Teaching with Jennifer Findley
Upper Elementary Teaching Blog
Long Division is every teachers' (and students') worst nightmare, it seems! Every year, my students come to me with very little number sense. This makes dividing with two digit divisors so difficult. In response to this, I started teaching my students "Easy Breezy" division, a spin off of partial quotients that provides that much needed support for struggling … [Read more...] about Partial Quotients: Easy Breezy Division {Lots of Freebies}
Grading, grading, and more grading! Honestly, that may be the thing I like the least about teaching. Which is odd because that is what I did the most when I played school as a child. I am not missing the irony there! Last year, I created a CCSS aligned grade book in an attempt to simplify the process of recording and accessing grades. After using it all year and … [Read more...] about Common Core Gradebook {Free!}
Word problems and math constructed response tasks were always a struggle for my students. It was like pulling teeth to get them to write more than just the answer. Almost three years ago, I created a new acronym to help my students think through, represent problems, and show all of the work when they are solving word problems and math constructed response tasks. Keep … [Read more...] about Solving Word Problems & Math Constructed Response Tasks with LOVE
My first few years teaching I went back and forth on reading homework to give my students. I teach in inner city, title 1 schools so the majority (if not all) of my students to not have access to good books to read at home. So, I knew I needed to give my students something to read and respond to, but I wanted it to be purposeful and meaningful homework, and a plus if it … [Read more...] about Common Core Reading Review Homework
I jumped headfirst into using interactive notebooks this year, and I am loving it! My class is doing a great job of using their notes, keeping them neat and organized, and taking pride in them. I teach in a school with no textbooks so our interactive notebooks are becoming our textbooks. But, I did run into one snag using interactive notebooks. I had NOTHING to hang … [Read more...] about Interactive Hall Displays
I am back with post #3 for the Reading Literature Standards Chapter of my book club! This post will discuss Key Ideas and Details Standard 3 (RL.3.3, RL.4.3, RL.5.3) which focuses on teaching story elements. The post about Standard 1 can be found here and Standard 2 can be found here. Make sure you head over to those to grab the free printables for those … [Read more...] about Common Core Reading: Teaching Story Elements
When the common core standards first hit my state, I knew I needed to do some research and studying to fully understand the reading standards and how to teach them. One way that I did this was by joining a book club and reading Teaching with the Common Core Standards for ELA. This post will share some of my thoughts and a few free graphic organizers specific to teaching … [Read more...] about Teaching Theme & Summarizing : FREE Reading Graphic Organizers
I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! As I mentioned in my last post, I joined another Book Club this summer and we are reading Teaching with the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts. This chapter focuses on RL.1 which is about making inferences and using evidence to support those inferences. Check out post for RL.2 by clicking here and RL.3 clicking here. … [Read more...] about Making Inferences Freebies
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}
