freebies to help you teach.
Help your students dig into improving their descriptive writing skills with this workbook. Step-by-step lessons including mentor texts so students can see what descriptive writing should look like. This resource includes both digital and print versions -- Both PowerPoint and Google Slides -- so this will work with any digital learning platform! Your students will analyze what descriptive language is and then practice using it. Easy to plan and implement!
Mentor Text: Various Poems Writing Techniques: Writing poetry Writing around a theme or topic Building a writing community Background: Though it’s no longer something that I do, I have taught Art. …
Teaching nonfiction text structures helps students to be able to comprehend, organize, and write about the texts they read.
We are very excited to share our Must Read Mentor Text with you today! About two weeks ago we were contacted by Vincent Mastro, the au...
Teaching firsthand and secondhand accounts? Check out this blog post that contains a mentor text idea and an anchor chart!
I am getting ready to start HOW To Stories. I have decided this year, to use pieces of the Lucy Calkin {new book} and Tony Stead/Linda Hoyt books on Procedural writing. MENTOR TEXTS FOR HOW-TO'S Before Starting this new writing Unit: We read a few HOW TO STORIES On Demand Writing Assignment: {Pre-Assessment} Have students write a HOW TO Story. KICKING OFF HOW-TO WRITING Shared Writing: Make a Class How-To Procedural Poster PROCEDURAL POSTERS Click Here to See Class Samples from My Class CLICK HERE FOR POSTER 11X18 I like that Tony and Linda have students create procedural posters all on the same topic. You can click the Voice Thread below to see some samples from last year. This year, I decided to create a template for my students. I found that many kindergarteners were getting confused for placement of print and sequencing. Different kinds of How-To Paper click here click here
A blog full of tips, lessons, and ideas to use in the upper elementary classroom.
Looking for an Informational Text Structures Reading Center or need a ready-to-use reading activity for independent work, partner practice, spiral review, or test prep? This informational text structures digital reading unit has you covered. ✅ WHAT’S INCLUDED ✅ 5 Passages: Manatees Plastics in the Ocean Frogs and Toads How to Make a Toad House Cane Toads […]
We all have inner drama queens and kings inside us that pop up from time to time as we sigh, “This is the worst day ever!” or “It’s taken forever to drive to grandma’s house!” These exaggerated statements fall under the classification of hyperbole, a literary element that is
Author's craft is an important skill for upper elementary. This free lesson using In November will help students grow as readers and writers.
Theme. We know it when we see it, right? But it's one of the most challenging skills to teach kids, in my opinion. Kids tend to say, "Overc...
I always look forward to teaching figurative language in my classroom, and idioms in particular. Students get such a kick (note the idiom here) talking about and learning new idioms and we really enjoy doing some fun activities to help kids build a stronger language base. In this post by The Teacher Next Door, you'll read about seven different activities that reinforce idioms and have worked well in the classroom:
Find resources for teaching story elements to kindergarten, first, second, and third grade students including books and hands-on activities.
Comprehension Connection is a literacy website dedicated to providing teaching tips and resources for instruction for K-5 teachers focusing on comprehension.
