Looking for ways to make learning more efficient for all students? Try these four essential scaffolding strategies in your ELA classroom today.
By The Daring English Teacher When it comes to teaching writing in the middle school ELA or high school English class, it can oftentimes feel like there is just so much content to teach. And in all honesty, that is entirely true. We simply do not have enough time to teach students every single thing they need to know in order to be the best writers they can be. However, we can focus on essential skills one at a time to build strong writers. When I first teach a type of writing to my students, I provide direct instruction and activity-based assignments so that students have an understanding of the genre of writing and what is expected of them. At the beginning of the new unit, I use this ELA writing instructional resource to directly teach students about either argument, narrative, or informational writing, and then we spend time each day working on developing the information using some of the included writing graphic organizers. In addition to sharing the above resource that I use for teaching writing, this blog post will also include three strategies to help you improve your writing instruction. Teaching Writing Tip 1: Simplify it and Break It Down One of the most vital steps in teaching writing to middle school and high school students is simplifying and breaking down the writing instruction into small, manageable chunks. One of the easiest ways to do this by focusing on less. Rather than having my students write an entire essay or paragraph, I will ask for three sentences: a topic sentence that answers the prompt, an evidence sentence with a properly introduced and cited quote, and one commentary sentence for an explanation. By breaking down the writing process into small, manageable chunks, students are less intimidated and more focused on demonstrating their writing abilities. You can read more about how I break down writing instruction and snag a free download by reading this post about teaching writing in the secondary ELA classroom. Teaching Writing Tip 2: Use Sentence Frames One of the most effective ways to scaffold writing instruction is by providing students with meaningful sentence frames. There are so many benefits to using sentence frames in the classroom, and even high school students benefit from them as well. When teachers include sentence frames during their writing instruction, they are teaching students HOW to academically organize and write their ideas. To read more about using sentence frames in the classroom, you’ll want to visit this blog post about scaffolding writing instruction through the use of sentence frames. This blog post also contains sentence frames that you can use today in your classroom as well as a free sentence frame download! Teaching Writing Tip 3: Incorporate Grammar In addition to simplifying writing assignments and using sentence frames, another key area to help students become stronger writers is by focusing on grammar. When students know how the parts of speech work together and when student understand how language works, they will naturally become stronger writers. The three biggest grammar lessons that I’ve found help students improve their writing abilities are the parts of speech, dependent and independent clauses, and sentence structure. By focusing a little bit of time on these conventions, your students will become stronger writers. You can read more about how I incorporate these grammar lessons in my classroom and download a free parts of speech interactive notebook activity by reading this post about helping students improve their writing skills by focusing on grammar. After incorporating these three strategies into your writing instruction, you might also be interested in three more tips for teaching writing and three strategies to boost student writing. Teaching Writing Resources: Writing a Persuasive Essay Portfolio - by the SuperHERO Teacher MLA Style and Format - by Tracee Orman Writing Activities - by Presto Plans Teaching the Process for Literary Analysis - by Room 213
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A three-step process for teaching your students how to identify,
Download and post these FREE Figurative Language Posters for your learners to use to remind them of the terms and definitions.
A few years ago, my son opened a Google Document and started typing. I asked him about it and his eyes lit up as he described the shared story he was writing with classmates. This
Analyzing nonfiction and rhetoric in the secondary ELA classroom is one of my favorite teaching units because it allows teachers to incorporate engaging
Teaching writing to fifth graders doesn't have to be intimidating. This post details exactly how I teach writing in 5th grade.
It can be very overwhelming, especially for my struggling readers, to focus on using multiple reading comprehension strategies with a piece of text. For this reason, I always take time in at least the first
As much as I love to read, sometimes I dreaded teaching reading. I was reading by four and everything in language arts came easily to me - it just clicked. When I had students that didn't improve their reading with my strategies, I didn't understand why. Now that I am working with my son, I am un
You're going to need a little patience and a good eye to solve these tricky rebus puzzles
Like most teachers, you want your students to be successful readers. But what do you do if they struggle with reading fluency? Reading fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with
Engaging, fun ways to teach your students summarizing skills. Strengthen their reading skills and provide practice with this challenging concept.
Starting to plan poetry month? a poetry unit? or prepping ways to sprinkle poetry in throughout the school year? It can be so time consuming to find quality resources for poetry instruction! These low prep
Happy Friday!!Here in South Jersey, were are eagerly awaiting snowageddon!! Blizzard + coastal flooding + four kids under the age of 7 stuck inside all weekend = CRAZINESS!!Anyway, before we lose power to the snowpocalypse, I wanted
This post shares a collection of videos for reviewing or teaching figurative language, including metaphors, similes, hyperbole, and personification.
