Point of view is a skill that can be viewed as overwhelming. How can you make sure your students retain the standard all while having fun? We've got tips for teaching, practicing, and assessing point of view that will make this concept simplified for you and your...
Top Teaching Strategies: Nonfiction Text Structure
Trying to spice up your reading instruction by using more nonfiction? Instruction in nonfiction can be the missing piece for many readers. One skill to work on is Nonfiction Text Structures! Why teach this skill? Teaching nonfiction text structure helps readers set a...
Teaching Sequencing
Sequencing may seem obvious to adults but for young students, it can be challenging to master. Teaching sequencing is vital because sequencing taps into higher-order thinking skills and helps our students more fully comprehend what they are reading. As our little...
Teaching Summarizing With Fiction
When it comes to teaching summarizing, we often find our students looking at us with blank stares. Summarization is a literacy skill we use for every stage of our educational journey, but how can we teach summarizing in a way that our students truly understand it?...
2nd Grade ELA Activities Round-Up
Looking for some fun 2nd grade ELA activities that work on important skills and keep your students engaged? Look no further! Here’s a roundup of some of our great bundles and activity packs to incorporate into your reading and writing block. These resources are sure...
Inferencing Center Ideas
Teaching students to make inferences can be a chore but it doesn’t have to be! There are some seriously fun ways to introduce and practice the important comprehension skill of inferencing. Below is a list of both low prep activities and some that require a bit of...
Top Teaching Strategies: Making Inferences
Making inferences is an abstract skill. It requires students to take what they already know (in their schema, or what we like to call their 'mental filing cabinet') and add it to what they hear and see in a story to figure out what the author is NOT saying. It takes...
Overcoming the Main Idea
Main idea is a key standard when it comes to learning in school. However, for how important the skill is, it can leave some of us teachers feeling overwhelmed on where to begin to make sure our students understand what exactly the main idea is and how to find...
How to Use the 5 Ws to Get to the Main Idea
Ask a group of second graders what the main idea of the Three Little Pigs is and they might say, “straw houses are weak.” Getting to the main idea is hard for students. Teaching students to use the 5 W questions helps them focus on the important information in a given...
Strategies for Practicing Nonfiction Text Features
After you’ve introduced several nonfiction text features to the class, what are some fun ways to have kids explore and practice? In this blog post, we’ve got several ideas for you! Nonfiction Text Features Mentioned in This Post: Table of ContentsIndexGlossaryBold...