Literacy is my passion.
Hello! I’m Carla. Welcome to my site! My goal with this site is to share 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.
What Matters to Me
I absolutely loved teaching and connecting with my school kids who became an extension of my family. The stories they shared with me about their life adventures and their enthusiasm about the books they read motivated me to do my best for them, and I really enjoyed sharing resources I created and stories I wrote with them. My hope was always that they would see how much I love to write and imitate me in the future. These classroom pictures are from my last year of teaching.
My Classroom Library
The place I loved most in my room was always my classroom library. It took me a LONG time to gather up all my books, and I love that they got LOTS of use with children. I’ve always enjoyed sending takehome books during the school year as well as bags over the summer because many of my kids didn’t have access to books except those they borrowed from school. Last week, I took five bins of books to two brand new teachers in Title 1 schools. It made me so happy to share them, and I’m glad those books are back in hands of children
This is a session I shared at an area reading council. I highly recommend getting involved with professional organizations. They help you grow in knowledge and in leadership.
Transition to Coaching
In my last year of teaching, I moved from intervention to coaching, and I really enjoyed it. I missed working with the same children every day, but still, I got to team teach quite a bit in different grade levels, and honestly, one of the things I loved about coaching was sharing resources and ideas with my colleagues.
When I first became a reading specialist, I was running intervention groups AND working with teachers. I just couldn’t keep up with both roles, so used my blog as a way to help. I think there are many teachers who truly want to learn new ideas or techniques, but may not feel comfortable reaching out and asking for assistance. On the contrary, there are many amazing teachers who know different ways of doing things when what you’ve tried hasn’t worked. Social media and blogging helps us learn and connect with knowledgeable teachers to share ideas.
Presentations I’m able to offer…
Using a Writer’s Workshop Model
This full day session introduces a workshop model, how to use the writing process, ways to organize students in the classroom, use of mentor texts, mini lesson ideas, and assessing student writing.
Building a Vivacious Vocabulary in All Readers
This 1-2 hour session includes how to plan vocabulary lessons, vocabulary building activities for word introduction, practice, and for quick review.
Using Mentor Texts to Teach Comprehension Skills and the Six Writing Traits
In this session, Carla selects and shares quality picture books and how they can be used for specific reading and writing skills. Participants are provided with a database of books categorized by reading/writing skill. (1-2 hours)
The Power of Poetry: Ways to Use a Poem of the Week
Poetry is for more than National Poetry Month! This session includes how poetry is used for building a concept of word in emergent readers, for building fluency in the primary grades, and for comprehension and figurative language in the upper grades. A collection of original poetry and activities are shared with participants. (1-2 hours)
Best Practices in Guided Reading
With this session, Carla shares how to group students, how to schedule your literacy block, information on what to use for instruction and how to run your small groups. This session includes progress monitoring tools and Carla’s guided reading binder. (full day)
My Family…
When I’m not involved with designing curriculum and blogging, I am off enjoying time with my family. In addition to our two kiddos, we have two fur babies named Molly and Luna. Here is a picture of my crew from a hike last year. We love playing board games, movies and traveling.
If you have made it this far, congratulations! Until next time, happy reading and come back soon!
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Your favorite authors are featured in this category. I have bundles for Jan Brett, Patricia Polacco, Ezra Jack Keats, Arnold Lobel, Eve Bunting, William Steig, Tomie dePaolo, Syd Hoff, Kevin Henkes, Leo Lionni, Cynthia Rylant, Karma Wilson, Mem Fox, Lois Ehlert, and Kate Dicamillo
This section includes over 170 units to go with your favorite picture books and novels.
In this category, you’ll find:
- Alphabet Activities
- Rhyming Activities
- Word Building, and
- Concept of Word
Planning for guided reading can be quite time consuming. Check out THESE RESOURCES to take a little off your plate.
My paper bag books address comprehension skills, alphabet recognition and sounds as well as word building. Click HERE to check them out.
Partner plays are fantastic for tutoring sessions as well as in your literacy workstations. Click HERE to see them all.
Regardless of your students’ level, you’ll find poetry sets that they will love. These original poems include activities to support fluency and comprehension.
Students NEED a strong understanding of phonics and word knowledge to move along the reading continuum. Click HERE to access word building and vocabulary resources I have available.