Un blogue québécois inspirant pour des enseignants passionnés qui ont à coeur la réussite de leurs élèves du préscolaire et du primaire
Explicitly teaching and practicing reading strategies is so important to give students tools to better comprehend what they are reading. Some of these powerful strategies include using background knowledge, making predictions, asking questions, making inferences,
Help! My students don’t remember the parts of speech! Yep, we’ve all been there. You start a grammar lesson, only to realize that your students don’t remember the basics. It’s not that they don’t understand grammar and syntax; they just forgot the technical terms (nouns, verbs, adjective, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections) that they need […]
It’s no secret that I have an author-crush on Ralph Fletcher. I was lucky enough to see him in person (twice! woohoo!), and I could hardly contain my joy. I threw my hand up like an excitable fourth grader when he asked for volunteers. I asked questions - so I could pretend he was talking just to me. And at the break, I got him to sign two books for me (I always thought it was ridiculous to stand in line to have an author sign books…until I became a bonafide Ralph groupie.). I love the way he writes. I love the way he speaks. And I love the way he looks. Okay, I know the last one was a little bit more information than I needed to share – but it’s true. So what sparked this author crush? His crazy-good, life-changing Writer’s Notebook books. Book Love A Writer's Notebook Ralph Fletcher has written a lot of books about teaching kids to write the way real authors write (and each one is filled with ah-ha moments and practical tips), but the one that sparked my insatiable desire to learn more was A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You. I’m not kidding when I say that once I applied the techniques in this book, I started looking forward to the ELA writing block – every single day. Why? Because my students loved it! Not only did Writers’ Notebooks change the way I taught writing, but they turned even my most reluctant writers into writing machines - who actually wanted to share what they wrote. Be. Still. My. Heart. Writer's Notebook Defined So what exactly is a Writer's Notebook? Ralph Fletcher describes it this way: “A Writer’s Notebook is a blank book where a writer can engage in the fun, often messy job of being a writer – practicing, listening, playing with language, gathering images and insights and ideas. The purpose of such a notebook is to nourish the writer. It is one of the most essential tools of the trade.” Yep. It’s just a simple, blank notebook where writers collect ideas (lists), free write (fluency), and practice targeted skills (figurative language/word choice/sentence structure). Essentially, it’s the place where ideas for future writings (i.e. pre-writing and drafting gems) are stored. That’s it. Nothing else. No full-length pieces. No final drafts. But believe me, if you want to see dramatic improvements in your students’ writing it’ll be more than enough. Writer's Notebook in Practice There are many ways to use Writers' Notebooks, but I either use them as stand-alone exercises to build writing confidence or as warm-up exercises during the mini-lesson portion of Writer’s Workshop. Sometimes students generate lists (e.g. annoying personality traits, character names, substitutes for overused words). Not only do student-generated lists serve as great pre-writing tools and year-long reference pages, but students feel a sense of ownership as they create and share these lists in pairs and small groups. Writer's Notebook Collections and Quick Writes Sometimes they'll draft free writes about something that's on their minds or about something I suggest (e.g. recounting an event that happened over the weekend, taking a stand on a controversial issue, writing a character description). Free writes (10-12 minutes drafts) help students experiment with different writing styles. Since free writes are non-threatening by design, students find it easy to develop a style that feels natural and conversational. ***An extra free write bonus is that many of these short pieces will become part of longer assignments later in the year. Character Snapshots And sometimes students fool around with language to help them develop a unique writing style (e.g. playing with punctuation, practicing sentence-building techniques, experimenting with word choice). I can't think of a more entertaining way to teach grammar and mechanics than to have students create visually-rich pages which will be repurposed as valuable guides for the editing and revising stages of the writing process. Visual Writer's Notebook Although Ralph Fletcher emphasizes that a pure Writer’s Notebook should be filled only with pieces dreamed up by each student, I have found that many students need to have a suggested topic to fall back on in case they're not inspired to come up with their own on any given day. There are also times when I require students to write about a pre-determined topic (Shhh…don't tell Ralph.) in order to make the scary process of writing a five-paragraph essay or a full-length narrative fun, easy, and achievable for inexperienced writers. I'll talk more about that in a future post. If you'd like to view more sample pages you'll find them under the Visual Writer's Notebook tab above this blog or by clicking the button below. In my next Writer's Notebook post, I'll be sharing a short video on how to set up notebooks and I'll be including a downloadable Writer's Notebook cheat sheet. Until next time…stay committed…teach with passion…and inspire students with who you are.
Teaching writing to fifth graders doesn't have to be intimidating. This post details exactly how I teach writing in 5th grade.
Steal these for your writing unit!
Check out this list of French vocabulary time-fillers so you won't always end up playing hangman and tic-tac-toe! As much as we plan out our lessons in great detail, we sometimes have a few minutes we need to fill. It's not long enough to start a new topic, but we can fill it with meaningful activities.
Reading Comprehension can be difficult for student, even those with great reading skills. Support students by giving them the language they need.
Explicitly teaching and practicing reading strategies is so important to give students tools to better comprehend what they are reading. Some of these powerful strategies include using background knowledge, making predictions, asking questions, making inferences,
Ideas for bookmaking projects come to me in all sorts of places. Last month I was at a talk by Tuskegee Airman James A. Sheppard at the Ne...
