One of my favorite things about reading workshop is finding and sharing picture books with students. Shared readings generate discussions (academic and personal) that are relevant to your kiddos . While ‘meeting student needs’ is one of the great benefits of shared readings, it’s also one of the great challenges. Suiting a favorite read aloud to this particular class year after year can be time consuming. When I was creating my series of genre units, I wanted to include discussion guides for shared readings that would be versatile enough to fit a range of needs, but specific enough to make them low-prep for teachers. I ended up a creating a…
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A Regular Person’s Guide to Creating a TpT “Brand,” Step 1: Choose a Color Palette & Import it to Keynote
Do you hate the word “brand” as applied to yourself? Are you already cringing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, me too. But when I say “brand” I’m not talking about staging a fabricated life so you can get more instagram followers, likes, re-shares or whatever. I simply mean taking a few simple steps to make your TpT products attractive, recognizable, and cohesive. The first step is to choose a color palette. This will make designing a logo, product covers and blog posts simpler. If there is a set of colors you already like to use, then great–you’re almost done! But if you don’t have an eye for color (I don’t), here are…
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RULER: An Acronym for Social Emotional Learning + TpT Sale
If you want to spend less time putting out behavioral fires in your classroom, look to social-emotional learning. Outbursts, shutdowns, and fights occur when students don’t have tools for helpful (and appropriate) emotional expression. I recently read Marc Brackett’s Permission to Feel and was inspired to create classroom resources for his RULER acronym. In his book, Brackett points out what most of us already know–school is an emotionally fraught place for students and teachers, and we could all use some help. Today I’m so excited to release my newest TpT product–social emotional activities to fit each letter in the RULER acronym. It’s on sale until Friday, so be sure to…
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Genre Study = Automatic Spiral Review
I don’t know about you, but I feel overwhelmed by the phrase “spiral review.” Sure, you want to give students opportunities for meaningful review, but “spiral review” brings to mind convoluted spreadsheets. You chart out a complicated course only to find yourself constantly treading water. But there’s good news, if you’re a reading workshop teacher (especially if you use genre study), you can engage in meaningful review without the spreadsheets. All reading instruction falls into a few broad categories. In genre study, each genre unit addresses these broad categories and fills in the details according to the genre you’re currently studying. Here’s an example: Instead of having a “text structure”…
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A Summer To-Do List That Honors Meaning Over Accomplishment
I love a good to-do list. Checking that box is satisfying, but sometimes the journey there is arduous and the result is…not worthwhile. A rigid to-do list quickly becomes arbitrary, something you complete because you said you would, not because it furthers your goals. Have you ever stared at the blank page (or newly-drawn bullet journal template) and packed it full just for the heck of it? Sometimes the unexamined thought going through my head is “What’s the absolute most I can accomplish next week?” rather than, “How can I pursue my most meaningful goals and simultaneously honor my values?” For teachers, the summer is a combination of much-needed respite…
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The Role of Inquiry in Genre Study
Inquiry is one of those things we know is good for students, but sometimes avoid because it seems like more work. I remember being very “pro inquiry” as a student teacher and slipping into more of the “demonstration” camp once I was an actual teacher. Inquiry brings to mind more materials, time and uncertainty than sit-and-get methods. Once again, enter genre study. Before, I hadn’t thought much about inquiry in regard to reading (it was mostly a “science thing” in my mind). But Fountas and Pinnell taught us an inquiry approach to genre that was structured, engaging and low-prep. Here’s how it works: Genre Immersion: Students read examples of the…
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Genre, Genre Families, and Genre Vs. Form–A Quick Guide & Downloadable Cheat Sheet
Once I got into genre study, I realized how much I didn’t know about genre. Sure, I knew what genre was, I could list genres, I could email you resources (ready made anchor charts…oops), but I hadn’t thought about how genre differs from form, or noticed that genres belong to certain genre families. Here’s a little cheat sheet I made to demonstrate genre relationships. You can download it for free here. After implanting genre study in my own classroom and designing a year-long genre study curriculum, here’s what I’ve learned about genre: Genre Differs from Form Genre pertains to the content of the text–historical fiction, for example will tell a…
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How Genre Study Saved My Reading Workshop from “Grab Bag” Teaching
During my first year of teaching I had one crowning achievement—my students read independently each day and responded to a reading prompt while I led guided reading groups. This sounds simple, but it was a huge feat for me. I remember the first time I looked up from a guided reading group to see all my students reading—really, really reading. Like chuckling along with Diary of a Wimpy Kid, eyes wide over The Westing Game reading. It was a good moment. But once our workshop routines were established I felt a bit…lost. I’d been so focused on establishing routines during the first 20 days that when day 21 rolled around…
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How Do You Feel? The Mood Meter + A Vocabulary Challenge
Like I mentioned, I’ve been inspired by Marc Brackett’s book Permission to Feel. In the book he points out that most of us have a pretty puny vocabulary when it comes to emotions. Beyond “sad, glad, mad” we’re lost, and so we usually just stick to “fine.” Brackett suggests several tools for enhancing our emotional vocabulary. The more words we have to describe emotion, the better we become at understanding emotion. One tool is the mood meter: The mood meter is composed of four quadrants. Each quadrant corresponds to high/low energy and pleasantness/unpleasantness: Red: High Energy + Unpleasant Emotions that are fear or anger-related belong in this quadrant. Blue: Low…
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Can Emotional Intelligence Make Me a Better Teacher?
I love the elementary school aesthetic. Primary colors, tempura paint, jewelry made of macaroni “beads”—I love it all. But cheerful decor (and Instagram posts) not withstanding, school isn’t always the safe, uplifting place teachers and students would like it to be. Sometimes, despite everyone’s best intentions, it’s the opposite. Ever witnessed a shouting match unfurl in front of an adorable bulletin board? Yeah, me too. Teachers and students spend a big chunk of their lives at school, and classrooms are the site of a lot of negative emotion. Consider this: According to Gallup, nearly half of teachers report high levels of stress at work. They are tied with nurses for…
