Critical thinking is an essential cognitive skill that entails the ability to reason, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. It goes beyond mere acquisition of knowledge. Instead, it involves deep, reflective thought, demanding us to question our assumptions, weigh evidence, and consider consequences. It's about making clear, reasoned judgments. In essence, critical thinking is thinking about thinking, in a manner that allows us to improve the quality of our thinking.
Teaching schwa vowels doesn't have to be tricky or confusing! These teaching tips for schwa sounds will really work for your students!
Many would agree that for inquiry to be alive and well in a classroom that, amongst other things, the teacher needs to be expert at asking strategic questions. With that in mind, if you are a new teacher or perhaps not so new but know that question-asking is an area where you'd like to grow, start tomorrow with these five ideas.
Children will practice using context clues as they identify the correct homophone in this grammar and spelling worksheet.
Developing strong morphology knowledge and skills can help our readers become stronger and have deeper comprehension. Learn how here!
I always have fun when trying to teach my students why it is important to use pronouns. Most of them look at me blankly when I first introduce the concept of
Etymology, which is the study of the historical word orgins and their meanings, is a powerful tool for improving vocabulary.
Hello Everyone! I know! It has been a long time since my last post. I have had so much family stuff going on that I have been absolutely crazy tired by the end of the day. I think things are settling in now, so I finally had a second to sit down and present a quick post. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I am so excited about how our poetry unit is coming along. We have one more week and then I'll be ready to share some of my little poets' work! They have been loving it!! Until then, I wanted to share a new unit that we started incorporating into our math curriculum. Personal Finance. Yes! You read that correctly. I don't know if you have that in your objectives, but in Texas we try to cover saving, spending, and sharing. Our adopted curriculum (Pearson) does a good job of supporting the objectives with technology based lessons, but if you know me, you know I have to have some things to accompany the curriculum in my math tubs. I created a Personal Finance unit that I am sharing tonight. Here are a few pics from the 50 page unit. All vocabulary words are included in a set of mini posters to post in classroom The unit includes some whole group vocabulary activities and 6 math tub activities. I can't wait for my kids to learn through these hands on personal finance activities and I hope they will help you help your kids learn as well! If you are interested, you can get the unit for free----CLICK HERE!!! :) Let me know how it goes and if I need to add anything else. Well, that's all the time I have for now. I promise I'll be back very soon!! As always, thanks for visiting. You are the best!! Joyfully! Nancy
With the passing of dyslexia laws in the state of New Jersey in 2014, there has been an increased focus on reading disabilities and dyslexia particularly in the area of effective assessment and remediation. More and more parents and health related professionals are looking to understand the components of effective dyslexia testing and who is
I’ve been spending some serious amounts of time this summer leading conversations around the country focused on the integration of social studies and literacy. And for the last few years, I…
Have you taught your student the C/K Rule? Since ‘c’ and ‘k’ both make the same sound sometimes, it can cause confusion for our young students.
Have a competition in class -who finds the answers of the 14 categories first. It is a good way of practising English. When done you revise their answer orally. - ESL worksheets
I received a handout at a workshop I recently attended on different factors coaches can look for in classroom observations. Collecting quality evidence during observations and presenting it in a clear manner to teachers is such an important piece of improving teacher practice and student achievement…so this handout really got me thinking about what I look […]
What are Irregular Plurals? English grammar generally pluralizes a word by tacking -s or -es onto the end of it, but there are plenty of words that buck this; some noun plurals look extremely diffe…
This past week, we learned about synonyms. The kids really grasped the concept by mid-week! I am excited to see them start using synonyms...
Looking for an easy and fun teaching idea for your students to practice their vocabulary words? My students loved it and never realized they were learning! This strategy can work for any grade, from kindergarten to high school!
Synonyms and Antonyms Anchor Chart! This blog post contains the material to create this anchor chart, plus a FREE interactive notebook entry for synonyms and antonyms!
I'll admit... I wasn't on the interactive notebooks train when it was presented to me (read: mandated with zero background or functional description for
Phonics poster to show ai words. (.pdf file 56.2KB) There are Loop Cards to accompany this
I love these FREE contraction folding aids from Twinkl. Personally I think theses are the perfect example of when keeping it simple is better. Nothing fancy is needed, the folding aids are nice a…
The following infographic offers some simple Dos-and-Don'ts for how to teach vocabulary in any content area.
Is LEGO© Therapy effective for children on the autism spectrum? If you're interested in the benefits of LEGO Therapy, read this guide to learn how it works, how LEGO bricks can teach your child social skills and ideas you can use with your child at home.
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin Education trends may come and go, but the conclusions of John Hattie’s Visible Learning research have remained largely unchanged over the years. The research is clear about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to raising student […]
This worksheet allows students to use syllabication rules to divide words using the VCCCV (first 2 consonants are a blend/digraph), VCCCV (last 2 consonants are a blend/digraph), and VV (vowels make 2 separate sounds) patterns. It also includes some compound words, which are an exception to the VCCC...
Learners will practice differentiating between homonyms "it's" and "its" by completing eight sentences with the correct word.
Winter is just around the corner and I have been working hard on our Winter Math and Literacy Packet for Kindergarten! I am happy to say that it is
Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing and feed your love of the English language.
Hello Everyone! I know! It has been a long time since my last post. I have had so much family stuff going on that I have been absolutely crazy tired by the end of the day. I think things are settling in now, so I finally had a second to sit down and present a quick post. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I am so excited about how our poetry unit is coming along. We have one more week and then I'll be ready to share some of my little poets' work! They have been loving it!! Until then, I wanted to share a new unit that we started incorporating into our math curriculum. Personal Finance. Yes! You read that correctly. I don't know if you have that in your objectives, but in Texas we try to cover saving, spending, and sharing. Our adopted curriculum (Pearson) does a good job of supporting the objectives with technology based lessons, but if you know me, you know I have to have some things to accompany the curriculum in my math tubs. I created a Personal Finance unit that I am sharing tonight. Here are a few pics from the 50 page unit. All vocabulary words are included in a set of mini posters to post in classroom The unit includes some whole group vocabulary activities and 6 math tub activities. I can't wait for my kids to learn through these hands on personal finance activities and I hope they will help you help your kids learn as well! If you are interested, you can get the unit for free----CLICK HERE!!! :) Let me know how it goes and if I need to add anything else. Well, that's all the time I have for now. I promise I'll be back very soon!! As always, thanks for visiting. You are the best!! Joyfully! Nancy
I LOVE making charts! Step into my classroom and you’ll probably say, “Wow, someone has too much time!” but to be honest, I don’t! I just love them so much and love the w…
Bloom's Taxonomy verbs include Evaluate: Criticize, Judge, Defend, Appraise, Value, Prioritize, Revise, Argue, Support, and Re-design.
Everything you need to know to consider issues of plagiarism in a K-12 setting, including creating cheat-proof assignments and teaching the skills and processes that make it tough to plagiarize
Spelling words with ch or tch. This generalization states that when you hear the /ch/ sound at the end of a syllable and it is immediately preceded by
Our Spelling dictation words this week are focusing on plurals. I'm a bit worried about introducing this concept with ELL learners, so I thought I'd make some posters to help guide them. I'll use these with a center activity that I can ask my EA to help out with. Big thanks to Michelle, the 3 AM Teacher, and Nikki at Melonheadz Illustrating, and Mel at From the Pond for the great graphics! Click either of the images for the link to these free posters. - Amanda
