Category: Reading

Building Reading Stamina is something that we start on our very first day back to school. Until our reading stamina is built, a lot of my lessons are on hold! We start slowly, just three minutes to begin. One of the best ways to help my students build their reading stamina is to help them have a plan for their reading time. So, how do I go about building reading stamina with my second graders? Read on! This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on

Today I am blogging over at Adventures in Literacy Land!  We are doing a summer book study of Jennifer Serravallo’s book Teaching Reading in Small Groups.  If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, head over there.   I am talking about Chapter 4 today: Guided Practice Toward Independence: Strategy Lessons for Comprehension, Print Work, and Fluency. This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase (with no extra cost to you). For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link!

Teaching my students to ask and answer questions while reading is one of my favorite units to teach!  Why?   The books of course! Keep reading for a freebie and even more great reading ideas!   This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase (with no extra cost to you). For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link!   I always introduce Asking Questions with a brown paper bag. I place something inside and let the kiddos ask questions. Then, we talk about which questions were

Teaching Second Graders to Make Inferences isn’t the easiest thing, is it? It is an abstract concept. That being said, I LOVE teaching inferences!I make a ton of inferences every day even when I am not reading. I always point that out to my students as well.  One of my favorites is when a student asks me a question that they could figure out the answer to by just looking at the evidence in front of them.  I tell them to “Make an inference!”This book is a fun mentor text for making inferences to use to introduce inferring to your students!

“It usually starts with a mess you can’t explain…” This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase (with no extra cost to you). For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link! Oh my goodness!What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night by Refe and Susan Toma is one of my new faves! This book is very near and dear to my heart.A few years ago I had a little girl in my class who knew in her heart of hearts that her toys

    Making Mental Images or Visualizing is one of my favorite comprehension strategies to teach my kiddos!   I have written several blog posts about this wonderful strategy to help your student’s reading comprehension. You can find them: My Neighbor’s Dog is Purple! The Purple Kangaroo! The Girl Who Thought in Pictures! They all have freebies of course! This book is a great way to show making a mental image! We talk about how to use the text to make pictures in our heads.  I usually read this book to my kiddos and have them make the pictures in their heads before I

Hurrah!  It is Mentor Text Monday! This is a super fun read aloud for fact and opinion! This week I am talking about a fun Non-fiction text: Weird and Wild Animal Facts by Jessica Loy! It is a perfect read-aloud for teaching about Facts and Opinions. Yes, there is a freebie below! This book is so much fun!  It has lots of great pictures and fun facts about some amazing animals.  It is organized into smaller chunks of text to make it a bit easier for kiddos to read. It was also a Young Hoosier Award Nominee in 2018! If

    Hello! Welcome back to Mentor Text Monday (the post formerly known as Book Talk Tuesday).   Today I am featuring: Goldi Socks and The Three Libearians by Jacki Mims Hopkins! Every school year we spend a ton of time teaching our kiddos how to choose books that are a Good Fit for them.   This book is how I kick off my whole unit! In the story Goldi Socks discovers a house filled with books belonging to the Libearian family. Of course Goldi has to find something to read! She uses the five finger rule, and lots of trial and

  Making Good Choices for Kids!   I want to start by saying that I am not affiliated with the authors or creators of this wonderful book in any way, I just love it and wanted to share this wonderful book with others!   What Should Danny Do?  is a book about making good choices for kids and how the choices we make affect our lives. This book is a kind of “pick a path” type of story, where your children can help Danny make his choices, then see the consequences of those choices (good and bad).     I