shurley english
Just like many of you, teachers across the United States are experiencing lots of change during this time of year like switching classrooms or schools, learning new curricula, and welcoming a new class of students. Changes like these push us outside of our comfort zones. I used to look at
ELA Success
An analogy is a way of thinking about how pairs of words are related. It’s a special kind of word puzzle that lets a student have fun and exercises their brain at the same time! If you need a language arts activity to help keep your students on their
Back to School
So, you have purchased your Shurley curriculum, you open the book or access your digital teacher’s manual…and then it hits you! “What’s all this? How am I going to cover all of it? Can I even do it?” If you have had these or similar feelings, don’
Back to School
Last week, we discussed how practicing the art of self-care IS your duty. Learning how to set boundaries at home and work helps you take care of YOU so you can take care of others. One valuable way to break your pattern of self-sacrifice is by learning how to gracefully
Back to School
Are you familiar with the frog in boiling water metaphor? (Of course, do not attempt this at home!) Imagine a pot of cold water sitting on the burner of a stove. A frog is peacefully swimming in it. The heat is turned on, and the water starts warming up. The
strategies
It’s that time of year again, and most teachers are trying their best to enjoy their final days of summer break. It’s hard to believe that some schools have already started professional development opportunities for their staff members. Before you know it, your own classroom will be filled
ELA Success
In this series of blogs about micro-comprehension, I have presented strategies that boost micro-comprehension: vocabulary words, gap-filling inference, sentence structure processing, figurative language processing, and applying text structure. When you teach students how to slow down their own thinking— to become aware of what they are thinking about while reading,
ELA Success
From the beginning, Shurley English teaches students to understand the role that each word plays in a sentence. The first part of speech we begin with is the noun, and in true Shurley style, we start by going over the Noun Jingle. The jingle and corresponding lesson teaches that a
ELA Success
As I continue my series about micro-comprehension, text structure processing is next in line. Earlier, I wrote about sentence structure processing. The process of analyzing sentence structure and text structure shares similarities. However, analyzing at the sentence level gives a close-up picture of the meaning of the sentence; whereas, analyzing
ELA Success
Have you ever noticed that several language arts terms have the letters o-n-y-m in them? I’m talking about words like synonym, antonym, homonym, heteronym, acronym, etc. Of course, the list goes on, but here’s what you need to know about all of these words: Onym is actually a
Back to School
Journal Writing is an activity that is implemented very early in the Shurley English curriculum. Students are taught how to create a written journal to record their thoughts and feelings. Then, throughout the school year, they are encouraged to respond to specific prompts in their personal journals. (If you’re
ELA Success
Reading fluency, comprehension, prosody (the highs and lows of the voice to convey emotion), —these facets of reading sound like a bunch of educational mumbo-jumbo, but they matter! As I continue to poke around in figurative language processing, these components have to be mentioned because many readers need us to