Structure of a Story: Plot

Elementary students need to understand the structure of a story. Knowing the elements of a story will help with comprehension during reading and when writing one, not to mention it’s one of the Common Core: RL.2.7. Characters, setting, point of view and plot are the basic elements of a story. Let’s focus on the plot. TheContinue reading “Structure of a Story: Plot”

Strategies to Build Background Knowledge

Background knowledge is often something we teachers overlook by jumping into the lesson, but it is crucial in helping students understand and retain new knowledge. For instance, a memory came up on my Facebook page recently where I posted a conversation between my youngest son and me: The joy of homeschooling is seeing those lightbulbContinue reading “Strategies to Build Background Knowledge”

READ-ALOUDS A POWERFUL TOOL

As teachers, we remind the parents of our elementary students to read to their children. We tell them how important it is and that it is also an enjoyable time to spend together. We need to heed our advice and utilize that strategy in our classrooms. Besides being pleasant, modeling reading through teacher read-alouds benefitsContinue reading “READ-ALOUDS A POWERFUL TOOL”

Teaching Reading through Literature

Do you want your child or student to love reading? Do you want him to be an excellent writer? I know I do. When I started teaching, my principal gave me and a fellow teacher the opportunity to create our own literature units. She even bought us classroom sets of the books we chose. ItContinue reading “Teaching Reading through Literature”