Reading Strategy: Find the Main Idea
Importance The main idea is the central, or most important, idea in a paragraph or passage. Arguably, being able to identify the main idea is the most important skill for…
Blended Learning in Elementary: Station Rotation
Blended learning, not hybrid learning, is a delicate mix of MEANINGFUL online learning and traditional learning. Benefits of Blended Learning There are many benefits to learning this way, but the…
Generic Asynchronous Sites for Elementary
We are actually face-to-face! It is really exciting that, after a year and a half, we can welcome students back in the classroom! That being said, we have parents who…
Prepping for Workshop Model: Classroom Design
For me, the weeks leading up to an in-service week are the most exciting and the most overwhelming. I am eager to meet my students and make my classroom come…
Writers’ Workshop: Show Don’t Tell
Every elementary Writers’ Workshop teacher has a go-to “Show, Don’t Tell” lesson in which students learn how to show or illustrate what is happening, instead of merely stating it. But…
Content Area Essays in Middle School
Admit it – you groaned just reading the title of this post! Any teacher who has taught middle school students to write in the content areas realizes how frustrating this…
Revising Lesson Planning with Backward Design
When I first read Understanding By Design, I wasn’t completely sold. 1453
Back to School Team Building Ideas
Similar & Unique. I have only done this activity with teachers in trainings, but it would definitely work in an upper elementary through secondary class setting. Each student will write…
Your Reaction: A Key Element of the Writing Conference
This might be bold, but I know what the most important part of conferencing in a Writer’s Workshop is. Your gut reaction to the students’ writing is, in my humble…