A word wall is a visible display in a classroom that features a collection of words that the students are currently studying. Word walls can focus on high-frequency words, word study examples, academic language, or words that are being introduced in classroom content. They can be used to support phonics, spelling, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and more. Word walls have long been a useful strategy for helping younger students process words over the duration of the…
Fall will be here before we know it, and there are lots of new young adult books to be excited about! Here are some of the most highly anticipated young adult books releasing in fall 2024. 1. Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay. This exploration of four generations of Filipino American boys spans the 1930s to the 2020s. Told in multiple perspectives, Everything We Never Had unfolds like a beautifully crafted nesting doll, where…
Last fall, one of Chanea Bond’s ninth grade students told her that he was going to “SOB” next semester. She was confused. A quick Google search didn’t yield a definition that made sense to Bond. So, she asked her student to clarify. The answer? He was going to ‘stand on business,’ a slang term used to express a person’s promise to take care of their responsibilities. This semester, Bond, who teaches in North Texas, created…
Dyslexia presents itself in various ways, but a student’s age strongly factors into the symptoms teachers may observe. Students with dyslexia in grades K-5 struggle to remember letter names and sounds. Recognizing sight words also poses a problem. When reading aloud, these students may substitute words and confuse letters with similar appearances or sounds. For example, students commonly mix up the letters b and d. Students in grades 6-12 may have a hard time recalling…
No one can deny the concrete and long-lasting effect the Harry Potter series has had on the world of children’s literature. Last summer marked the 25th anniversary of the release of the famous books in the United States. The first book of the series was released in England in June 1997 under the title “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” and on Sept. 1, 1998, Scholastic published the first book in the U.S., renamed “Harry…
Summer is finally here, and so are the American Library Association summer reading lists. The lists are full of book titles to keep children engaged in reading throughout the summer. Four summer reading lists are available for birth-preschool and grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-8. Each list is available to download for free. Titles on the 2023 Summer Reading Lists were compiled and annotated by members of American Library Association’s Quicklists Consulting Committee. American Library Association…
Poetry is a mindfulness practice for award-winning author and poet Clint Smith, but as a young person, Smith felt that poetry wasn’t for people like him. Smith said that teaching poetry can feel intimidating when presented as if it’s a “geometric proof or a code that students are supposed to unlock.” He recommends that teachers instead emphasize that no interpretation is wrong. Online resources for teaching poetry can show young learners “that there are poets…
Reading is taught, not caught. This phrase has been in circulation for decades, but it bears repeating with each new generation of parents, and it has never been more fully supported by compelling evidence. Learning to read is a complex, unnatural, years-long odyssey, and parents should bear no illusions that their kids will pick it up merely by watching other people read or being surrounded by books. Kids literacy is more complicated than that. Parents…
Sentence stems are great for many reasons, not the least of which is their ability to function as cognitive training wheels for developing minds. Like journal response prompts, the stems below are created to help students better understand what they’re reading, and as the focus is on critical thinking rather than mere ‘talking,’ we’ve left out more obvious stems like ‘I agree…’ or ‘I disagree…’ or ‘I like…’ or ‘I dislike…’, etc. Opinions are useful…
From field trips and retreats to special assemblies and holiday celebrations, children should enjoy an enriching classroom experience, both during the school day and after school. These memorable events and enrichment programs make learning fun and build a sense of community among students. Here are twenty ideas for elementary school clubs, ranging from standard to out of the box. 1. Culture club. This is a multicultural association for students. At meetings, members can share their…
