Teaching with Jennifer Findley
Upper Elementary Teaching Blog
One more day to go till the weekend! I wanted to write a quick post to share with you how to make simple math assessment accommodations for students with IEPs or on RTI plans. First, I must tell you this was not my idea or my work. I was in a fellow teacher's (4th grade) room when I saw this on a student's desk. I was immediately impressed and knew I had to share it! I … [Read more...] about Math Assessment Accommodations Made Easy!
Well it is Monday, and RAINING! Notice all those capital letters. We may even have a delay tomorrow if all this rain keeps up. So on this rainy day, I am going to share how I made the leap to binders for my handout/printables/worksheets (whatever you want to call them!) storage. Going from files to binders will help keep you organized! First, a little background as to … [Read more...] about Going From Files to Binders
Teaching readers who struggle to construct meaning during reading is a challenge. It is a challenge for the students because they struggle connecting to and getting immersed in books. Teachers are challenged with making complex texts comprehensible and engaging, while teaching grade-level reading skills. One way that I help with this is to teach my students to mark their … [Read more...] about Reading Is Thinking: Using Thinkmarks with Reading Strategies
Well my friends, I don't know about you, but the new year has always brought me testing anxiety! Gotta get those kids ready to take the TEST. However, this year I have a little less stress than usual. Did I get the gifted students? Nope! Do all my kids read on grade level? I wish! Did I learn some test taking strategies in the past few years that work? Yes, and this … [Read more...] about Test Taking Strategies {Teaching Students to “Work the Text”}
Since blogging about my 6 Traits writing board earlier this year, I have gotten a few emails from teachers wanting to see how it looks in action. This post will share a look at how the 6 traits writing board looks now and how I display my mini-lesson statements. Remember that you can grab the FREE 6 traits writing checklist to help you come up with writing mini-lessons by … [Read more...] about 6 Traits Writing and a Secret Code to Improve Narrative Writing
December can be one of the looongest months for teaching because of the antsy students (and teachers). I often have to mix things up a little when my students are excited and ready for a break from school. This excitement definitely affects their behavior and attention span. So, here is my behavior management tip that has been keeping me sane! We do colors at my … [Read more...] about A Behavior Management Tip to Keeping Your Sanity During the Holidays
"Your students are not engaged with the texts they are reading." I will never forget when my administration said that to me after an observation my first year teaching. I remember thinking "They were reading the text. That is enough, right?" However, it wasn't and my students' comprehension suffered because they were not actively engaged with the texts they were … [Read more...] about Reading Strategies: “Work” the Text
Well, I don't know about your students, but every year, it seems that interpreting remainders is a struggle for my students. It is really a struggle for students who have difficulty understanding word problems or that have no conceptual understanding of what division is. This post will share some of the activities we did and a free anchor chart with sample word problems … [Read more...] about Interpreting Remainders {Anchor Charts, Ideas, and Activities}
We have been working very hard on long division these past few weeks. My students have huge gaps in their number sense, so this has been somewhat of a struggle for some. We have been working very diligently getting them to understand the partial quotients method of division in a conceptual way. Read more about how I teach partial quotients by clicking here. We have been … [Read more...] about Division Fun and a Tropical Christmas Freebie
Once a week, I do a cognitively demanding math task lesson to expose my students to rigorous word problems and allow them to learn from each other. I do this with the skill we are working on (if most of the students have mastered it) a review skill, or even to introduce a new skill. 90% of the problems are word problems so the students have a context to deal with and not … [Read more...] about Teaching Math Through Cognitively Demanding Tasks
You guys, I got super smart this year and tied some of our Halloween Math with some extra constructed response practice. The kids never knew they were preparing for an assessment with these fun problems! This year, our district is having students take constructed response assessments on a few of the fraction common core standards (multiplying fractions by a whole, … [Read more...] about Halloween Math Constructed Response Practice
I just found out today that our Math night is a nacho theme. It is called Nacho Ordinary Math Night. I thought that was the cutest idea! So, I made this cute nacho themed free fraction center using these fun nacho graphics from Ashley Hughes (LOVE her work). On another note, the heat was running full blast in my room this morning. It reminded me of that … [Read more...] about Free Fraction Center {Nacho Math}
