I'm Carla. Teacher Blogger, Curriculum and Blog Designer, Tech Lover, and Mom. Welcome to my site! Literacy is my passion. My site is dedicated to sharing teaching tips for all areas of literacy-phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing for grades K-8. I love sharing resources with teachers, and it makes me happy to help take a little off the overflowing platters of teacher duties. ...
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Students at all reading stages need opportunities to read from all genre types. Students who know the text features associated with each genre are able to pull from the text the information that is most important to remember. By learning how the "genre puzzle pieces" fit together, readers can focus ...
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Research shows that hands-on learning helps increase student engagement and improves retention of the information learned. Kids love making things, and if you haven't made books with your students, then read on to learn tips to make them easy and fun. You can use student made books in all subjects ...
Read More about How Making Books in the Classroom Makes Learning Stick
Motivation is a driving force in student achievement, and there are lots of things teachers can do to motivate readers. In this post, I'll share five ideas you can use to help spark energy and help your students grow. All year, I've been working to spark an interest in reading with my students and ...
Read More about Five Ways to Improve Your Reading Climate
When little ones enter kindergarten, they often come with a range of skills. Some may be reading, and some may know only a few letters. We've even had a few still learning colors. So why should a kindergarten teacher spend time working on teaching concept of word? How does a COW lesson benefit those ...
Read More about 8 Effective Ways to Differentiate Concept of Word Lessons
Author studies are a fantastic way to introduce students to quality literature, and there are so many ways to work them into the teaching routine. For me, using carefully selected books and authors as mentor texts for writing offers my students the opportunity to develop the reader's eye by ...
Read More about Ezra Jack Keats: An Author for EVERY Child
Let's face it. Teaching vocabulary can be just plain redundent and boring unless you have a deep repertoire of teaching options. As teachers, we have to mix things up and keep learning fresh and fun. But how?? Certainly, it's not by having kids look up definitions in the dictionary, so let's ...
Read More about 20+ Ways to Keep Vocabulary Fresh and Fun
