Teaching with Jennifer Findley
Upper Elementary Teaching Blog
Picture this: your students are working diligently on math centers. You have been pulling small groups and students are really starting to "get" the math concepts. Then, it is the end of the week and your students turn in all their math center work. You stare at the huge pile of papers, a bit daunted with the idea of grading all that student work. Can you picture that? … [Read more...] about Assessing Math Centers
If you are familiar with my blog, you likely know that I love using read alouds in my classroom. They are a great way to build community, to expose students to a variety of text, and to teach (and model) reading skills. For more information about the benefits of using read alouds in upper elementary classrooms (with implementation tips), click HERE to read a previous … [Read more...] about Planning Read Alouds in Upper Elementary
Getting students to quickly follow directions is a work of art for sure. My first couple of years teaching, I am not sure how much of my instruction time I wasted repeating directions, clarifying unclear directions, redirecting students who were not following directions, you get the idea! The next couple of years, I experimented with strategies and techniques to get my … [Read more...] about How to Get Your Students to Follow Directions
Using read alouds in my classroom is right up there with math centers on my list of favorite classroom activities. And I LOVE integrating holidays into my read alouds. Today, I want to share with you my favorite Halloween read alouds suitable for upper elementary classrooms. To read more about implementing read alouds in your classroom and the benefits, click … [Read more...] about Halloween Read Alouds for Upper Elementary {Free Printables}
Guided reading has always been a staple in my reading instruction. But, as much as I love guided reading, it is so easy (like scary easy) to have a jumbled mess of lesson plans, running records, and other random forms in piles upon piles at my guided reading table. To combat this, I streamlined my guided reading binder into a super functional organizational tool with all … [Read more...] about Guided Reading Binder for Upper Elementary {Free Forms}
As if it were yesterday, I remember my college days of spending long hours writing huge, detailed 10-15 page lessons for each lesson that I taught (or even just planned!). Then I got my first teaching job and quickly realized that was not going to be possible in the real world of teaching. However, there are still clear steps that I take when I plan a math lesson (many, … [Read more...] about How to Plan a Math Lesson (Whole Group)
One of my favorite times of the day is sharing a read aloud with my students. In today's post, I want to share some reasons why upper elementary students should still be read to, what you can read to them, tips for managing read alouds, and how to use read alouds in upper elementary classrooms to help the students master the standards. Why are read alouds in upper … [Read more...] about Read Alouds in Upper Elementary
Over the years of teaching 3rd through 7th grade, I have learned a few classroom management tips that were life savers for my management and classroom. I spent the first four years of my teaching career in an inner city, urban school. Teaching in that type of environment really allowed me to fine tune my management. Now, I would not be honest if I said I never had … [Read more...] about Classroom Management Tips for Upper Elementary
September 11th is quickly becoming a forgotten tragedy in many students' minds. The students we teach in elementary schools today were not even alive on this day in 2001. However, I still spend September 11th (or the week after if it falls on a Sunday) remembering the day. I like to focus heavily on the heroes of the day and how people came together, instead of the … [Read more...] about September 11th Lesson Idea (Free Printables to Use with Paired Read Alouds)
Many of my students in the past have come to me lacking conceptual understanding of basic math concepts that were introduced as early as 2nd and 3rd grade. The most important part of my math instruction is fostering a conceptual understanding and this is really important as fifth grade moves into more abstract math concepts. With that in mind, this is the first concept … [Read more...] about Reviewing Basic Multiplication and Division with 5th Graders {Freebies}
I have been using guided reading for the past 7 years, and I really can't imagine teaching reading without using this model. I plan to write a few blog posts about how I implement guided reading in my classroom. To start, I want to share with you the guided reading materials that I use. This post includes affiliate links if you wish to purchase the guided reading … [Read more...] about Guided Reading Materials for Upper Elementary
Word problems can be really difficult for upper elementary students. The complexity of the word problems increase, the length of the problems themselves increase, the numbers are larger and more abstract, and often key words just don't work. Today I want to share with you eight ways to help students who struggle with word problems in upper elementary grades. 1. … [Read more...] about 8 Ways to Help Students Be Successful with Word Problems in Upper Elementary
