Reading comprehension skills like making inferences, finding the main idea, and recognizing cause and effect are critical curriculum elements in any ELA classroom. As our students build their reading skills, they need to develop their understanding of 12 different reading comprehension skills. One of my favorite ways to teach students about the reading skills is with doodle notes. Don't worry...I've put together a 20+ page set of doodle notes that you can download for FREE! (Sign up at the bottom of this post!) Have you tried doodle notes in your classroom? If so, you know that... ⭐ Doodle notes are a great way to introduce students to important information. These doodle notes include definitions for 12 different reading skills. In addition, there are tips provided for each reading skill to help students use each in their reading. The definitions are simple enough for students to understand, but specific enough to help students recognize the differences in each. ⭐ Doodle notes tap into multiple learning styles. Doodle notes are obviously great for visual learners. They also create a connection between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. This leads to an increase in learning, focus, and retention. The doodles on the note pages also help a variety of learners connect images with information. The free set of reading doodle notes also includes 4 versions for easy differentiation. There are doodle pages for lower grades, upper grades, as well as notes that are filled-in or in a guided notes format. ⭐ Doodle notes expose students to skills they can use in the classroom. Doodle notes are a fun and engaging spin on traditional notes. The free set of doodle notes focus on reading comprehension skills. Therefore, they work perfectly as a review of skills before students show off their learning while reading passages. Of course, I think reading passages should be engaging, too. So, some of my favorites to combine with the doodle notes are these... --- Reading Passages and Text-Based Evidence - R.E.A.D. Strategy --- Social Emotional Learning Passages - Read, Doodle and Do --- Nonfiction Reading Passages - Doodle and Do ⭐ Doodle notes are extremely motivating and therefore work as awesome introductions to units. The free set of reading comprehension skills doodle notes are such an awesome way to introduce students to more in-depth reading units. You could easily have students complete the packet of doodle notes before diving deeper into each reading skill. Or, you could have students complete one section of the doodle notes as they learn about different skills. The good news is that I've already created 12 reading mini-units for each reading skill. Find them here. ⭐ Doodle notes help students review and reinforce information naturally. When students complete doodle notes, first, they do the work of adding the notes to their pages. However, their learning doesn't end there. Students are super motivated to doodle, color, and embellish their note pages. As they get creative, they naturally read over and review their learning. It's the perfect way to mix creativity and learning! If you'd like to add this FREE set of reading comprehension doodle notes to your classroom, just add your email and name below. Then, check you inbox for your exclusive freebie!
Lesson ideas and activities for listening skills practice and monitoring
I was recently sitting in one of my sixth grade guided reading groups when one of the students in it asked, "What are those line thingys called that the author keeps using?" I hesitated before replying because the words "hyphen" and "dash" kept coming to my mind, but to be completely honest, I had no idea which was which. So we stopped and decided to look it up. This is what we discovered: The reason that I like teaching within a flexible framework of teaching, like Literacy Collaborative, is because learning becomes authentic. Instead of drilling into my whole group of students what a dash and a hyphen are, something that I've never known my whole life but probably have been taught at some point, I was able to ask students questions like: *What do you notice about when an author uses a dash? *What do you notice about when an author uses a hyphen? *What is the author's purpose in using a dash/hyphen? *How does understanding this punctuation make the book easier to understand? *How could you use what you now know about the dash and the hyphen in your own writing? This particular guided reading group and I had an awesome conversation about this, and it is amazing what students notice and how they categorize information within their brains. I am confident to say that they now not only know what a dash and a hyphen are and the author's purpose in using these particular types of punctuation, but they also are noticing and analyzing the author's purpose in using other types of punctuation such as commas, parentheses, italics, and end-of-the-sentence punctuation. As teachers, we have to make possibly hundreds of mini teaching decisions every day of where to take the whole class next, where to take a small group of students such as my guided reading group, and where to take individual students. The more I continue to teach using the Literacy Collaborative framework, the more I realize that it's not necessarily about having all the answers or being the expert teacher. It's about how you allow students to interact with one another, how you talk to students, and the atmosphere for learning you have set up.
This post features literacy center ideas and printables for 4th-grade classrooms. It includes reading centers for fourth grade.
Ready to teach digital literacy? Here are ten ideas to help you teach important critical thinking skills to your students.
Teaching grammar CAN be fun! Check out this blog post featuring five fun, free grammar games and activities! It includes four free games and a writing activity!
