Live and learn without limits.
The overall purpose for literacy instruction should be comprehension. Regardless of the purpose for reading, students should be reading for meaning and understanding. I recently read Sharon Taberski’s book Comprehension from the Ground Up in which she describes the essentials for an effective reading program in the early grades. Throughout the book she gives great suggestions for literacy programs, but… Read More
Three Ways to Use Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson in Your Class This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Use Brown Girl Dreaming as a Mentor Text Brown Girl Dreaming is an excellent book to use as a mentor text for teaching memoirs. In this book Jacqueline Woodson describes… Read More
Many teachers choose the texts they read in the classroom based on what skills they can teach with that book. That makes perfect sense! However, there are other factors we need to take into consideration. We also need a variety of mirror and window texts in our classroom. What are mirror texts? Mirror texts are books that allow children to… Read More
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The novel, The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen is a great book that will cause readers to reflect on important topics such as coping with life’s unexpected twists and turns. The more I get to… Read More
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie take readers to a significant time period during the main character’s, Kambili’s life. Readers will watch her manage a very difficult family dynamic while learning more about herself and her family. There will be times this book… Read More
I recently came across the book My Name is Yoon. It’s about a girl from Korea learning to adjust to her new school as in America as an ESL newcomer. She’s upset about being told to write her name in English and she wants to go home. Moving can be hard on kids, especially moving to another country. This book… Read More
Re-adjusting Back to American Schools After Teaching Abroad I only taught in South Korea for one year. However, there were some things in their schools that I had gotten used to, and I had to readjust when returning back to the US. I worked in a public middle school in Korea and I’ve worked in elementary, middle, and high school… Read More
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan Questions to engage your readers One of my favorite moments teaching was when I looked across my classroom and saw every student fully engaged in a novel. No one was off task. No one was playing around. No one was distracted. They were all engaged in the novel we were reading. A great way… Read More
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you are searching for a novel your students will truly engage in, I suggest Dear Martin by Nic Stone. This is the book that may change your students’ outlook on the purpose of reading. They will become emotionally engaged and pulled into… Read More
