I’ve worked on A LOT of resource updates this summer, so I wanted to share my corresponding pacing guides with you. You can read more about how I develop these pacing guides here. As always, it’s important to remember that this is just a guide. I try to never let the pacing guide dictate my […]
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Teachers agree that memorizing multiplication facts is such a challenging part of elementary school. In fact, I surveyed more than 20,000 teachers about their biggest challenge in math instruction. The most overwhelming response was that their students don’t know their math facts. This issue is a not a new trend. Math facts, especially memorizing multiplication
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Teaching setting is one of those reading topics that is so much fun. It’s relatively easy for students to understand, and there is so much great literature that can be tied into upper elementary setting instruction. My greatest challenge in teaching setting is having students use text evidence to support their ideas about the setting
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Multiplication interventions are incredibly important for students struggling in math. In third, fourth, and fifth grades, there are few math concepts more important for students than multiplication. This builds the foundation of multiple other math topics and concepts. However, many students need additional instruction and remediation during and/or after their multiplication unit. This blog post
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Multi-part or multi-step word problems has to be one of — if not THE — most challenging parts of the year. I’ve found that saving multi-step word problems for the very end of the year or right before testing is the least efficient way to teach this tricky skill. Instead, students need instruction on multi-step
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Reading assessments can have a tremendous impact on the upper elementary classroom. However, it’s imperative to understand what assessments we’re giving and the purpose of those assessments. Otherwise, we fall into the trap of over-assessing, which is when we assess for the sake of assessing. This post shares some of the most common forms of
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The Teaching American government doesn’t have to be boring or overly complicated. Government is an abstract concept, and many students have a difficult time making connections to the concepts. The vocabulary is also difficult for upper elementary students. Fortunately, there are many ways to make this unit meaningful AND fun for students,. Teaching Government Through
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Math fluency plays a critical role in the upper elementary classroom, and I hope to share some of my favorite strategies with you. No matter what state you teach in, more than likely math fluency is mentioned somewhere in your standards. However, before beginning a blog post on math fact fluency, it’s essential to fully
These number sense routines can be a game-changer for your students. Last year, I wrote a blog post solely dedicated to teaching number sense. That post shares a more general overview of what number sense is and why it’s important. This post moves directly into ways to improve students’ number sense. I’ve shared some of
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Novel studies are the perfect addition to any elementary classroom. I LOVE children’s literature. I love picture books and chapter books, and I’m always torn on which I should use for my mini lessons and small group lessons. When I originally created my reading units, all of the mini lessons were based on picture books, and
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