Hello! Welcome to our fall mentor text link up! The book I chose to feature is An A From Miss Keller by Patricia Polacco. If you’re like me (and most intermediate level ELA teachers I know!), you’re
Summer is in full swing! I am loving the flexibility of time to get my hair cut, catching up with friends, going to a couple workshops, getting a facial... I am feeling refreshed! For my Thursday's Cooperative Learning, I wanted to discuss how I use RallyRobin in my classroom. Sometimes, I group my students in pairs or in small groups of 4-5 students. I am also joining Collaboration Cutie's Science Mentor Text! :0) When integrating science into my reading curriculum, I love using Pebble books. These books have great photos and simple text great for my little ones. Not only are they high interest books, but they are also good for those older students who need simpler text for reading. I got mine through Scholastic Books. Click below to check Lions out at Amazon. Before reading one of these books to my kinderkids, I have them get their materials (whiteboards, pencils, & tree maps) and meet me to sit in groups of 4. I put a grouping mat on the floor, and my students pick a number to sit by. Some groups may have 3 or 5 students. Either #4 is missing from a group or I have two #4's in a group. Here is a picture of a small group of 4... The whiteboards are flipped over and used as a writing surface for their graphic organizers. My wonderful kindergarten assistant made the grouping mats for my team and I to use with our students. Before reading the book, I ask my students to brainstorm words that they think will be in this book. In each group, starting with the number 2's, they keep going around and around sharing their predictions until time is called. That is a RallyRobin structure. We continue the discussion with what we know about lions, starting with the number 4's. Then I begin reading the story, stopping at various points. I help them make connections to the book by asking if they saw a lion before. Starting with a specific # they share within their group. Sometimes, I call on a particular # in each group to stand up and share something from their group. The tree map comes into play while I read the story to my students. The above picture is not the lion tree map, but I did use this one from Kim Adsit. (My kinderkids loved this project! We also made the lion king of ing.) I would ask my students to tell what lions are starting with a specific #. Then I would call upon some children to share something that their group shared. After that, I gave time for students to write their responses on their tree maps. They helped each other and wrote down the different ideas. After reading the book and completing the tree map, they went to their seats to complete their art project. This lion project came from KinderGals website. Links are in above paragraph. RallyRobin is a simple cooperative learning group structure easily adapted into any curriculum. I love how it gets each student talking. Kagan has posters, technology, and clipart about their structures for sale at their website. Last winter, I bought the Powerpoint Pals to make my own cooperative learning structures posters. I show them on my IWB. Click on the picture to visit Kagan Online. I also use Kagan's Timer Tools to help with timing. In the lion tree map activity, I did not. Instead, I had my students show me they were done by putting their hands on their heads. This gave me an opportunity to check and monitor my students. To draw interest, I used a student selector tool to pick students to share information. This helped made them accountable for the information they were sharing with their groups. I liked it also for the ones who had a difficult time brainstorming ideas, because they got information from their groups already. Kagan also has Student Selector tools. Instead, I use two free ones that I got from Mimio Connect and Smartboard Exchange. If you have an interactive whiteboard, these are great resources to use. It is free to use. If you do not have an IWB, you may be able to use, I did before I wrote my grant for the Mimio. :0) I used my big screen tv to display the information and used the keyboard/mouse. Not the same, but it works too! I did not use the grouping mats at my tables last year. Instead, I have my students name on a ring. Each student had the opportunity to be the team leader for one day, and then would start all over again. I called on my team leaders to get group supplies or help when needed. With a new classroom, and new furniture, I plan to use these mats at the tables. I will print one for each group, trim off the credits, laminate, and put on my students' tables. Click here to get it for your classroom. Click above button to visit Collaboration Cuties and their Science Mentor Text Linky. There are lots of great ideas and freebies being shared there every Sunday! Join me in sharing how you use cooperative learning in your classroom! Link up your thoughts of how you use cooperative learning structures in your classroom or comment with your thoughts or questions. I will be in a 2-day workshop, Got Mimio? Advanced next week... so next Thursday I will be there. I am hoping to have something special for you! An InLinkz Link-up
