In a powerful panel hosted by The Heinemann Fellows, authors Sara Ahmed, Sonja Cherry-Paul andCornelius Minor share their perspectives on racism and how to approach the topic in classrooms.
Here are some of the quotes that resonated with me, personally. To view the transcript in its entirety, click here. Continue reading
I stumbled across this video a few weeks ago, Dear Teacher: Heartfelt Advice for Teachers from Students. In this video, adorable young students with learning disabilities talk about their struggles in the classroom. It’s so short and so simple, but so impacting. Continue reading
My students finish assessments at different points–this is a given–but it makes it essential to create extension activities and keep them busy and focused on the classroom curriculum. For an extension activity once my students were finished with their I Am Assessments, I created this–a reading and writing activity for the vignette “Darius & the Clouds” which we were not reading as a large group. Continue reading
Making connections while reading is hard! That’s why I created this resource to help not only my struggling readers in Book Club, but for for any struggling reader or young reader (fifth grade through eighth grade). This simple, yet deeper-thinking worksheet helps students create text-to-self connections while reading. Continue reading
Making text-to-self connections can be pretty simple when you’re working with a story, explanatory text, or short passage. Poetry, on the other hand, can be a challenge. That’s why I wanted to specifically work on this with my Book Club students. Continue reading
After reading “House on Mango Street,” the first section in the book, this is a great way to help students visualize the Mango Street house and compare/contrast it to their own. Continue reading
My Book Club is made of eighth grade Reading Intervention students who really struggle with reading. One of my girls told me, point blank on the first day, “I don’t read.” My goal is to change that by making reading fun and by caring about the students and working with them individually over the course of the three/four weeks. Continue reading
