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Picture it: you're a third grade teacher excited about your new job teaching third grade. You go to the teacher's store and raid it buying everything they have related to frogs, because you’ve decided that this has to be your theme for the year. You ride excitement as you set up that room, and plan your first week's lesson plans. You ride excitement through your first day of school as you go over your classroom rules, take students on a school … [Read more...] about When the Teacher Isn’t Excited About the School Year

If you’ve ever tried to get your students to settle in with a good book and get some quality independent reading time, you know this isn’t as easy as it sounds.  Students are easily distracted, and that only seems to get worse during independent reading time. Suddenly every child has to use the bathroom, get a drink, or remembers something they forgot in the lunchroom.  Some seem to have mastered the art of fake reading, while others simply … [Read more...] about 5 Exciting New Ideas for Independent Reading in the Upper Elementary Classroom

Ahhh reading response. I don’t know about you, but I have always had a love/hate relationship with it. It is often cited as a way to hold students “accountable” for reading or as an additional way to keep students busy when reading.  As I mentioned in the blog post entitled Keeping Kids Accountable During Independent Reading, my favorite way to instill accountability during reading is to create a culture of reading. What that means is if we … [Read more...] about Launching Reading Response Opportunities the Right Way

The great thing about reader’s workshop is that it has been around for a long time and lots of people have found ways to put their own spin on it. This means that there are a ton of books out there to help get you started.  This also means that there are a ton of books out there which can leave you feeling like you don’t even know where to start. Which means that you don’t even start.  That is where I come in. Although I can not claim that … [Read more...] about 3 Must Have Books For Launching Your Reading Block