One of my favorite things as a teacher is getting to know my students as readers. One of our jobs as teachers is to engage even our most reluctant readers in books and texts that they enjoy. The first step to do that is to get to know your readers and one way to do that is by using reading interest surveys, But, the same old survey-style worksheets just don't seem to ... Read More
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Free Assignment Checklists for Google Classroom
Keeping your students’ assignments organized each week can be easier said than done. Using these FREE assignment checklists for Google Classroom (with spots for reminders and messages) will hopefully make your life (and your students' and parents' lives) a little easier while teaching in a digital classroom. Using Assignment Checklists in Google Classroom™ Google ... Read More
Having Online Class Discussions with Google Classroom
Online discussion can be motivating and encouraging for many students! Whether it’s one-on-one discussion so students can ask a question privately, or small or large group discussion, you can keep those important academic and social emotional conversations happening outside of the traditional classroom setting. This post shares several ways to have online discussions with ... Read More
Viewing Responses in Google Forms
Google Forms are a great tool for digital learning and teaching! Not only does a Google Form collect all of your students’ responses and have the potential to grade responses instantly; it also takes the data and organizes it for you in multiple ways. This will help you with using the results and responses from Google Forms to drive your instruction. This post will look ... Read More
How to Create Google Forms for Your Students
Whether you’re using more digital activities because of distance learning or you are just wanting to incorporate more technology in the classroom, Google Forms is an excellent option. One of the best parts about Google Forms is that they are not limited to Google Classroom users. In fact, you can use Google Forms with any online platform or website that allows you to ... Read More
How to Assign Google Slide Activities (Free Guide)
Have you used Google Classroom before? While the interface may not be user friendly for organizing assignments, the ability to assign interactive assignments through Google Slides is a game changer with digital learning. This post will share a brief overview of how to assign Google Slide activities via Google Classroom with a free downloadable guide you can use as a ... Read More
How to Assign Google Forms to Your Students
As we move more to online learning, teachers are having to post work online for their students. For many teachers, that means assigning work on Google Classroom. For other teachers, that means emailing work to students or their parents or posting work on their websites or other learning platforms for students to download. One easy-to-use option for teachers to use no ... Read More
Tips for Home Learning | Remote & Distant Learning Tips
Home learning/distance learning/remote learning (or whatever your school is calling it) is definitely new territory for most (if not all) of us. Here are some tips and strategies that I think will help make this process more effective for you, your students, and your parents. Some of these apply to digital learning but many are applicable with printable work as ... Read More
Teaching Text Structure (And What To Do When Students Struggle)
Text structure is a very powerful reading skill that can really help students make sense of and analyze informational text. This post shares tips for teaching text structure, including pre-requisite skills, all the different text structure skills, and strategies for when students struggle. What is Text Structure? Text structure refers to how the details and ... Read More
Free Digital Distance Learning Activities for 4th and 5th Grade
While the country prepares to keep our families and communities safe, teachers are also continuing with teaching and learning through digital distance learning opportunities and packets for our students. On this post, I will share some free distance learning resources for 4th and 5th graders that are printable (and some now include digital versions). Writing Choice ... Read More
Free Text Structure Activities
Text structure is one of those reading skills that is really powerful for helping students understand texts and even become stronger informational writers. But it is not always an easy skill for our students to master (and especially at the rigor required). This post will share a few free text structure activities and resources to help you teach this tricky but important ... Read More
Teaching Point of View (And What To Do When Students Struggle)
Teaching point of view and perspective is another tricky reading skill for 4th and 5th grade readers. On this post, I will share tips to help you teach point of view to your students, including what skills students need before instruction on point of view, all of the different point of view subskills that really increase the rigor, and strategies that you can do when ... Read More
