Phonics activities are not just for young students-they're for older students too. 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

I don't always include literacy stations in reading workshop, but when I do, I make the activities purposeful and authentic. Anyone catch the reference? In the spirit of full disclosure, there are years when due to scheduling requirements I can't fit in literacy stations. Those

Introducing paragraphs is never easy, especially at the beginning of the year. 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

Upper elementary teachers know that reading for fluency is an 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

I've got my visual pacing guide for language arts ready, and I hope you're not disappointed!  You'll see that there are quite a few missing units in this pacing guide, and that's because they're still a work in progress.  I've been working like crazy all summer, but these big

I'll be the first to admit that teaching about verbs was never appealing to me. I have memories learning about AND teaching parts of speech where my eyes were completely glazed over. I thought that it was almost, if not, impossible to make parts of speech fun and meaningful. This

When I started teaching, I had no clue how to teach writing! In fact, I could barely remember receiving any writing instruction as a child! Those first few years, I made writing instruction the focus of my professional development. I soon found that writing workshop was my

After I made my Common Core Math Assessments, I had many requests for a similar language arts assessment version.  After months of work, I'm thrilled to announce that I finally finished them and let me just way "Whew!"  That was a big project-much, MUCH bigger than I expected!