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Using Mentor Texts for Personal Narratives

For most of my 27 years of teaching, I have taught personal narratives in some way, shape or form.   In doing so, I have encountered

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Preparing for Individual Writing Conferences with Students

I love having writing conferences with my students.  It is one of the best ways to learn about their strengths and goals in writing as

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Independent Reading Conferring with Students – Part 3

I’m back for more on reading conferences.  In my first post of this series, I share some ways to plan and organize for reading conferences

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Independent Reading Conferring with Students – Part 2

Last week, I shared some of the ways I prepare for reading conferences.  You can check that post out by clicking here.  This week, I’d

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Independent Reading Conferring with Students – Part 1

Conferring with students about their reading is one of my favorite parts of the day.  Over the years, my reading conferences have definitely evolved, but

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Using Flipgrid for Partner Reading Response Activities

Sometimes, it’s easy to get in a bit of a rut with student responses to reading.  I do see lots of value in Post-it notes

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Increasing Student Engagement by Using Randomizers

I always love it when I can find a way to add a little more fun into my classroom.  I like it even better if

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Teaching Students to Compose Strong Narrative Leads

We recently finished our writing unit on personal narratives.  As with all of my units, I like to take a little time to reflect on

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Three Great Picture Books for the Beginning of the School Year

The start of a new school year is just around the corner.  As I started looking through my plans for the first couple of weeks,

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It’s not always easy to convince students to go It’s not always easy to convince students to go back and reread.  I do a lot of coaching for this in the areas of decoding, fluency, and comprehension. 

Some helpful prompts:
✅Did that make sense?
✅Does that look/sound right?
✅Remember, this is a scary, funny… part. 
✅Try making your voice sound like the character. 
✅Show how the character really feels. 
✅Show me a place where…
✅Can you prove that?
✅Show me how the character changed. 
✅Show me the part that helped you make your prediction. 
✅Show me some details to support your thinking. 

How do you encourage your students to reread?

#readingintervention #readingteacher #secondgrade #secondgradeteacher #iteachsecond #iteachreading #reread #readingstrategies #fluency #readinganchorcharts #anchorcharts #readingcomprehension #decoding
Not all decoding strategies are created equal. It Not all decoding strategies are created equal. It is important that students recognize which strategies work best for each challenging word. 

For my students who have decoding as their primary reading goal, we focus our reading conferences on which decoding strategy works best for each challenging word. I am pushing my students to vocalize strategies beyond “sounding it out” to be more specific. It makes my heart happy when I see students independently apply strategies and explain why they chose that strategy. 

If you scroll through, you will see one of my favorite anchor charts and one of the few i leave up for the year. 

What is one of your favorite anchor charts?

#secondgradeteacher #decoding #readinganchorcharts  #readingteacher #secondgrade #decodingstrategies #readingstrategies #iteachrreading #iteachsecond #iteachsecondgrade #primaryclassroom #secondgradereading #primaryteacher #scienceofreading
Bethany Hamilton is definitely one of my heroes. H Bethany Hamilton is definitely one of my heroes. Her story is one of my go-tos when I need inspiration. Who inspires you?

 #inspiredteaching #teacherinspiration #healthyteacher #fitteacher #teacherlife
I have taught personal narratives for more years t I have taught personal narratives for more years than I can count. I have accumulated many great mentor texts, and I like to mix up what I use from year to year to match my class the best I can. 

This book is my one staple. It has everything: a small moment, dialogue, strong feelings, thoughts, sensory details, and pretty much anything else you can think of.  I can’t recommend it enough for small moment stories. 

What is your favorite mentor text for personal narratives?

#iteachsecondgraders #iteachsecond #iteachsecondgrade #iteachwriting #iteach2nd #writingteacher #mentortexts #booksforteachers #elementaryteachers #iteachelementary #teachingtips
Hooray! I finished BOY reading assessments, and I Hooray!  I finished BOY reading assessments, and I’m ready to start planning reading groups!

#readingteacher #iteachreading #iteachsecondgraders #iteachsecond #iteachsecondgrade #secondgradeteacher #readinggroups #teacherbloggers #teacherlife #happyteacher
Morning meetings are a fun way to get to know your Morning meetings are a fun way to get to know your students and to set expectations for the day. My latest blog post shares 7 fun activities to incorporate in your morning routine. You can find the link in my profile. 

#iteachsecondgraders #iteachsecond #iteachsecondgrade #secondgradeteacher #teacherbloggers #teacherblogger #teacherblog #teachingideas #morningmeeting #classroomculture #classroomroutines #classroomcommunity #morninggreetings
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