It never fails. No matter how many times I spiral review reading skills through homework, reading review, read alouds, or guided reading, I always get those looks during test prep review. You know the ones...the deer in the headlight looks when they get asked to determine the text structure of a text or identify the point of view of a story. I learned long ago not to ... Read More
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Free Test Prep Activities — 10 Days of Test Prep Freebies!
Test prep is definitely something that I implement all year through best practices and implementing strategies that translate to testing situations. However, I do spend the month before testing on review and using resources specifically created for test prep. No matter how many test prep resources I have, I still find that I am always on the look out for (or creating) ... Read More
Word Work Activities with Jenga (Free Printables)
Engaging word work activities for upper elementary grades can be hard to find. On this post, I will share three free word work activities to use with Jenga blocks. These are super engaging and can be used in a literacy center or played whole group if you have multiple Jenga blocks. Amazon affiliate links provided if you wish to purchase the Jenga blocks mentioned on this ... Read More
Character Traits Activities
Character traits are one of my favorite reading skills. I love digging in deep and analyzing characters. I also truly believe that learning about different characters, their traits, and what makes them exhibit those traits help students gain perspective and empathy. This post will share some of the ways that I introduce, teach, and/or review character traits with 4th and ... Read More
Decoding Strategies and Prompts for Upper Elementary
Helping readers decode larger words and employ more advanced decoding strategies is forever a goal of mine. As someone who has never taught primary, I don't have a large background in teaching decoding and phonics anyway. Couple that with readers who struggle because of gaps or because their initial instruction just didn't work, and you can see why this is a constant goal ... Read More
Read Alouds for Teaching Figurative Language | Mentor Texts for Reading
Teaching figurative language is one of my favorite literacy skills to teach and my students always love learning about the different types. On this post, I will share my favorite read alouds for teaching the types of figurative language (similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and personification) and then my favorite read alouds that use figurative language naturally and ... Read More
Free Book Recommendation Templates
One of my favorite parts of being a reader is sharing books that I love with others and reading book recommendations and book reviews online. And I love bringing this type of activity into the classroom with my own students. On this post, I will share some of my new favorite book recommendation templates that get students excited to recommend books and read ... Read More
Free Reading Exit Slips for 4th and 5th Grade
Since I prefer to teach using a reader's workshop model (read more about how I teach reading in 5th grade here), I do a lot of assessing my students on their reading strategies and behaviors authentically. However, assessing them on specific reading skills and standards I have taught has proved tricky in the past. That was before I started using reading exit slips. ... Read More
Videos for Teaching and Reviewing Figurative Language
Figurative language is always one of my favorite ELA skills to teach. It lends itself to fun, engaging lessons. This post will share videos for reviewing or teaching figurative language. (As with any videos that I share, I recommend that you watch the videos before showing them to your students.) Figurative Language Explained Running Time: 1:58 This short, ... Read More
How to Get Upper Elementary Students Excited to Read
If you have ever taught 4th or 5th grade, you know that by this grade, students start to form strong opinions about certain school subjects. One of those subjects is reading. Some students love it, some openly resist it, and some are just meh about it. Our job as teachers is to turn those resisters and students who are meh about it into avid readers before they leave us. ... Read More
Reading Notebooks in 4th and 5th Grade
One of the things I do every year that really makes a difference in my students' learning is having them use notebooks to store notes, examples, work, and basically house all of the learning they have done that year. Having these notebooks makes it so easy to spiral content because the students have a ready-made resource to refer back to. On this post, I will share how I ... Read More
Parent-Teacher Conference Tips : Supporting 4th and 5th Grade Readers at Home
I'll never forget one of the very first parent-teacher conferences I held. I had just gotten done explaining that the student, this couple's daughter, was struggling with comprehension. Her mother nodded and said, "Okay. How can we support her reading at home?" In that moment, I was both ecstatic that they wanted to support their 5th grade reader at home, and panicked, ... Read More