There are middle school math skills students must master to thrive in high school. This post discusses the 7 most important skills.
complex sentences lesson ideas
Find strategies for teaching vocabulary in the upper elementary classroom. Get actionable steps you can take today!
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:
Whenever I teach freshmen or sophomores, I always begin the school year with a short story unit. I use this unit to introduce literary elements to my
Back in the fall of 1991 I was a brand new middle school teacher. I had left a two year gig as a high school English teacher which I loved, but felt called to work with middle schoolers. In any case, my mentor teacher ( they didn't have such a program then, but she graciously took me under her wing) shared with me a beginning of the year writing activity she did with her 8th grade language arts students called The Perfect Gift. Now, I have no idea where she got this; as creative as my dear friend Deanna was, she probably came up with this herself. In any case, I used this idea all 14 years I taught middle school and have even used it with the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade reading/language arts students I have taught- all with success! This activity has been tweaked to death and I recently gave it a massive face lift! Click on the picture below to see the listing for this packet in my TPT store. Write to Inform Prompt from the packet I absolutely love using this activity as the beginning of the year. The Perfect Gift is a beginning of the year writing activity that promotes self-reflection, goal setting, and can be used as an assessment of writing skills. In fact, I used it as a beginning of the year writing assessment before we were required to administer a specific, county-wide one. Students are asked to write what a perfect gift would be for them to have a successful year. The gift is to be an abstract noun such as bravery, patience, kindness, responsibility, joy, honesty, creativity, self-control, self-confidence, humor etc. Since I am now teaching in a Christian school, prayer and faithfulness also appear on the list. The first day I bring in a huge gift-wrapped box that always gets the students' attention and is used as my "hook". Students get so excited when I tell them that I have a gift for them and they start guessing what it could be. Imagine their shock when I throw the present on the floor! This is my intro into abstract nouns... I pass the box around so they can shake it, just to make sure it is empty! We discuss concrete and abstract nouns and the way I teach these is to tell them that if they can place the item in the box, then it is most likely a concrete noun. Mini-poster/anchor chart This activity involves the whole writing process and gives me a glimpse not only of students' writing strengths and needs, but also tells me about who they are: their personality, fears, learning styles, and needs. Students write about the gift, what it is, why they want/need it, and how it will help them. At the end they design a cover page or can use the gift box template to decorate and use as a topper for their published piece. By the end of the first week of school, I always feel like I have learned so much about my students from a social, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual perspective. And usually I learn something new about myself too! I keep the gift box visible in the classroom the entire year. Students revisit this writing at the end of each marking period and reflect on whether they have "received" their gift yet. This is how I introduce them to goal setting during the first marking period. Check it out and let me know what you think and whether you and your students would benefit! Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 Have a blessed week!
This blog post contains a FREE compare and contrast reading activity! Materials are included so you can replicate the compare and contrast anchor chart and lesson for your own upper elementary and middle school students.
Jenga game cards are easily my favorite way to teach and reinforce basic math fact, phonics, or grammar practice.
One of the greatest changes to assessments is the shift from what to why and how. A student that knows that an author uses figurative language or literary devices does not always understand how these writing tools contribute to meaning. Not only will students be expected to interpret the meaning of reading passages on Common Core assessments, they will sometimes be asked how an author achieves characterization, the tone of the text, persuasion, etc. This level of analysis requires an even deeper level of understanding of the tools authors use to convey meaning. Don't worry, this blog post is here to help. At the lower grade levels, students are not expected to know the words syntax or diction. A general understanding about how authors convey ideas is what students need to know. Diction Diction means the words an author uses to convey ideas to a reader. Similes, metaphors, imagery, personification, etc., all fall under this category. When students closely read text, they should look for these literary devices and explain how they contribute to meaning. Some possible student responses could include: "The author uses personification to help the reader imagine what it was like in the forest." "The metaphor 'as slow as a turtle' in line three helps the reader understand why Devin was so upset with his brother. It was because he was moving to slow." Syntax Syntax is the way that words are arranged in a sentence. In early grade levels, students learn about the different types of sentences which includes: declarative(a sentence that makes a statement) interrogative (a sentence that asks a question) imperative (a sentence that gives a command) exclamatory (a sentence that expresses strong feeling) Writers of speeches or persuasive articles often use imperative sentences to call listeners or readers to action. When students analyze diction and syntax, they are able to deepen their understanding of what they read.
