Reading Archives - Page 3 of 9 - The Owl Teacher by Tammy DeShaw

READING

Reading is a valuable and critical skill that students need to develop. As teachers, we are always in need of fresh ideas and tips to help our kiddos soar to new reading heights. Explore this section to get started.

DON'T MISS THESE BLOG POSTS

6 Ways to Teach Reading Strategies by Reading a Good Book

Every classroom has reluctant readers - probably a few of them! This blog post shares four tips to motivate reluctant readers, including tips like going digital and comparing books and movies. Click through to read all of the suggestions in more detail!

4 Tips to Motivate Reluctant Readers

Reading fluency is about more than just pace, accuracy, and smoothness. It is also about expression! I share my process for teaching expression in fluency in this blog post, which includes a discussion of how punctuation marks influence expression and fluency. Get all of the tips in this post!

Teaching Expression in Fluency

Engage students when teaching the nonfiction reading skill of main idea by using this manipulative and visual tip! This idea will definitely help your students make main idea concrete!

Making Main Idea Concrete

Every time I teach main idea I always start with this little demonstration. I get out an index card, a clump of clay, and four

"Enormous Smallness" is a perfect reading mentor text for teaching about poetry, figurative language, vocabulary, text structure, biographies, and more!

MTM: Enormous Smallness

This week’s mentor text is the book Enormous Smallness: A Story of E.E. Cummings by Matthew Burgess. This is a nonfiction biography that centers around

"The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus" can be used as a mentor text for teaching about nonfiction, parts of a book, synonyms, vocabulary and more.

MTM: The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus

This week for Mentor Text Monday, I am going to tell you about a book written by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet. The book is

Motivate students to read books, while engaging them with creating their own book trailers with this fun reading activity. Grab a freebie to get started!

Creating Book Trailers in the Classroom

A few years ago I set one of my professional goals at integrating more technology into the classroom. Regardless of the limited resources, I just

Engage your students in your elementary classroom with "The Whisper" while teaching about the reading skills of author's purpose, point of view, and more!

MTM: The Whisper

It’s Mentor Text Monday! This week I’m excited to share with you a book by Pamela Zagarenski. This book is called The Whisper. This book

If you are looking for some great read alouds during this Christmas or holiday season, look no further! Check out these fantastic seasonal books that will engage your students!

Seasonal Books Your Students Will Love

I have a lot of books that I want to share with you regarding the holidays! Any regular reader of my blog would know I

"I Don't Like Snakes" is a fantastic mix of both fiction and nonfiction elements that will engage your students as you teach about various science ideas.

MTM: I Don’t Like Snakes

I don’t like snakes. I never have. There is something about them that just creeps me out! So when I heard about this book, I

Text-To-Text connections. Theme. Personification. These are just a few of the reading skills that can be taught in your classroom by "Our Tree Named Steve!"

MTM: Our Tree Named Steve

Do you need a good book to use as a mentor text in reading this week? This week, my mentor text is “Our Tree Named

The Little Shop of Monsters teaches your students about writing narratives, word choice, and can even be used for teaching about comparing texts!

MTM: Little Shop of Monsters

It’s October — such a fun month in school. With Halloween around the corner, I thought “Why not align Mentor Text Monday with Halloween?” I

How often do you hear students say they were just kidding? Probably more times than you can count. "Just Kidding" talks about just that!

MTM: Just Kidding

Since the month of October is bullying prevention month, I thought I’d start right away with that theme. In fact, all my posts this week

Teaching Tier 2 Vocabulary in the elementary classroom can be engaging with this simple word study activity and lessons! Check out this idea for collecting vocabulary!

Collecting Vocabulary

I emphasize vocabulary in my classroom during all content areas because I strongly believe that vocabulary can be a huge barrier to comprehension and understanding.

Help your students study and review their vocabulary words using this free slider frame that can be used as a literacy center or for early finishers! And - It's editable!

Vocabulary Review with Vocabulary Sliders

As most of my followers know, I love to find new and unique ways to present material to my students. So when I have to

TRY MATH WORKSHOP!

You can finally take back your weekends with Math Workshop! How? It’s jam-packed with everything you need – lesson plans, math centers, independent work and so much more! Try it yourself. Enter your information below and check it out!