I realized almost immediately that I wasn’t getting through to my Kindergartners… again. I asked a class full of 5-year-olds to identify feeling words, and I got the same generic responses – happy, sad, mad. Year after year, I struggle with how to teach my primary students, especially my English Language Learners, to use precise […]
Literacy
Posted inUncategorized
What Teachers Give Up
I am surrounded by brilliant minds every day, and while many of them are sitting in the desks in front of me, I cannot help, but be in awe of my coworkers. They are amazing. Teachers are a mixed and match collection of degrees including Bachelors, Masters, and PHDs. Most of them are parents. Some […]
Posted inLiteracy
The Evolving Creative Non-Fiction
Maybe it has been the influence of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) or maybe it has been the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Whatever the reason, one genre has been evolving and gaining popularity with students at all grade levels, and that is the genre of creative nonfiction. Creative non-fiction or the narrative non-fiction genre features the same […]
Posted inHigh School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Middle School
Literature Circles: Empowering Students
Ideally, by the fourth quarter, I want to be unnecessary in my classroom; I hope that my students are so self-sufficient that I can partner with them instead of lead and coach. To me, this idea is the mark of true learning; the control baton has passed from me to them. I need three-quarters to […]
Posted inCommon Core, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
The NAEP Chicken and the Common Core Nonfiction Egg
What came first…the NAEP Chicken or the CCSS Egg? In 2009, there were revisions to the reading content in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the “largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in various subject areas.” The revisions increased nonfiction reading. In 2009, the development of the the Common […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
There are Kinder Ways: Engaging Hesitant Students Pt. 2
Last Saturday, I watched my eight-year-old daughter melt into a weeping pile of helplessness. It was her baptism. My husband’s side of the family is Catholic, and a few months back, she expressed a desire to be baptized. Even though I am not Catholic, I supported her decision, and we put the wheels in motion. […]
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Love and Hate for the 5-Paragraph Essay
When I taught high school English, I worked hard to help my students avoid and move beyond the five-paragraph essay. In fact, I almost went crazy trying to pull better-than-five-paragraphs-essays out of my seniors. I was apt to tell students, “you are stuck in a five-paragraph box! GET OUT OF THE BOX!” I swore I would […]
Posted inHigh School, Instructional Strategies, Literacy, Social Studies, Technology
The Sensibilities of Mind Mapping
I was in attendance at a social studies department meeting reviewing how current curricula addresses Proficiency Based Graduation Requirements (PBGR). A disagreement occurred over the requirement of mental mapping as a performance indicator. Teachers accustomed to multiple choice and essay writing for common assessment could not discern what constituted a mental map. The recall of Venn diagrams, illustrated maps with inset boxes and character […]