Hello! If you are just now joining me for this little series on Balanced Literacy, you can get caught up on the other posts here: Post 1- Overveiw Post 2- Shared Reading & Interactive Read Alouds with Accountable Talk Post 3- Shared and Interactive Writing After all of that information, you're probably thinking I am a crazy woman with a 10 hour school day...but there are a few tricks that I do employ in order to get it all in! Out of all of the components, I make sure that I do certain ones everyday no matter what- depending on the grade level. As I am a 2nd grade teacher, we do an interactive read aloud with accountable talk EVERY DAY. When I taught kindergarten, I was sure to do more than one component everyday (shared reading and writing and interactive writing) because those are SO important when modeling reading and writing habits that kinderbabies need to pick up quickly. Generally, I plan to do an interactive read aloud with accountable talk every morning. During community circle, I'll pick one reading and one writing component. So on any given day, I've got a read aloud ready, and a shared or interactive activity planned. Some days I will move my IRAWAC to the middle or end of the day to make room for a shared reading lesson. This doesn't happen as much in 2nd grade as it does in K1. The rest of the components get to take turns on any given day. The goal is always to get a reading and writing component in...but there is never a day where every component is taught. My advice would be to consider what your students need to see the most and then figure out which component it would be easiest to model in. So...how do I schedule all of this? Being a visual person, I need to be able to map out a week at a time when it comes to balanced literacy. I use a planner to jot down my ideas. I like this one because I can be intentional about a lot of things. I can select which components that I'd like to plan and I can vary with the genre. I am able to think about the needs of my students and plan accordingly. Below, is an example of a planning sheet that has been completed- along with a blank copy that you can download if you'd like to! Just click the blank one below. So, in essence, that's what I do! I think about the current reading and writing units that I am in and I consider if my students need to brush up on certain things. Since they always do, I am able to find places in my schedule to address those needs naturally. Most of the time, the students just think we are doing a big book or writing a story together. They don't always realize that they are taking in a lot of things that I am saying as I think aloud. I have found that this is what I need in order to get these skills to transfer into my independent reading and writing time. Thank you so much for reading along! Happy New School Year!
Help students appreciate the information they can get from text features!
This unit it to help upper grades (3-5) understand the steps they need to follow in a research project. They are modeled after the Big6 steps, but with easier to understand terms. I've included posters of each of the 6 steps, as well as a poster on a Works Cited page. There's also a main poster with...
Teaching morphology can be a great way to help students with understanding unknown words, decoding multisyllabic words, and spelling.
A lesson plan that presents teaching and learning resources on note taking. After completing this lesson, the students will be able to: Identify the importance and usefulness of note-taking skills. Evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of various note-taking strategies. Prepare notes from lectures, texts, videos, and activities. This Resource Includes: Well Formulated, Measurable, SMART Objectives and Outcomes Vocabulary Overview - Note Taking, Reading Flipped Lesson Part - Video - Note Taking Methods Engaging and Creative Lesson Starter – Guess the WALT Success Criteria - Note Taking Checklist Collaborative Group Tasks – Pair-Share, Think-Write, Write-Share Scaffolder Notes - Rules, 5 R's, Format, Abbreviations Mini-Plenary with Critical Thinking Questions – 3 Online Quizzes Assessment Criteria for Outcome Expectations - Rubrics Differentiated Activities for Level Learners - Writing Task by Outcome Extensions to Challenge the High Achievers - Note Taker Plenary to Assess Learning Outcomes - The Plenary Dice Home Learning for Reinforcement – 5 Task Cards Common Core Standards - ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-12.1-3/W.9-12.4 Skills to be addressed during the Lesson - Social and Cognitive Educational Tools and Resources - Connectives Teachers can use this resource to teach the students to take notes, thereby helping them to enhance their reading and writing skills. For a PowerPoint Presentation of the same topic you may refer to: NOTE TAKING PRESENTATION Here are some other possible uses for these in your classroom: To challenge early finishers For effective tutoring As ESL stations and sub tubs As holiday work and homework For small group collaborations For an end of unit assessments For reinforcement and enrichment This is what teachers say about these resources: WRITING BUNDLE-LESSON PLANS: Great resource to always have! Really helped to raise the rigor of my lessons! – Cheri Reynolds DIALOGUE WRITING: This was easy to use. It helped my students to review and fix the errors they were making in their writing. –Beth G. CAPITALIZATION RULES: The perfect visual to help students remember to use capitalization while writing. – Mary Z. ACTIVE VERBS: This is a great resource to include in the binders for future resources. - Patricia O. FICTIONAL STORY WRITING: A great resource for students to practice writing during center. - Jamie S. NOUN PHRASES: This product was helpful for my ELD students! – Rae E. PLAY-SCRIPT WRITING: Can't wait to use this when I get back. Just love the approach to learning script writing skills. – Kathryn A. HOMOPHONES-HOMONYMS-HOMOGRAPHS: Very excited about using this in my intensive reading classes. – Tammye G. FIRST-AID: Great resource for first aid presentations. I'll be using this with my class. - Jackie Malley COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCES: These task cards were perfect test practice! - Michelle P. PUNCTUATION WORKSHEETS: I found the variety of options to be useful,… I have used it to complement the areas of focus in my lessons. - Dianne P. SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT: I have used this resource several times already. –Jean C. OXYMORON: This is great. I can't wait to use it with my ESOL students. - Rebecca D. SEVEN AGES OF MAN: This was perfect use of imagery and words. It helped even my weaker 6th graders understand the message of the poem and complete an activity on their own. - Amy B. PREPOSITION TYPES HANDOUT: My students loved this poster. - Patricia O. PLAY-SCRIPT PRESENTATION: This looks awesome! I am excited to use it with my advanced theater class this year! - Kimberly R. THE HIGHWAYMAN POEM ANALYSIS: AWESOME resource! I highly recommend this product! – Samantha L. Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use for future purchases Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to log in). Beside each purchase, you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases. I value your feedback greatly as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you. Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a FOLLOWER. You will now receive email updates about this store. Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies, and product launches. Find Me Here: TPT Store - JOHN DSOUZA Pinterest - JOHN DSOUZA Facebook - TOMORROW’S CLASSROOM TODAY Instagram - JOHN421969 Twitter - JOHN421969 Blog - TOMORROW’S LESSONS TODAY
Lesson ideas and activities for listening skills practice and monitoring
Literacy centers in the classroom should be simple, easy, and fun! Using no-prep or low-prep ideas helps with time management, lesson planning, and easy weekly setup. Throughout the years, I have tried a plethora of ideas for my literacy centers. Some worked okay, and some did not work at all. Finally, I realized I was overthinking and making center time WAY more complicated than it should be for both myself and the students. Once I realized that the simplicity of the centers was what made them work, everything else clicked into place. Using five weekly centers in your classroom each week makes things easy. Having a group of 4-5 students in each group rotate through only one center each day keeps it simple for the students. The no-prep or low-prep activities keep it fun and SUPER easy for you! Five Literacy Centers for All Year Set up these five literacy centers at the beginning of your school year, and use them all year long! Center #1: Technology: Use any activity that you have on hand. This can be computers, Chromebooks, iPads, etc. Students can play online games or you can assign a digital activity via Google Classroom to your students for this center. Using digital task cards or interactive digital games for practice are great choices. Center #2: Writing: The activities change in this center weekly, but the supplies remain the same. Any activity that you want your students to use for a focus on writing can be used. Add a word bank, thesaurus, dictionary, writing tools, paper, etc and give your students a weekly writing prompt. You can also use one of the writing activities from my No Prep Literacy Centers units. Print the center directions on color copy paper to grab the students’ attention and place it in the same place in the center from week to week because students need that routine and dependability of knowing where to find the directions. Copy the other pages for the activity on regular copy paper to add to the center. These activities are sometimes longer in length, and students might need two weeks to complete. On those weeks, do not change out the materials. Center #3: Reading: It is especially important to give students multiple opportunities throughout the school day to read independently from books of their choice. For some, school might be the only time they are exposed to books. During this center, give students comfortable seating choices throughout the room so that they are not in a group and disturbing other students or being disturbed. Students can have individual book bins that contain books they have chosen to read. By having their book bins already stocked, students are not constantly moving around the room to visit the classroom library during this time. Use these Digital Reading Responses for students at some time during the week to add a writing component. Center #4: Word Work: This center can look vastly different weekly. I always use an activity from my No Prep Literacy Centers. Students might be manipulating letters to create words one week, and the next week, they might be playing a word game from the same unit. Another week, they might complete the monthly “Put It in Order” alphabetical order activity included in each monthly unit. For the last week, they might do a part of speech word sort from the unit. Adding some of these activities normally used for Morning Tubs can add a lot of fun to your literacy centers as well. Center #5: Miscellaneous: This center can include anything related to what you are currently studying in reading or grammar or a review of previous learning. One week students can move around the room on a scavenger hunt, while the next week has students reading an informational passage and answering questions. This center allows for flexibility and might include task cards, sightwords, or even an activity from my early finishers unit. Adding any kind of game that you already have in your classroom is a simple and fun activity for this center also. (Click here for a list of ten easy activities to add to your centers using items already in your classroom.) Using these five simple, easy, and fun literacy centers all year will help you keep your sanity. The prep time is 15-30 minutes on a Friday afternoon, helping me get out the door and home to my family. Grab FREE Math and Literacy Centers when you sign up for my emails. Keeping literacy centers simple, easy, and fun is just... My Kind of Teaching
These 4th grade anchor charts reinforce concepts for reading, science, math, behavior management, environmentalism, and more!