If you would like to teach your students a step-by-step approach to writing persuasively and also scaffold every stage of the writing process, then you will find this writing resource very useful. All components in this pack are designed to facilitate students to sit state tests or writing assessments. The materials adhere to a formal writing style complete with close detail to elements of structure and composition of persuasive texts whereby opinion is supported by relevant details. All lessons to teach and model the parts of a Persuasive Essay revolve around the self-written mentor text, ‘How Good is Fast Food?’. Application of writing skills is targeted in the close writing prompt: 'The Importance of Eating Clean'. The graphic organizers also enable students to write on other topics of choice. ⭐ This Resource is Included in: The Mega Writing Bundle Persuasive Writing Bundle Mentor Texts Essays Bundle _______________________________________________________ Overview LESSON 1: THE STRUCTURE Persuasive Writing Anchor Charts x 3 Mentor Text (self-written essay) x 1 on the topic ‘How Good is Fast Food?’ Cut and glue parts of the mentor text activity to study the structure Color-code parts of the mentor text to study the structural components of the introduction, body, and conclusion. Questions x 23 to draw attention to structure (to use with mentor text and informative article) LESSON 2: THE INTRODUCTION Scaffolded activities based on the mentor text to enable students to write the three parts that make-up the introduction: hook, opinion and thesis statement. LESSON 3: THE BODY Cut and glue interactive activities and reference to mentor text to help students better understand the parts of the three body paragraphs: the topic sentence encompassing the reason, supporting details and the concluding sentence. LESSON 4: THE CONCLUSION Reference to color-coded mentor text and deconstructing parts of a concluding paragraph activity to better understand the parts: summary statement, re-statement of reasons and call to action. ALSO INCLUDED: Graphic organizers to organize ideas of the introduction, body and conclusion when planning to write on a given prompt are included for all lessons. Writing templates for published pieces. Self-editing checklist Peer-editing checklist Teacher marking rubric Booklet cover for all lessons if compiling lesson sheets. Posters x 6 on Persuasive Writing Signal Words Once you have taught students the style and structure of a Persuasive Essay, the job is half done. All the best! I hope you will have an idea of how I have used this resource with my students via the guided notes for each section. Further instructions on how to use this resource are in file. Wish you and your students a successful year! See writing lessons for K-4 here: Persuasive/Opinion Writing Editable Presentation & Guided Notes Procedural Writing - How To Writing Persuasive/Opinion Digital Writing Google Slides Resources of Interest ELA Practice Tests Bundle Sentence Structure Bundle Reading Strategies Bundle Math Practice Tests Bundle Math Curriculum (K-3) Bundle Math Curriculum (4-6) Bundle Thank you for visiting Teach2Tell. New resources are 50% off - do follow the store to get notified :) Please contact me with any queries regarding this resource. Thank you! [email protected] Read more about how 'Writing Doesn't Have to be Boring' at my blog: Writing Doesn't Have To Be Boring!
Despite the joys of our profession (and there are so many!), there are also so many things which can drain our energies and motivations in the classroom. One
Mentor texts are very helpful for modeling with think aloud the process we as teachers use as we read. This post focuses on strategies for making predictions using Enemy Pie.
A blog full of tips, lessons, and ideas to use in the upper elementary classroom.
With the Common Core Standards in place, students are being asked more and more to use critical thinking skills to analyze literary and informational text. Inference is a prime example of a critical thinking skill used in classrooms today. Students are asked to read text and analyze it by
The school year is winding down—and I find myself thinking more and more of warm poolside days—yet everywhere I turn, rich mentor texts seem to come my way. I’ll find something and think, …
Teaching writing often slides to the back burner, but in this post, I share five ways to rev up the rigor in your lessons.
Ideas by Jivey walks you through each day of the first week of the mentor sentences routine with directions and picture/video examples.
Use picture books personification examples as mentor texts for your writing workshop in the classroom at home to introduce figurative language.
