4 Square Planning: The Key to Organized Writing

…of the 4-square planner is that it’s not mode-specific. We used this planner for opinion writing, narrative writing, and inform/explain writing. We could meet and teach all components of the…

The Ancient Secret for Wise Decisions

…are three samples: When writing your essay, smart choices would be _________. Foolish choices would be ________. Some smart choices characters make in “James and the Giant Peach,” are _______….

Helping Children Cope with Tragedy

…like the ripple effect when a rock is thrown into water. With natural disasters, most humans feel responsible for helping. We empathize and then focus our efforts on comforting and…

6 Reasons to Teach Poetry in the Fall

…Teaching kids to write poetry engages them in authentic writing experiences and begins to build their confidence as writers. In order for kids to learn how to read and understand…

How to Recharge Mathematical Thinking

…lack experience with different types of problems and the strategies for solving them, so they feel defeated and give up before they get started. What can we do to help

Teaching Kids How to Write Super Sentences

How do you encourage your students to write longer, more interesting sentences? You know what will happen if you simply ask them to write longer sentences… they’ll just add more…

5 Ways to Help Students Become Word Collectors

…to keep content area vocabulary visible and useful to students. This anchor chart stays up throughout an entire unit on essay writing. Teachers and students can refer to it to…

Poetry: A Common Core Dilemma

…was nothing about appreciating poetry or making connections to one’s own life. The writing standards were even worse. Everything was either about narrative writing or expository writing, but there was…