ELAsuccess
Are your students ready for some ideas to jazz up their narrative writing pieces? With simple word-choice strategies during the revision process, the entire story can take a different shape. So, let's get started with some strategies and techniques you can use in the classroom to promote effective
ELAsuccess
Do you have some primary students who still have difficulty identifying adverbs? Not to worry! Our Adverb Jingle helps students learn not only the definition of an adverb, but also the three initial questions to ask when finding adverbs: How? When? Where? (Don't have our ELA jingles? Here&
Holiday Lessons/Resources
Need a new idea to get the creative juices flowing in your classroom? The Haiku offers that opportunity to your students by channeling their creativity into this unique form of Japanese poetry. Here is a great lesson plan to get you started. (By the way, you can find this lesson,
study skills
All of us have students in our class who need a little extra nudge to keep their work area organized. (I have a whole post dedicated to teaching study skills here.) One of THE best tools that I have found to aid in the quest to stay organized is to
Holiday Lessons/Resources
When the excitement of a snow day or a long weekend is over, you may want an activity to teach your students how to find interest in nature’s resting time. It's an opportunity to find the beauty on display right outside the window! Take a classroom field
In the Spotlight
Do you have some students who continually struggle with organizing their assignments, their folders, their personal desk area, and just generally need some extra incentives to be ready for school obligations? It may benefit them, and you, to lead a lesson in study skills. A Study Skills Unit should give
ELAsuccess
We've said it before and we'll say it again, Jingles are a fun way for students to learn the definitions of the eight parts of speech and other important language arts concepts. Definitions are oftentimes difficult to understand and remember, but by strategically singing or chanting
at school
One goal of using direct instruction in your classroom is to build confidence in your students as you model, model, model. As teachers, we model grammar jingles. We model sentence classification. We model every day to ensure our students can make English Language Arts connections with confidence. But, why leave
Let's Get Creative
The reinforcement of concepts can sometimes be a tedious task. Here is a great way to practice sentence building during center time: 1. Create a word-bank wall using any flat surface. (An old metal filing cabinet makes a great wall.) 2. Make labels for the parts of speech that you
In the Spotlight
Being organized is a key ingredient to the writing process. It helps everyone stay focused and on-topic. I find that writing maps not only help my students accomplish this goal, but these planning tools also give them a great place to start. Recently, I had a teacher at a workshop
author
Cindy Goeden Consultant and Contributing Blogger Cindy Goeden has enjoyed being involved with Shurley English for the last seventeen of her twenty-seven years in the field of education. Working with various levels of students in elementary, junior, and high schools, in both the private and public arenas, Cindy is thankful