Teaching phonics. If you’re an elementary school teacher, you are likely working hard to incorporate more phonics and structured literacy into your classroom. However, there’s a good chance that you didn’t actually learn this stuff in college. How are teachers supposed to use a structured, phonics based approach with their students if they don’t understand the rules themselves? The answer…
Most teachers love reading and learning. It’s a big reason why teachers become teachers. While students loving reading is awesome, it’s important to understand that reading is about a whole lot more than doing so for enjoyment. Here is why your students don’t have to love reading, but they do need to be able to read proficiently. Why do students…
Many students in the primary grades struggle with writing stories and reading with fluency. When I noticed that my first graders had mastered writing a good, basic sentence, but couldn’t string a few together, I knew a needed to find a solution. They also needed to work on their reading fluency, so I decided to solve both problems at once:…
If you’re working towards making your classroom more inclusive and reflective of the wider community, pictures books can be a great tool to showcase diverse families and home life set ups. In addition to using more inclusive language, teachers can use read alouds to help students both see their family and other family make ups. It’s a great way to…
Being balanced is one of the IB Learner Profile characteristics that we should be encouraging in students. Here are some of my favorite books for encouraging this important skill. This post contains affiliate Amazon links. That means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. In…