These 21 task cards help students practice the skill and art of writing paragraphs. Here is the breakdown of the 21 cards: 1- 10 complete the paragraph cards. Students must complete the missing sentence. A multiple choice answer sheet is provided or have students come up with their own sentences for a challenge. 2- 5 cards with scrambled paragraphs from book excerpts. Students must figure out the best order for the paragraph. An answer sheet is provided. 3- Two cards which ask students to read a short paragraph and say if there’s a sentence that goes off topic. They must explain their thinking. Answer sheet is provided. 4- Two cards which ask students to underline the topic sentence, circle a detail, and star the concluding sentence. Answer sheet is provided. 5- Two cards which have students writing their own paragraphs about a topic. An answer sheet is not provided for this.

Most of the resources that I create for the teachers I coach and for my own students are literacy based. This is what I love to teach, but here's a little math goody that students will love, especially if you have been studying arrays. My students LOVED the creativity involved and forgot they were doing math! This lesson takes at least 2 days bare minimum, maybe more if you give in class time for the project itself, which is encouraged. It starts with a read aloud, moves on to partner work, followed by the project. Teacher directions are included! PLEASE NOTE: The documents are offered in both PDF (to keep the fun fonts and formatting since I work from a Chromebook) and also Word docs. If purchased, you can download all or only the format you want.

These are 12 inference task cards with varying levels of complexity. Suggested answers are included as well to help you! Here is a breakdown of the activities: 1- 6 photographs with prompts 2- 3 very brief two - three line stories with prompts 3- Slightly more advanced text excerpts with prompts For each exercise, students must be able to point to and discuss the evidence they used.

Included here are three tools for managing an older grade level classroom. These tools make students accountable for their own actions and worked wonders when I taught in an inner-city middle school. Hand out the "rights, responsibilities, and consequences" sheet at the beginning of the year and review thoroughly. The "behavior reflection" sheet gets handed out as needed and the "weekly behavior report" gets filled out weekly for each student. The weekly behavior report might seem like a lot of work, but it really makes a difference in the overall community feel of the classroom. Additionally, there is a "teacher evaluation sheet" included. Hand this out at a few points in the middle of the year so you can hear constructive feedback from your students about your performance. Grades aren't always given just to them! All first three documents are editable, while the teacher evaluation is not.

Guided reading can sometimes be a logistical mess, but these documents should get you up and running with ease! I made these for the teachers I coach so they have been tested and approved! Here are: 1- Guided reading lesson plan document for each day separated into 2 different "rounds" of guided reading per day 2- A 100 grid running record sheet so you can easily track words read 3- Guided reading groups and schedule sample and blank templates. In the sample, I show an example grouping chart and alternating week schedules Attached also is my guided reading and running record PD that I give at the school in which I coach. Each student should have a tab in a guided reading binder to keep all of their running records.

This resource includes: 1- Close reading guide for students to keep handy in their binders or to be hung on the wall as a reference 2- Annotation marks bookmarks 3- Get the gist graphic organizer 4- Accountable talk bookmarks These sheets, when used in conjunction with teacher modeling and scaffolding, will have students close reading in no time! You can laminate the bookmarks for students to keep all year! This close reading bundle would work well in conjunction with my Fishbowl Style Class Discussion Rubric and Student Notes Sheet. This is a fun and effective method to get students talking about texts!

These activities are designed to help readers visualize a little better. These activities can be used in guided reading, RtI, and/or literacy stations. Visualization is a key reading skill that will help students comprehend more challenging texts as they get older. Included are the following activities: 1- Picture activity- Put words to images 2- Drama activity- Some prep needed. You will need to prepare a few bags with objects inside 3- Descriptive Words activity- students read words and draw images they associate with those words 4- Shel Silverstein Poetry activity- Students read excerpts, draw images, and circle keywords that helped them with the images All teacher and student sheets are included!

Here is a set of lesson plans to create your own classroom quilt based on The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco. The lessons guide you page by page through the read aloud all the way through to the quilt square creation. This is PERFECT for building community at the beginning of the year. It is my go-to project. It is hands on for the kids and they learn so much about one another. Please know that you will need the book The Keeping Quilt in addition to fabric quilt squares and fabric markers for this. You will also need a way to sew the squares together. I usually have the fifth graders do this, but an adult volunteer can also do this. Your first year, you will need to find a picture online of a student made keeping quilt, but subsequent years, you can use your class made example!

