By Adrienne Lanier They’re, their, there…Two, to, too! These are common homophones I see misused on social media by even the brightest of professionals. As a professional, do I pause when I notice these errors? Yes! Does this inability to write effectively make me stop to think about their experience with writing at a […]
Literacy
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Middle School
Shall We Debate? An Approach to Writing!
Four weeks ago, my students took the practice for the new Tennessee State Writing Assessment. We had no way of preparing for this test because we were told that it would change in a major way. A week before the practice test, I received an email with a link to a sample test. Instead of […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Opinion
Reading Strategies – By Kids, For Kids
One of my favorite things to do is read. Before bed each night, I crawl under my big cozy covers, grab whatever current novel I’m reading and disappear for at least thirty minutes into a different world. Usually I lose track of my thirty minutes and I’m shaken back into the real world by my […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Creating Lovers of Reading: Tips for Using a Self-Selected Reading System in Your Classroom
Students come to us with reading levels all over the spectrum. As a new teacher, one of the biggest challenges in my heterogeneous classes was assigning and monitoring their reading. While challenging students with complex texts is not only important but required, it is still essential that our students read and read and read even […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Uncategorized
The Importance of Teacher-Student Conferences
By: Adrienne Lanier Recently, I had to take my son to the pediatrician for what I only knew as a stubborn, uncooperative ringworm. I had been treating the infection with what I knew best. Well, actually I started with my grandmother’s “tried and true” home remedy of bleach! Once I realized it wasn’t working, I […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Gathering Data in a Standards-Based Literacy Classroom
When was the United States founded? What elements are combined to make Nitrous Oxide? What is the slope of 6x + 7? Which word is spelled correctly in this sentence? These questions may seem awfully familiar as these are the type of base level questions we experienced in our formative years in education. Some may […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Literacy
The Biggest "No-No" in Reading Instruction
What was your reading instruction like in grade school? If you are anything like me, you remember participating in these lengthy oral readings of the weekly text where each student read a paragraph aloud. Most of the time, you went in order – straight down the row, a method commonly referred to as the Round […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Literacy
The Reading Paradigm: Equity Does Not Mean Equal in Reading Instruction
One of the qualities of an effective teacher is to be fair and equitable. But what does that really mean? How can you be fair and equitable to every single student in your classroom? As a child, I’m sure if your sibling got a scoop of ice cream, you wanted a scoop of ice cream. […]