Today I just wanted to share a few of my favorite professional reads with you in case you want to add them to your personal library.   This particular book, written by one of my favorite authors, is VERY helpful when teaching non-fiction.  It is easy to read with lots of great printable resources in the appendix.  The ...

 Building Readers One of the most important activities you can do with your students is to teach them to become proficient readers. Reading for pleasure is wonderful, but without guidance from the teacher in learning how to use reading strategies effectively, your students will not show significant gains in reading. We have worked hard this ...

Hi Sweet TBA Friends! I’m Lyndsey from A Year of Many “Firsts”. I am a 25 year old, first grade teacher in Baltimore who loves teaching, blogging, graphic design, traveling, and ANYTHING outdoors. This will be my third year teaching first grade. I cannot imagine having any other job. First graders are the funniest people ...

This summer I have delved into a couple of books that are making me rethink or at least tweak the way that I have taught reading in the past. The two sisters Joan and Gail (www.the2sisters.com) discuss in their CAFE book, the difference between guided reading groups and strategy groups.  In guided reading groups children are at the same or close ...

Reading comprehension is such a huge part of instruction in my class (and I suspect in many other classes as well)  Because so much of what I do is based on the skills and strategies associated with reading comprehension, I am always looking for new and engaging ways to teach them to my students. For a few years now, I have been using a ...

Teaching the questioning strategy for comprehension is always a tricky one. I wanted to find a way to model this strategy in an engaging way. So, this year I came up with a little game to motivate my students to use this strategy. First, I introduced the strategy with this anchor chart (minus the sticky ...

Read: To apprehend the meaning of a book, writing, etc. be perceiving the form and relation of the printed or written characters.  Math is a language that people use to communicate, to solve problems, to engage in recreation, and to create works of art and mechanical tools.  Not only does reading comprehension hinder mathematics learning, but the ...

The new push in my district is to 'teach within the text, 'teach about the text' and 'teach above the text' in order to improve comprehension.  They even flew Irene Fountas in the train the administrators.  The two books below have become a literacy reference for the many that are striving to put best practices into their classroom and improve ...

I know that a lot of teachers work on comprehension strategies throughout the year with their students.  Here are some forms I created to use when teaching predictions.  I generally begin with the before reading predictions page.  We discuss a book cover, title, and take a picture walk.  The first couple of days I have the students make a ...

Book Introduction Al Capone Does My Shirts takes place in 1935 and revolves around a 12-year-old boy (Moose Flanagan) and his sister Natalie (who is described as 10 but is actually 15). Natalie displays several autistic characteristics, although the specific diagnosis is never mentioned. Moose and his family move to the island of Alcatraz, ...