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Increasing Discussion with Wordless Books

You can increase discussion with wordless books. Three strategies that work with many picture books and are guaranteed to decrease teacher talk and increase student engagement in classroom discussion and conversation about your read aloud with wordless picture books. Strategies that work well with primary and upper elementary students. Your Kindergarten, first, second, third, fourth or fifth grade students are guaranteed to talk more with these teaching strategies.

Picture this: You have the most well-thought out lesson plan for your read aloud complete with questions that are designed to get your students talking and sentence frames to help your students answer your discussion question. You read the book and then try to get start your discussion and…CRICKETS. It’s happened to me MANY times. […]

Wait Time in Student-Centered Discussion

Wait time in student-centered discussion is so important. Using wait time helps to decrease teacher talk and increase student talk and participation. What should you do for wait time? How much wait time should you give? Many great ideas to help you effectively use wait time as well as some things not to do during student discussions so you don't hijack a conversation and give students ownership of discussions whether you're in elementary or secondary.

How many times does this happen? You’re having a classroom discussion, your students are talking and then…crickets. You’re a great teacher, so you know that you need to provide adequate wait time, but that silence is deafening. All too often, I used to jump in and provide an idea or add a follow-up question to […]

Best Sentence Frames To Easily Teach Students Citing Text Evidence

Sentence Frames to Support Students Citing Text Evidence Pin 2

Getting students to cite text evidence can be a difficult skill to teach. Strategic use of sentence stems, sentence starters or sentence frames can make all the difference. I’m going to use the example of the book Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love to illustrate my point. This is an accompanying post to another […]

Best Picture Books for Presidents Day

Looking for the best picture books for Presidents Day? These fun books for elementary students are engaging for primary and upper elementary kids. Fiction and nonfiction books with lesson plans and activities linked. Presidents Day books for your kindergarten, first, second, third, fourth or fifth grade students.

What are the best picture books for Presidents Day? It can be tough finding actual quality literature about the presidents. Are you tired of reading the same book about Presidents’ Day? Looking to find a replacement to that one book you always read about George Washington or Abraham Lincoln? This list of my favorite picture […]