While questions about literature can focus on identifying elements, Jason DeHart wants to expand his students’ thinking beyond matching words and examples. He begins with two questions designed to move students deeper into a text: “What’s that?” and “What’s that doing there?”
Are your students ready for Common Core ELA assessments? Using the PARCC as a springboard, literacy consultant Sarah Tantillo details a 10-lesson strategy to prep for the Literary Analysis Writing Task and links to other preps at her blog. Teachers in non-PARCC states may also find the ideas helpful.
With its ready-made product menus and immediate applicability, Differentiating Instruction with Menus is one of those books that won’t gather dust, as teachers will turn to it for quick reference throughout the school year, says ELA and gifted facilitator Kim Rensch.
Standardized Test Preparation / Working Draft
by Kevin Hodgson · Published 04/16/2017 · Last modified 11/18/2019
Without turning his classroom into “test prep central,” teacher Kevin Hodgson is working to anticipate what his state’s evolving standardized tests will contain and how best to help his sixth graders prepare themselves with plenty of reading and writing strategies.
Articles / It's Not Easy Being Tween / Whole Novels / Whole Novels
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 06/12/2016 · Last modified 07/07/2024
Each school year Cheryl Mizerny’s 6th graders explore three whole novels as a class. In this post, she shares the 10 techniques she’s developed to maximize the experience, including “reading like writers” and applying fiction’s life lessons to their own world.
Initial failures can produce big breakthroughs, as ELA consultant Sarah Tantillo found when students she was supporting failed to translate PARCC practice prompts into viable essays. Check out the tools Tantillo, teachers & tutors used to solve the problem.
Common Core tests require students to analyze two literary texts and compare & contrast themes or points of view. Literacy consultant Sarah Tantillo shares a better tool to help students organize these essays. Included: Links to all her PARCC Prep articles.