This 7 day mini-unit will explore synonyms. Students should be at the high beginner-low intermediate English stages. Students will develop a definition of synonym, learn how to use a thesaurus, and will use synonyms in writing. Through studying synonyms, students will also learn new vocabulary and will practice their speaking and listening skills. This unit ends with students writing a script for a skit and performing the skit.

This lesson was originally done with a group of high beginner-low intermediate ESL students to reinforce the opinion writing they were doing in their regular English classes. This activity can take 1-2 days depending on how much time you have with the students and if you would like to add an extension at the end where the students edit their work. The lesson (following PowerPoint) 1- Review opinion writing/hand out tips sheet 2- Show the sample opinion piece/discuss 3- Try it together (have a news article ready) 4- Students go to one of two websites (or provide news articles), choose an article, and write their piece 5- Gallery walk, peer critique, and share An extension would be to have students edit based on critique they received. Included: 1- PowerPoint 2- Opinion tips handout sheet 3- My sample opinion piece PLEASE NOTE: Having access to computers would be best!

This is a 9 week Realistic Fiction (editable) unit based on the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project curriculum. It includes a reading self-assessment to give at the beginning and end of the unit. Additionally, as part of the unit, you meet with each child to create reading goals. There is a teacher chart included for this. Some of the PowerPoints do reference particular popular short stories. You can swap these out for stories already in your possession. The stories should be short though as they are part of the mini-lesson in order to teach a skill/concept. Scholastic's Read Aloud Anthology is great! Please let me know if you have ANY questions about how to implement the unit!

This is also included in the Classroom Management Tools pack that I sell. Have your students evaluate your teaching in the middle of the year. This really shows them that you appreciate them and are willing to change/grow. This worked really well when I taught middle school in inner-city Queens, NYC.

This is an activity that will help students to get to know one another. Provided here are teacher directions and student handouts. You can make this as in depth or as short of an activity as you want, but everything you need is provided, except for markers and paper :) Students will really love to share something about themselves with the extra challenge of doing it in only 6 words. English language learners thrive with this activity as they are encouraged to use their home language. Included: 1- Teacher directions 2- Student memoir examples 3- Noticings handout 4- Memoir example handout 5- Student task handout

This is a chart to remind students the steps for close reading a text. Students can keep this in their binders or you can hang it on the wall! Students should always be able to access these steps. This is also included in my Close Reading Bundle! The Bundle includes annotation marks bookmarks, get the gist graphic organizer, and accountable talk bookmarks!

This interactive packet includes nouns, adjectives, action verbs, and pronouns. There is a guide sheet that goes with each part of speech and then a sheet for students to fill out asking them to write their own examples. Students can either draw/paste pictures or write. This resource is great for English language learners and for younger grade students. Please note: For the verb guide sheet, I only include action verbs, but there are two different student pages. One includes linking and action and the other is just action. Another lesson to go along with this is my "subject pronoun" lesson or worksheet bundle.

This resource includes two transition words room visuals. The first is a poster explaining what transition words are. The second includes different examples of transition words separated into categories. These can be hung on the wall or printed for students to keep in their notebooks as reference.

This is a unit test that tests students on compound words, prefixes, suffixes, context clues, multiple meaning words, and homophones. I used this test for my high beginner-intermediate level ESL class, but it can be used in any classroom. A whole unit can be built around the skills tested here.

Make learning inferences fun with these interactive stations! These can be used as an introduction or they can be used if students need additional help grasping how to make inferences. There are teacher directions, but these stations are very student directed. Included in this pack are three stations with a student packet: 1- Poetry inference station 2- TV commercial inference station 3- Picture inference station Please note that you will need access to one laptop or other device for the commercials station.

Included in this pack are: 1- Directions page 2- Grammar help sheets for student referral Then/Than Two/Too/To Apostrophes Capitalization They're/There/Their You're/Your It's/Its 3- 10 task cards + 2 create your own 4- 4 extension task cards where students read excerpts from books and must identify and explain the grammar rules being used. 5- Student answer sheet for regular task cards 6- Student answer sheet for extension cards 5- Teacher answer keys for both regular and extension cards These are a perfect addition to literacy stations or for "I'm done!" work. These can be laminated and used year after year. Students can either write answers in their literacy notebooks, "I'm done" notebooks, or can write the answers on the answer sheets to hand in to you.

Here is a packet of grade specific fluency graphs. Students will have a chance to track their fluency across a span of 12 weeks. Students love to see their growth and the grade specific goals at the top of each graph help them to make sure they are on track! The last page in the document includes an ideas list.