Literary EssayWe are just about to finish up our third writing unit from Teacher's College/Lucy Calkins, so I wanted to share how it went, what we did, what worked and what (definitely) did not work!This quarter we focused on writing Literary Essays, which, before working my way through this unit, I could not have explained… Continue reading Literary Essay
BLOG
Word Reference Materials
We just finished up a two week unit on Word Reference Materials that I wanted to share with you all! We started the unit off by talking about what Word Reference Materials are and then taking a closer look at dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses (that's a fun one to say). We discussed what each one… Continue reading Word Reference Materials
The Research Based Argument Essay a.k.a. Opinion Writing
We just finished up our second Lucy Calkins unit! This one was, "The Research-Based Argument Essay", which is quite a mouthful so I just call it "Opinion Writing". This unit was really fun because the kids got to pick sides and argue, which are two of their favorite things to do! 🙂 The first bend… Continue reading The Research Based Argument Essay a.k.a. Opinion Writing
The Book Whisperer
 This year I have a few students who never seem to finish books! I have tried so many different things to get them to read just one book from start to finish and made very little progress. I have helped them pick out books, read parts of those books together, given them time to read… Continue reading The Book Whisperer
The Week(s) After Thanksgiving
This week was These past two weeks have been tough to get through! I had such a hard time getting back into a normal routine (and bed time) after that short but sweet Thanksgiving break. I also had a hard time keeping up with the blog - this post was started last week but, clearly,… Continue reading The Week(s) After Thanksgiving
Prefixes, Root Words, & Suffixes
This year I am really trying to step up my game with vocabulary instruction. My students are almost 100% English Language Learners, so it is super important for me to provide them with explicit vocabulary instruction. On top of simply learning new words, we are going to be studying Greek and Latin roots, prefix, and… Continue reading Prefixes, Root Words, & Suffixes
Figurative Language, Text Features, and a Celebrity Visit
September is over! Can you believe it? We are officially done with our first month of school AND I'm halfway done with conferences!!! It's going to be a well-deserved, long weekend before we get back to work and don't have another day off until Veteran's Day. Over the past eight days of school we have… Continue reading Figurative Language, Text Features, and a Celebrity Visit
First Two (or three) Weeks of School
In my last post I promised that I would share what we did during our first week of school and I just realized that it has already been two weeks since then, SO, today I'll share with you what we have done during the first three weeks of school :)Student Interest Survey & Faces of… Continue reading First Two (or three) Weeks of School
Classroom Reveal
The first week of school is in the books! This year I am teaching English/Language Arts to two 5th grade classes of 20 students each (for now - we always end up adding several kids during the first few weeks of school).This summer I decided to "take the summer off" for the first time in… Continue reading Classroom Reveal
Teaching To The Test-Taker 