Earlier this month, I shared a mnemonic I use with my 2nd and 3rd graders for teaching story elements. This mnemonic is part of a larger strategy called “Picture It!,” developed by Victoria Naughton (2008). Each letter of S.T.O.R.Y. represents a story element, and students can use the graphic mnemonic for identifying and visualizing the common features of fiction texts…. View Post
S.T.O.R.Y. A few years ago, I was looking for a fun and engaging way to teach Fiction Text Structure to my struggling readers, when I came across Victoria Naughton’s strategy, “Picture It!” (2008), in my copy of The Reading Teacher. Naughton was recognized for her hard work in research and publication with the Shaw Fund for Literacy 2009 award by National… View Post
How will you be celebrating with your students this year? In my experience, students are usually twitching with excitement for Halloween festivities and it’s hard to reign them in or get them to focus on learning. Each year, I try to come up with literacy activities that are fun, effective, and don’t feel like “work;” however, often that means getting… View Post
Do your students get stuck on multi-syllable words? Do they tend to leave off word endings? Do your students take the time to read through the entire word? “Crunch & Munch” is a great strategy for helping students decode challenging words, especially words with tricky prefixes and suffixes. I find that my younger students, who understand and use the basic… View Post
Are you ready for FALL? Fall is by far my favorite season! Seriously… how can you go wrong with pumpkin picking, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin-smelling candles, and pumpkin pie? All. Wonderful. Things. I love pumpkin (can you tell?), but most of all, I love the changing leaves and the smell of autumn. Fall is in the air, and I can’t wait… View Post
With my small group pull-out sessions limited to half-hour increments, I’m always looking for quick, engaging reading and writing activities to reinforce literacy skills. I used to think dice games were only for teaching math and probability, but I’m starting to discover that there are ENDLESS possibilities for using dice with literacy. Are you looking for a few ideas? Well…… View Post
