** Contact us if you would like to have modeled lessons or workshop-style sessions come to your campus! ** Last month I had the pleasure of modeling a think-aloud in third grade. I was asked to model the process of sharing with students the reading strategies I am using as well as the Gradual Release of […]
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Instructional Coaching: Guided Reading
** Contact us if you would like to have Guided Reading modeled or a workshop-style session come to your campus! ** Last month I was asked to model a Guided Reading lesson in second grade. I was told the students’ instructional level was L, mostly because of comprehension. For the model lesson I wanted to highlight four […]
Balancing Literacy Instruction. Part Three: Fiction VS Nonfiction
Welcome to Part Three of my series on balancing literacy instruction! Is fiction or nonfiction more important for students? (We’ll save the non-fiction or nonfiction argument for another time…) Just joining us? Make sure you check out the first two posts in this series: Challenging Text VS Instructional Level Text and Explicit Instruction VS Implicit Instruction Part Three: Fiction VS Nonfiction If you […]
Balancing Literacy Instruction. Part Two: Explicit Instruction VS Implicit Instruction
Welcome to Part Two of my series on balancing literacy instruction! While I’m a huge fan of explicit instruction, the benefits of implicit instruction are also great. What’s a teacher to do?? Just joining us? Make sure you check out the first post in this series: Challenging Text VS Instructional Level Text Part Two: Explicit Instruction VS […]
Balancing Literacy Instruction. Part One: Challenging Text VS Instructional Level Text
I’m excited to introduce a series of posts on a topic that is near to my heart and constantly on my mind these days: balancing literacy instruction. Over the next few weeks, I’ll tackle what I see as some of the major arguments (in no particular order), provide some research, and add my humble opinion […]
3 Ways to Get Fired Up and Increase Enthusiasm for Teaching
As an instructional coach, one of the most depressing things I see are kids who are bored or declare themselves “done” with school. If you go into primary classrooms, kids are excited about everything they are learning. They’re eager to share, albeit sometimes overly eager, but genuinely excited to gain new information. What is happening to […]
Mastering Metacognition
While the term “metacognition” was first coined back in 1979 by John Flavell, it seems to have resurfaced in the past few years in education. It comes up in educational conversation so much that it has almost become white noise. Many times I hear it defined as “thinking about your thinking.” This definition works, but […]
Time to Celebrate Poetry in ALL Classrooms
It’s April. That means it’s time to open the door to the most feared and cherished of genres – POETRY! I wish that classrooms focused on poetry year round because of all that it can offer a language classroom, but I also know why it’s often avoided. When I was in school, I had that teacher. Yes, […]