Have you ever set out on a road trip without a map or GPS? I tried it once, years ago. I thought, “How hard could it be?” A few wrong turns later, I was circling back, wasting time, and wishing I had just plugged in my destination from the start.
Help your students avoid the dreaded summer slide! In this engaging session, you’ll discover practical ways to reduce the learning loss that often occurs after the final school bell rings. We will explore several proven strategies to keep kids accountable over the summer and send them off with ready-made
I have never taken a class in martial arts, but I have certainly enjoyed watching Bruce Lee’s moves in his action-packed films! Let’s face it. The guy was physically amazing, but more than that, he had a way with words! Lee was more than just a famous martial
If you’ve ever found yourself in the middle of a tumultuous situation like a rip-roaring, indoor recess due to inclement weather, or a rigorous test preparation right before a holiday, you know how it feels when you need a break! You need it, and you need it NOW! Now
Having the right tools in your writing toolbox can make all the difference when it comes time to revise a composition. Do your students need a creative way to link ideas and show association? Then look no further than the correlative conjunction! First, let's look at this simple
Let’s get back into the language arts huddle to go over some key plays that will help your students win the game! If you missed Part I of the Playbook of Literacy Success, you might want to go back to the starting line to capture the necessity of a
It’s not always easy to see how much we’ve grown in one year, especially for a child. Physical growth might be the most noticeable because we can feel it in several ways. For instance, we can tell when our clothes are too big or too small; they don’
As the school year progresses, your students have learned a wide range of core concepts. How do we help them go beyond the basics and make deeper connections? In this month’s Shurley English Teacher Talk, we will continue our deep dive into novelty and explore how it can spark
What if elementary teachers approached the subject of Language Arts as if it was a competitive sport? Just think of it. Every K-8 teacher would be part of a coaching staff charged with developing players’ language arts knowledge and skills. In this analogy, the playbook contains plays designed to help
In this series about developing micro-comprehension, I have discussed how students need a good vocabulary in order to create accurate mental models of the stories they read or hear. We also know that those mental models are affected by the way the brain fills in missing information, called gap-filling inference.
Do you need a new idea to get the creative juices flowing in your classroom? The Haiku offers that opportunity to your students by channeling their creativity into this unique form of Japanese poetry. Here is a great lesson plan to get you started. The best part is that it
There’s nothing like the dreaded feeling of sitting at your desk with a blank sheet of writing paper staring back at you. You see some of your classmates busily jotting down ideas; you see them creating their prewriting map; or you see some classmates looking upward with a pleasant