Writing about reading

Last August, a teacher at Bright Elementary (Sunman-Dearborn Schools) shared her newest approach to motivate students to put more effort into their content-area writing-- "Less is more." That's it; that's her new approach.    read more...

Citing evidence from the reading

No matter what the read-write prompt is, students are required to go back into the text for proof and support. However, the number of students who actually flip back and forth in the reading is few. The key is to get students to go back into the text to support their own opinions.    read more...

Getting students to read for the 6 Traits of writing

Instead of the teacher pointing out the traits in reading, she has her students do the thinking! After using picture books to refresh students' minds of the 6 Traits of writing, Robin asked students to read like writers. She put them in small groups, decided on which trait(s) to focus on for the day's reading, and required the students to keep rigorous documentation.    read more...

Teaching reading comprehension skills

Before teaching a "making connections" or "making predictions" or "inferencing" lesson, take time to simply introduce the comprehension strategy with a kid-friendly concept.    read more...

Experimenting with reader response

Incorporating a Reader's Notebook makes sense. However, if you've never done one before, it can be overwhelming. You have to consider the format of the notebook, the sections, what kinds of information the students will log, how you will juggle reading and responding to all the students, etc.    read more...

Using pictures to jumpstart summary writing

After reading a story or selection in the reading series, many teachers have students retell the story by writing a short summary. Woodburn Elementary second grade teacher Pam Weesner jumpstarts her summary writing with a strategy that targets her visual learners and reluctant writers.    read more...