blog : September 2014

An Interview with Katie McKnight

9/26/2014

snacks inthe back

Watch the video after the jump!

Freebee Friday: Dinner Conversation Role Play

9/26/2014

freebee friday Look folks, here’s another CCSS-aligned activity and this one includes reading, writing, and speaking & listening components! It’s a three-in-one and, best of all, students love it.

Use this Dinner Conversation Role Play activity to guide Grade 7–12 students toward achieving these Common Core State Standards goals:

Click here to keep reading and download the freebee!



Freebees: Vocabulary Centers and Activities

9/19/2014

freebee friday For the next month or so, I’m going to be talking a lot about literacy in the content areas. And since vocabulary development is an important part of all content area learning, this Friday’s freebee is a packet of vocabulary centers and activities. The packet contains 10 strategies to build Grade 4-12 students' understanding of vocabulary.

Click here to keep reading and download the freebee!





Free Haiku Download

9/12/2014

freebee friday

“The Lesson”
Teaching writing skills
To adolescent learners
Requires planning.

I love a good haiku! If you don’t hear that very often, then you need to spend more time with passionate literacy educators and their lucky students.

Click here to keep reading and download the freebee!

How writing in every class helps build connections

9/5/2014

writing This post originally appeared on smartblogs.com.

Imagine this: You are a seventh-grader. School is probably one of the last things on your mind. You are taking six different subjects with six different teachers and they all have their own teaching styles, expectations, grading systems and ways of providing feedback. You feel like they are all speaking their own language. You are learning about osmosis in science, the electoral process in social studies and geometry in math class. You have no clue how the skills you are learning in one class relate to those you are being taught in another. School seems more and more difficult and impossible to navigate. Click here to keep reading!


Freebee Friday - Graphic Organizers

9/5/2014

freebee friday You’ve all heard or read my opinion about the benefits of graphic organizers in the classroom, right? I’m a big fan. Graphic organizers serve as visual representations of newly learned material, help students focus on key information, and help them create, interpret, analyze and synthesize content.

Click here to keep reading!



10 Low Prep Ideas for Starting the Year Out Right

9/2/2014

snacks int he back This is a guest post by Richard Cash

Below are 10 low prep ideas for starting your school year off right. Each idea is meant to assist you in creating a learning environment that respects all learners while fostering engagement and self-regulation.

Click here to keep reading!

Subscribe!