Looking for a book list for making inferences and predictions? Here you go! Be sure to check out all the book lists I have for teaching comprehension. *This post contains affiliate links. Making inferences and predictions are highly related comprehension strategies. In fact, most books for teaching comprehension lump them together. For the younger ... Read More about Book List for Making Inferences and Predictions
I’m sure you are familiar with Julia Cook but if you are not then I HIGHLY recommend her stories. Julia Cook's books are a MUST in my classroom. Her stories teach life skills that I’ve struggled with for years as a teacher. I used to have a really hard time explaining to students why stealing is wrong and why tattling isn’t always the best thing but after finding Julia’s books we can easily have the conversation. Her books teach students to be problem solvers. I've even learned some great advice. I sure wish I was taught these lessons in my elementary years. In the past, I would call parents if I had issues with interrupting, rudeness, or impulsivity. Now I read all of Julia’s stories in class and even recommend them to parents. Her books are one of my favorite resources as a teacher. I always love when new books are released because the kids LOVE them. When parents ask me for advice on certain life skills I always tell them about my wonderful collection of books. Julia has books for TONS of life skills and lessons such as teasing, cliques, making friends, fears, respect, personal space, interrupting, stealing, depression, divorce and many more. I can’t tell you my favorites because each story is fabulous. I can tell you I’ve never read one of her stories that I didn’t like. The best part …ALL of the stories are filled with wonderful ideas and they are simple enough for students relate to the characters. They really speak to the children. Children really understand the lesson being taught and they can start implementing her tips that SAME day. Would you like to win one of her autographed stories? I have four to giveaway. Thank you Julia !!!! But It’s Just A Game- This creative story teaches kids and adults how to switch out their game controller for a “life controller” Thanks for the Feedback- RJ learns what feedback is all about. This story is about learning to responding to feedback, accepting positive feedback, and learning to interpret and grow from negative feedback. Peer Pressure Gauge- Story about Norbert’s internal deliberation as he struggles with whether or not to give into the pressure. Ricky Sticky Fingers- This story teaches children the concept of ownership and how it feels when someone doesn’t respect what is yours. a Rafflecopter giveaway
Analyzing children's books in the secondary classroom? Read about some specific ideas for reading strategies, language, and aesthetics in this post.
When readers are really thinking about what they’re reading, they sometimes make connections to what’s going on in the world right now or how it may connect to past events. These text to world connections can cause students to activate their background knowledge and can help keep them engaged with the text. The more students […]
Hey there! A while back I posted about how I use mentor sentences in my classroom as a bridge between grammar and writing. If you missed that post, you can click HERE to read it. I will move forward from here assuming you know my background and have read the post, that way I'm not repeating myself to those that have already read it. :O) *We have created a starter pack if you are interested in trying these mentor sentences in your classroom. Click here to go to our store. Jessica (from Ideas by Jivey), Stacia, and I all taught at the same school for several years, 3rd and 4th grades. Jessica jumped ship last year (it's fine...I'm not bitter) and went to a different school (we love her and miss her!!). Well, about three or four summers ago we all attended a summer staff development together. We learned about using mentor sentences and mentor texts in the classroom and all decided to implement it in our classrooms. Since we all use mentor sentences, we thought we'd link up and share how we use them, that way you can see it twice, especially if you are interested in using them. So without further adieu, welcome to: Today I am here to share with you how my class does mentor sentences the first two days of the week (Monday and Tuesday). Each week, I choose a sentence from a book that we have already read that is an excellent sentence, but also has some quality that I am looking for (compound sentence, figurative language, etc.). For the last few weeks, I opened it up to my students to choose a sentence. I told them that if they found a sentence that they thought is a mentor sentence, they could write it on a sticky note and give it to me. Then, I could look through and pick one that suited my needs. I did this because I want them to realize there are great sentences everywhere and now they will look for them. If I didn't get a great sentence from a student, I would just pick one (but that hasn't happened yet). So, we have been reading this book: We are using it as an extended text and the whole class is reading it. So, last week one of my students chose this sentence from the book: As the four boys sat huddled together, the oarsmen dressed in tattered blue and buff uniforms used their long poles to push off the ice. I asked her why she chose this sentence and she said because of the comma and the adjectives. We had been discussing the use of commas (compound sentences and with quotation marks), so that's one reason it stood out for her. She also liked the word buff (even though she didn't know what it meant). I went ahead with this sentence, even though it's hard, I am fine with pushing the students' thinking a bit. I would never pick a sentence like this for the beginning of the year...there's too much going on. On