Reading can be a hard sell for students. Introducing middle school literature circles can be the game changer your classroom needs to foster reading.
A weak foundation in phonics will affect a student's ability to read with appropriate fluency and comprehension. Students must be able to automatically identify common words and recognize phonics patterns within words to read with proficiency. With struggling readers, especially, it's important to dig deeper with assessments to determine if phonics is an area that needs targeting. If it is, there are many phonics interventions you can incorporate into your small group instruction to boost these skills and develop their phonics knowledge. Many school districts have formal research-based programs they use for phonics interventions and lessons, but if you're an
When we let students know that reading is worthwhile, it creates a chain reaction of learning. Here are 25 strategies for fostering a reading culture.
Try this free, fun, and interactive middle school ELA games in your classroom to teach grammar and literacy ELA skills!
Your sixth grade students are ready not just to read young adult novels; they are ready to engage, discuss, and devour good literature.
We are here to help you add some tools to your teacher toolkit in order to become effective at managing Book Clubs in your classroom.
Back to school lessons and ideas for upper elementary classroom. There are book suggestions, community building ideas, and tons of FREEBIES!
This post explores the benefits of using reading centers in upper elementary and includes a free reading center.
Check out this post for fun Halloween activities to do in the upper elementary classroom that also teach. Includes some freebies and lots of ideas!
This "What Would Happen If?" Center is a part of the April Centers Bundle for 2nd Grade! This Center Includes: 36 discussion prompts What If? These discussion cards are great for starting great conversations between the students of your class. Standard covered: RL.2.1: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language. Click below to save BIG with the Centers Bundle: Second Grade Literacy Centers for the Year TERMS OF USE: Thank you for your purchase! By purchasing this resource, you are agreeing that the contents are the property of Emily Garcia/Education to the Core, and licensed to you only for classroom/personal use as a single user. I retain the copyright, and reserve all rights to this product. You May: • Use items (free and purchased) for your own classroom students, or your own personal use. • Reference this product in blog posts, at seminars, professional development workshops, or other such venues PROVIDED there is both credit given to myself as the author and a link back to my TPT store is included in your post/presentation. • Distribute and make copies of free items only to other teachers PROVIDED there is credit given to Emily Liscom Garcia and a link back to my TPT store. You May Not: • Claim this work as your own, alter the files in any way, or remove/attempt to remove the copyright/watermarks. • Sell the files or combine them into another unit for sale/free. • Post this document for sale/free elsewhere on the internet. (This includes Google Doc links on blogs.) • Make copies of purchased items to share with others is strictly forbidden and is a violation of the Terms of Use, along with copyright law. • Obtain this product through any of the channels listed above. Thank you for abiding by universally accepted codes of professional ethics while using this product. Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use on future purchases: • Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases. I value your feedback greatly as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you. Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and product launches: • Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a follower. Voila! You will now receive email updates about this store. If you have any questions about this resource, please contact me at [email protected]
5+ new ideas for teaching theme in upper elementary. Use these suggestions for activities, scaffolding, projects, and review to give your students a firm foundation of theme in literature.
Our job as teachers is to turn our students into avid readers. On this post, I will share the tips and strategies I use to get my students excited to read.
Students in 4th and 5th grade still need decoding strategies and instruction. This post shares my go-to decoding strategies with activities.
Calling all 5th grade teachers! I've just finished my first set of literacy centers written specifically for 5th grade. I know it's ...
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 […]
This post explores the benefits of using reading centers in upper elementary and includes a free reading center.
Whether you call them reading centers, stations, rotations, or something else, literacy centers are so beneficial for kids in upper elementary classrooms. Here are 7 reasons why you should be using reading centers with 3rd – 5th graders: 1. Gives Students Targeted Practice with Reading Skills and Strategies Whether you do a reader’s workshop model […]
