I love books. I love fiction books, nonfiction books, chapter books, and picture books. That's one of the reasons I love incorporating mentor texts into my reading and writing workshop lessons. I use mentor texts to model thinking strategies, as examples of quality writing, to

Every year I have a couple students who need a little {sometimes a lot} of extra work on phonics. This can be quite a challenge, because that isn't something I teach in a whole group lesson. I like to create a guided reading group whose emphasis is phonics {and sight words if

Recently I wrote a post on how I plan to use literacy stations in my classroom. Each day my reading workshop lesson will be 80 minutes long. The first 20 minutes will be my mini lesson, and I’ll use the lessons from my Reading Workshop Units. After my mini lesson, I will have

As I transition back into a self-contained classroom, I've focused most of my personal professional development on reading workshop. Reading workshop is the only approach I've ever used to teach reading, but it is constantly evolving and changing. By far, the best book I read

I always struggle at the beginning of the year with determining how long to spend teaching rules, procedures, and various classroom management lessons. I absolutely believe that these management lessons are essential for a smooth school year. I've tried to skip some of these

Reading fluency is an incredibly important component of reading instruction. Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, with proper phrasing, and with expression. It is important for readers, because it allows students to comprehend what they read, rather than

As much as I try to ignore it, the stress of high stakes testing has been creeping up on me lately. I try to put it out of my mind and have faith in my students, but it's much easier said than done. Let's face it, my value as a teacher is determined by those test scores, and

Morning work plays a crucial role in my classroom instruction and routines. It's what I use for a daily spiral review in math and language arts, and since I've been implementing my morning work routine, I've seen a significant improvement in students' overall retention of skills

There is something about planning for a new school year that I absolutely love.  As in I really love planning and obsess over it all of the time.  I feel a little nervous this year, because I haven't been able to get into my classroom yet.  I am impatiently waiting on the "all