Mondays, they paste the sentence into their journal and we notice everything that we can about the sentence. They like to guess where the sentence came from and they know that I am looking for something specific as to why I like this sentence and they all want to be the one that guesses it. We notice together. I try to keep these lessons to about 10 minutes, max (but sometimes it does go over). Here's what they noticed with this sentence on Monday: They have gotten it in their heads that they want to make it to the third piece of chart paper because it makes them feel smart to do so...whatever motivates them, is good with me!!! (you can see we just barely made it to the third page and then they basically said, ok, we're done! haha!) Here's a student's journal: Tuesdays have changed a little for me over the year. Now, on Tuesdays, we are basically diagramming the sentence. This is definitely not my favorite thing (mainly because I get very nervous since I'm not always confident in what I know about grammar) and because I hated diagramming sentences when I was younger and I don't want the kids to hate it. So, "for fun", we developed the code that you see in the next picture. I was hoping it would help them take ownership of it and make it a little more fun! Of course, they think this is fun, so I guess it just makes it fun for me! Again, this was a tough sentence and my kids are OCD about having EVERYTHING labeled. The only thing I left off was that as is a relative pronoun because I had planned to teach it last week and I wanted to see if they'd catch it. I have them paste a new sentence into their journal that is spaced more than the first (I can't trust my students to copy from the board quickly and accurately and since it's a mentor sentence, I want it to be correct). Here is a student example: So, this is the first two days of mentor sentences! Hopefully I made it somewhat clear as to how I do it!?! If you have any questions, please let me know!! Also, go over to Jessica's post here so you can see how she does mentor sentences in her classroom. Here is our starter pack: CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF THIS SERIES! :O) We are also linking this post up to the wonderful Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for : and we hope that maybe you'll try this in your classroom one day! Go check out her other posts and see what everyone else is trying!! Let us know what you think about mentor sentences! We'll be back Thursday with the rest of the series!! :O) Amanda
Teach your students how to write an ode. This free poetry lesson for upper elementary and middle school students is really fun! Free printables are included!
*The list keeps growing - there are six now! Ted Talks are increasingly popular with educators for use with the faculty as well as the students. However, it can be tricky to find just the right talk for the occasion since there are so many available. There's also the problem of occasional profanity or inappropriate ...
Here is the beginning of the Mastering Mentor Sentences Series with Collaboration Cuties! I told you about the book Dandelions last week in this post about mentor texts. As I mentioned, I use the book for reading and writing, with social studies integration, too… and I’m here to tell you I also used it for my […]
One of the first words my students learned this year was metacognition or thinking about your thinking. (I was pleased to see that some of...
I'm SUPER excited!!! Yesterday as I was about to start writing time with my kids, the tech guy walked into my class with FIVE brand new Google Chrome laptops!! Never in my 7 years as a teacher, have I ever gotten 1 new computer, let alone 5!!!! My class and I were beyond happy! It's a brand new style of operating system, so I'm still figuring it all out. It works on the Cloud system so it saves everything as GoogleDocs and stuff. So apparently I can set up the kids computers to link to my school email and be able to access all their work from anywhere I can access the internet and my email. I should have brought one home this weekend to play around with, but I forgot in the midst of grabbing everything I need to do report cards this weekend. The kids played around with them yesterday afternoon. I put the kids on ScootPad and a few other learning websites we love to use. We're in the process of testing them out to help determine if the school should get more of them for other classes on campus. My friend teaches the class one level older than mine and her computers were even worse than the crummy ones I had. So I surprised her with my old computers since I have new ones. Social Skills Books! So my little guys seriously lack social skills! Each week my friend the speech teacher and I talk about the things they need to work on, and somehow the list never gets any shorter! I have 2 in particular...maybe 3... who am I kidding?? They ALL need some serious social skills work! So I made my read aloud theme of the week "social skills books!" I always pick a theme (sharing, the nearest holiday, a specific author, etc.). This week my author was Julia Cook. Her social skills books are amazing! Below are the ones we read this week. Click her name in this paragraph to get to her Amazon page with all her books. My kids loved them so much that one little guy begged me to order more! Now if I kid with Autism begs for a social skills book, do you really think I'm going to say no?! Two more are on the way! There is a widget below so you can scroll through all of her books and buy them from Amazon for pretty cheap! Listening and Following Directions Responding Appropriately to "No" Making friends, and understanding it's okay to be different Spacial Awareness These are the new ones coming in the mail on Tuesday: Amazon.com Widgets
This month, the Reading Crew is celebrating spring! It's a fun link-up featuring a variety of mentor texts related to spring and a gr...