How about activity sheets for your students to work on their vocabulary and writing? Would you like them to practice spring-themed words right now? Check out the Le mot du jour spring FREEBIE I'm sharing today.
For the past couple of days, I have been working on setting up example, interactive notebooks for language arts and reading. For the first week of school, my students will be setting their notebooks up and creating some pages that tap into background knowledge and (hopefully) help them take ownership of and pride in their notebooks. I figured I would share how we are starting the reading notebook. The students will have to create a cover for it that titles it as their interactive reading notebook. They can draw it, write it, or create it on their computers. (I am very lucky. My district has a laptop initiative that allows every student from 6th grade through 12th grade have a school-owned laptop to use at school and at home. It has a VERY low initial fee and a contract that governs usage and a $100 deductable should the student damage the laptop. Most families take the district up on this deal. I also have two laptops in my room that students, who were unable to afford the plan, may use. Thus, the only students that really do not have computer access are those that lose the right through misuse of their laptop from a prior year.) The Last 10 Books I Read, where students will reflect on the books they have read most recently. My Reading Timeline, where students will reflect on the books that have shaped their lives. I Read Because... will help students consider the reasons they read. My Heart Map helps students identify what is important to them so they can use it as criteria for picking books. The first 4 pages are set up as a table of contents. Then, the students will create some pages that demonstrate their reading background and allow them some creativity to make their notebook theirs. None of these page idea are mine. I came across them on Pinterest, and they are all pinned at various points on my reading board. Some have been slightly modified for my grade-level or preferences, but others are exactly as the originators designed them. The pages with book images were printed on my home printer. My students will have the option of printing at their homes in color or on our grade-level printer in black and white. The "I Read Because..." page uses random scrapbook papers I have collected over the years punched with a 1 1/2 inch circle punch. The timeline is made using blue masking tape I had leftover from a painting job. Finally, the cover art/title was sealed using packing tape so it can stand up to the use it is going to receive. For the covers, I used backgrounds by http://www.etsy.com/shop/beartless and a digi font by http://www.etsy.com/shop/kpmdoodles. I hope to get photos of the language arts notebook up soon, and I need to finish a few more pages that will be part of setting up the reading one too.
Hi friends! We've been working really hard on fluency and inflection in our voices lately in class. I *love* using this quick,easy peasy, fast, effective, and engaging {can you tell I puffy heart love it?!} fluency activity with my kiddos. I just write sight words with a punctuation mark after each one down a sentence strip. Yep. It's that easy. And it REALLY helps my kids to recognize the change in their voice when reading. Early on in the year I do this same thing with letters, but we're past that point now. You could easily do this with CVC or CCVC words, etc. to make it suit your students best. I could use complete sentences, but when I really want them to practice with punctuation, I whip these puppies out and practice. It's a great warm-up at teacher table!
Enlgish teachers, gIve yourself back some free time: with these strategies you can grade student responses quickly and easily.
Are your students having trouble finding answers and citing evidence in their reading? This STEP-BY-STEP process scaffolds through reading strategies to help your students be successful! Students will learn the acronyms for ACE, RACE, and RAP to provide them with the proper tools for citing evidence effectively along with
The "paragraph hamburger" is a writing organizer that visually outlines the key components of a paragraph. Topic sentence, detail sentences, and a closing sentence are the main elements of a good paragraph, and each one forms a different "piece" of the hamburger.
Looking for French listening assessment ideas? In this post I share informal listening assessment ideas for your French classroom.
Core French or French Immersion teachers, are you looking for meaningful & engaging French Black History Month activities?
I am having a fabulous start to my year of teaching fourth grade! I am confident that this age is right in the midst of an incredible time for growth, learning, curiosity, and creativity. It is an …
Read aloud time is a very sacred, coveted time in our classroom. My kids beg for more of it and some of the best conversations and deepest thinking happens during this time. We are starting my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE read aloud in our classroom this week, The Westing Game. We are knee-deep in our character unit...
Love podcasts? Check out this podcast in the form of a podcast episode on The Classroom Commute .
French Morning Work consists of printable activities to be done as students get settled down to start the school day. Great way to establish a routine.
When I was planning word work for my kiddos, I was struggling to find things that were upper elementary. I wanted students to practice their vocabulary words while thinking and analyzing each word. My other goal was to have my students completely independent. I have learned that to create completely independent children in daily 5 ... Read More about Word Work for Upper Elementary
Some people might think I am crazy, but I just love anchor charts. I think it is the elementary teacher trapped in me. It is rare that we d...
Hi friends! Today I'm excited to showcase a new collection from Teacher Created Resources. Their new superheroes theme has some great pieces in it and I'm especially loving the speech bubble accent pieces. There's SO much you can do with these and when I first saw them, I knew exactly how I would use them.
