Reading Archives - Page 4 of 9

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

Are you looking for a way to help students see the difference between literal and figurative language? This mentor text (book) is perfect for exploring these reading skills and ideas!

MTM: The Man Who Kept His Heart in a Bucket

I love when libraries put books on sale or when our school librarian pulls books to be discarded that we can take for free. Recently

This book is absolutely adorable and is perfect for teaching reading! Check out how you can use this book as a mentor text in your classroom!

MTM: The Princess and the Pig

Let’s get back to the funny, cute mentor text stories! The Princess and the Pig, written by Jonathan Emmett, is a wonderful story about a

Teaching science with this mentor text is a great way to start off teaching about the scientific method and experiments! Check out the details for this book on this post!

MTM: 11 Experiments That Failed

Are you looking for a good mentor text to introduce the concepts of the scientific method to your students? Perhaps you are about to have

This mentor text helps teachers teach reading strategies such as questioning and is perfect for teaching vocabulary!

MTM: Crow Call

Have you ever read Owl Moon by Jane Yolen? It seems there are very few people who I have met who have not read it.

Engage students and facilitate discussion when teaching reading with "Red: A Crayon’s Story"! It covers the theme of diversity and could be used to teach about connections. But that is only the tip of the iceberg! Check out these other teaching ideas!

MTM: Red: A Crayon’s Story

I love sharing all the various texts that I use in the classroom each week for every mentor text. It is so powerful when students

Teaching science is a fun and engaging activity with this science experiment! Check out this idea on how to help students explore pollution for Earth Day or any science lesson!

Polluting a Fish for Earth Day (or any day really!)

For Earth Day, I had my students explore water pollution through the Freddie the Fish Activity. There are many variations of this on the internet,

I'm sure there are some students in your classroom with the behavior of feeling like they don't exist or matter! This mentor text is perfect for teaching empathy and kindness when you are teaching about classroom citizenship!

MTM: The Invisible Boy

This week, my mentor text is The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig. I don’t know about you, but it sure seems that each year I

I love how this reading book really teaches the life lesson of perseverance and consequences of the choices we make! It would be a perfect mentor text for teaching classroom management!

MTM: Sam & Dave Dig a Hole

How many times have we thought to ourselves that we won’t give up until we get or find something spectacular? Many times, I’m thinking. My

The Common Core Reading Standards say that when we teach reading we need to make sure students are reading books with text complexity! How can we do that? With these ideas and tips of course! (Plus there is a freebie to get your students started!)

Shaping Up with Text Complexity

When I was in school, chin-ups were the worst thing any physical education teacher could make me do. I hated them with a passion. My

Are you teaching your students about personal narratives or memoirs in reading? Why not use this book as a mentor text! It's engaging and perfect for teaching about perspective! Your students will LOVE this book!

MTM: Memoirs of a Hamster

I often hear that there is not a place for read alouds and picture books in upper elementary. I couldn’t disagree more. When I taught

When teaching reading (or any subject area), you always have to approach the reading skill of cause and effect. It's a difficult concept for students! Check out these activities and ideas to help your students learn about cause and effect!

Not Your Traditional Cause and Effect Chains

Cause and effect. The Cause: The students not understanding cause and effect. The Effect: The teacher banging her head against the wall. Don’t we all

Do you need to spice up teaching text structure in reading? I have plenty of ideas and teaching activities to make it easy!

Spicing Up Text Structure

Not too long ago, I was teaching nonfiction text structure to my students. In reality, it can get a bit boring, and I felt I

Take Back Your Weekends

Let me help you take back your weekends without sacrificing quality teaching!