Despite the joys of our profession (and there are so many!), there are also so many things which can drain our energies and motivations in the classroom. One
$ Money $ 7 Great Titles for Teaching Money 1. Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday By: Judith Viorst 2. "Smart" (poem) from Where The Sidewalk Ends By: Shel Silverstein 3. The Go Around Dollar By: Barbara Adams 4. How the Second Grade Got $8205.50 to Visit the Statue of Liberty By: Nathan Zimelman 5. If You Made a Million By: David Schwartz 6. Money Madness By: David Adler 7. The Case of the Shrunken Allowance By: Joanne Rocklin
Whenever I started a new unit or inquiry with my second grade students, I always found a picture book that became a way in, a gateway if you will. I used the books as a broad introduction before w…
I thought I would share a few of my favorite books for teaching text-to-self connections, text-to-text connections and text-to-world connections: When students are able to make connections with a book they find more meaning to the story. They are able to better connect with the characters and the plot and really understand what is happening. […]
For the past two weeks, my class has been learning about figurative language and how to use it to enhance writing. We worked through 6 elements of figurative language: similes, metaphors, hyperboles, idioms, personification, and onomatopoeia. Here is a listing of picture books I used to teach figurative language and the activity we completed for each piece of language: My lovely student teacher started off with a T-Chart on the board with "like/as" in the center. She had a variety of pictures and words on magnets. Students came up and moved the pieces to create similes such as "busy as a bee" or "cool as a cucumber." She then read the class "Crazy like a Fox." Afterward, she brainstormed with the class characters and a plot to create a class simile story. Pairs of students were assigned a page and had to write a few sentences, including one .". They are currently working on finishing off the illustrations. This story is great to read to your class even if you aren't teaching figurative language! It's all about a boy who can't help but shout out and the strategy he learns to stop it from happening. I didn't do much beyond read the story as the students were able to easily understand having done similes first. Again, I LOVE this story! There are two sequels as well: "More Parts" and "Even More Parts." They are quite funny. The entire book is an exaggeration, but there's also some idioms in here as well. I started off this lesson by having students wash their hands. They were so intrigued just from that! When they returned to their desks, there was a bowl of Alpha-bits cereal on each table group. I gave them 5 minutes to make as many words as they could. After, I told them "Eat your words." :) I explained that in this situation, I actually meant "eat your words", but that's not what the saying really meant. Only one student has actually heard the saying before, so they explained it to the class. As I read "Amelia Bedelia's First Field Trip" (you could read any Amelia story, they are all full of idioms) the students munched their snack and were on the lookout for other things that sounded one way, but actually meant something else. They were able to find them all! I didn't use a book for this one. We talked about onomatopoeia earlier in the year when working on "great grabbers" for writing. A student did tell me that Batman comics would be really useful for teaching this though. I heard about this book on my favourite website - Pinterest. I ordered it off Chapters website and am very happy I did. The little red pen has a whole lot of marking to do, and none of the other school supplies want to help her. But, when she falls into the Pit of No Return (the garbage can) the supplies get together to help her out. I started off by making a chart with all the supplies as headings. I also had an actual red pen, stapler, eraser, push pin and green highlighter. I had the students describe the items. After reading the story, we added more to the chart based on how the books are in the story. I called a student up to circle any "alive" words. It was at this point I introduced the term personification. Students made their own chart that had the headings: noun, verb and adjective. The added at least 5 items under each. From there, they could create personification sentences such as "the wind tapped softly on my window" or "the car grunted as it slowly climbed the hill". What books do you use for teaching figurative language? Leave me your suggestions in the comments!
