Setting is one of those reading topics that I love to teach. 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
Teaching Grammar
Grammar appears to be a subject that teachers either love or hate to teach. There are also a lot of polarizing opinions on how to teach grammar. Some say it should only be taught in the context of writing instruction, while others believe in a daily grammar block. The purpose of
Poetry Lessons For Upper Elementary
Most elementary students love learning about poetry. It's new, different, and often a genre where students can find a style of poetry that they particularly enjoy. This year, I'm incorporating chapter books written in prose to our novel studies. When I begin my poetry lessons
Teaching Writing Through a Workshop
Writing isn't always the most natural or easy subject to teach. There is SO MUCH involved with writing-from organization, to ideas, to word choice, to conventions, to just getting students to put their pencil to their paper. Over the years, I'm implemented many different writing
Fun Freebies: Spine Inserts and Creative Writing
I absolutely love the comments I receive on my blog, conversations on Facebook, and the feedback in my TpT store! I read it all and take it to heart. I've recently had several requests for spine inserts for all of my big TpT units. Once I finally made the spine inserts and saw
Opinion Writing Lessons
Opinion writing can be such a fun writing genre for students and teachers! In this post I share some of my favorite opinion writing lessons and activities.
I typically begin my opinion writing unit immediately after my informational writing unit, which you can read more about
Narrative Writing
Narrative writing is probably my favorite writing genre to teach, and it's by far my favorite genre to read-both mentor texts and student writing. It's also a great way to get to know students on a deeper level. However, personal narratives aren't always easy for students to
