Are you looking for some new ways to teach main idea? These activities make it easier and engaging for your kids. Here’s an super easy one for you: try using pictures to describe the main idea! It’s not always obvious to students what the point of a text is. So many of them get … Read more
Teaching main idea? Here’s a sure-fire lesson and video your students will love! There’s also a framework and worksheets for teaching this essential skill from the ground up. Getting the main idea of a story or text is often a terribly difficult skill for students. So be ready to spend some time (a long time … Read more
Instantly start using these reading comprehension worksheets in your classroom – main idea worksheets, compare and contrast, summary charts…and more. Our lessons should be designed to increase reading comprehension. The type of literacy questioning has drastically changed with what we know about teaching reading in the 21st century. Even so, teachers know that we simply … Read more
Short stories to read online – child safe sites you can allow your students to surf through on their tablets and computers. Research shows that listening to stories is a critical component to improving fluency and comprehension. Many children come to our classrooms without early learning experiences that come with “lap time” – parents who … Read more
Teaching reading strategies through intensive questioning not only develops meta-cognition, it grows students faster than traditional worksheets and low-level question/answer types of discussions. Teachers at all grade levels know that they should be using comprehensive, evidence-based Tier 1 reading lessons with their students. Even if you work with 5 year olds, we ought to be … Read more
High level questions and guided reading strategies that develop meta-cognition – teach students to think deeply about the text. Do you remember being in the Red Birds or Blue Birds reading groups? I sure do (I know, I am showing my age). I was one of those kids who was lucky enough to be in … Read more
Guided reading lessons are one of the most effective classroom strategies for teaching reading. All areas of fluency and comprehension can be developed in these small groups. Why should we care so much about how we teach reading? Statistics show that states can predict how many prison beds they will need in the future by … Read more
Four free reading comprehension activities that work – you won’t believe how much fun these lessons are. Who knew that making a salad would be a way to teach reading strategies! Getting children to become fluent readers includes being able to use metacognition to make sense of the text. These awesome strategies are fun, engage … Read more
4 reading comprehension activities that must be part of daily lesson plans. These double up as interventions as well as boosting ESL literacy skills. Well-developed instructional activities scaffold support for readers before, during and after the lesson. Teachers start with a framework to help students understand the purpose for reading a text. During the lesson … Read more
Actively teaching reading comprehension strategies is a not an easy task. These five activities take students deeper into Bloom’s Taxonomy as part of a balanced literacy program. These activities also support teaching fluency in reading. Fluency isn’t just about being able to sound out the words: it is about prosody and comprehension too. The lessons … Read more
What is reading comprehension and what makes it so hard? These literacy strategies and tips are guaranteed to reach all types of learners. Developing a deep understanding of the text (thoughtful literacy) is the ultimate goal of reading. It can seem overwhelming at times though because there are so many steps along the path to … Read more
Reading fluency activities must be done on a daily basis. Becoming a fluent reader means you can decode quickly, use prosody and have strategies for improving comprehension. Within a literacy framework, there are best teaching practices that are implemented which are good for all kids, or Tier 1 RTI. These strategies include fluency work as … Read more
Research shows that using elementary poetry as part of a balanced literacy approach can produce significant gains in reading. Here are tips and lesson plans that work! Ready to get kids reading? Reading poetry aloud has been shown to make significant gains in students’ oral reading fluency. Also, discussing the meaning of a text (poems) … Read more
These sound differentiation games are really fun. Both my students and my youngest child enjoy playing them, and they don’t even realize they are learning because it feels like playtime! A phoneme is a unit of sound, and is a foundation for phonics instruction. Phonemic awareness is auditory – it is the ability to hear … Read more
How long should daily phonics lesson plans really be? Orton Gillingham phonics is sometimes used as a core curriculum, but not every child needs this type of intensive instruction. Recently many districts have been adopting Fundations (from Wilson) to use not just as a Tier 2 and 3 intervention, but as their Tier 1 core … Read more
Here’s how to teach phonics without sobbing into your coffee! It might not be fun, it often isn’t pretty, but kids need basic reading instruction in how our language works. Understanding what phonics is and how our language manipulates sounds is a critical part of students’ growth as readers. According to the National Reading Panel, … Read more
What is word recognition and how is it related to teaching phonics? This is an area that gets teachers as riled up as timed tests or teaching cursive writing! This is the desired outcome of teaching children phonics. In actuality, it has been shown that we recognize words and contruct meaning about them based on … Read more
How to organize your literacy block for maximum effectiveness this year. Reading groups and activities should be simple to execute, student-driven, and involve the students with meaningful activities . The lessons should contribute to them becoming readers and writers. A balanced approach is based on authentic activities. Students should spend most of their time in … Read more
Create a reading library kids love to browse in. Make the books enticing, accessible and you won’t be able to keep them away! A classroom library needs to be a place that invites students to browse, explore and find books that are appealing to them and at their just right level. Many classrooms have lots … Read more
The benefits of reading to children includes genre exposure, vocabulary development and increased comprehension skills. Educators know that being read aloud to is a strong indicator of future literacy. When we model fluent reading, we are providing both direct and indirect instruction in all aspects of fluency: decoding, prosody and comprehension. Reading lessons that include … Read more
What is your belief about reading to children? Does it really make a critical difference in their cognitive development or is it wasted time in the classroom? What do statistics show about the language development children enter our schools with? Reading, providing oral discussion and strategically introducing higher level vocabulary words are some of the … Read more
How can we get children reading in the most effective way? What does research show about teaching reading to children? Teaching literacy starts with understanding the importance of reading aloud to children. Students must develop a love for hearing stories before you can get students reading on their own. One of the issues with literacy … Read more
Teaching reading to children is a science, but there is an art to it as well. We repeat activities that bring us pleasure, which is why teaching reading must be fun. When we enjoy something, we are bound to try harder, do it more often and keep coming back to it even if we mess … Read more