Like many other teachers, after having experienced the rigor and high expectations of last year’s NYS Common Core Assessments for grades 3-8, it became apparent that I needed to reflect and make some changes in my teaching for this school year. Although I thought I did a pretty good job last year with aligning my instruction to the NYS Common Core Learning Standards… View Post
iPads in the classroom are powerful tools, especially for meeting the diverse needs of 21st century learners. My goal as a Literacy Specialist is to find a balance of technology-use within my small group instruction and to find ways for the iPads to support my current targeted interventions. There are many fun apps, but not all are appropriate or effective for… View Post
Yee-haw! Have you ever been to a rodeo? I still can’t believe I’m writing this… but I have! This born-and-raised New Yorker can finally check that item off her bucket list. My friend Samantha took my husband and I to one when we were visiting her in Austin, Texas. It was definitely a fun experience, especially since we don’t have… View Post
Do your students make a lot of visual errors? Visual discrimination is a tough for many readers who struggle with decoding. Many of the substitutions I see with my students include words with similar shapes, blends, vowels, or word chunks. I like to dig deeper to find out what TYPE of visual errors the students are making so that I… View Post
Are you looking for a way to help your students expand their sentences to include details? Do your students need help with grouping words together while reading for fluency phrasing? Try integrating this simple Snowballing Sentences activity! Writing Read through the completed sentence page as a whole-group. Then, model and guide the students through the process of expanding sentences to include details…. View Post
So you completed Fluency Boot Camp… Now what? Fluency is a reading skill that requires maintenance and practice, especially for students who struggle with fluency. After explicitly modeling and teaching the components of oral reading fluency, you should make it a priority to schedule time for practice and reinforcement throughout the school year. Fluency Reinforcement Activities It is important for… View Post
