The Common Core State Standards have a heavy push on teaching informational text, but that can feel daunting to teach, especially since kids tend to enjoy non-fiction less. This blog post shares five informational text resources to make teaching it more fun, engaging, and worthwhile, so click through to read all five suggestions.

Informational Text Resources

Please welcome Brian and Eric of Wise Guys!  Today they share with us how they are meeting informational text standards in their classrooms.  Thanks guys! Informational text has become a major focus under the Common Core Standards. As classroom teachers, it is our goal to help our students become proficient in reading and writing informational text. Below are our top five ways we accomplish this

The Gateway Book

Please welcome Caitlin of The Room Mom.  Today, she shares how she has guided her students to choose that one special book that leads them into being vivacious readers.  Be sure to check out her book suggestion path down below.  Thanks so much, Caitlin! It only takes one perfect book to get a child hooked on reading. I like to call this book the gateway book.

Teachers are always looking for reading strategies for comprehension, and our guest blogger shares four engaging strategies - along with freebies - here.

Reading Strategies for Comprehension

Please welcome Carla of Comprehension Connection.  Today, she shares some reading strategies that she has found work well in her classroom.  She has generously shared some freebies with you all, too.  They are linked within the text, so make sure to click on them to pick up your copy.  Thank you for sharing, Carla! Hello from Comprehension Connection!  My name is Carla, and I am honored

The Common Core State Standards really had an impact in all areas of education, but ELA classroom teachers are especially feeling the shifts. Common Core introduced a whole new way of teaching and learning, so with that comes a need for shifting gears in how we deliver our instruction and think about our standards. Our guest blogger shares how she worked through those shifts in her classroom.

Shifting Gears in the ELA Classroom

Please welcome Julie Faulkner, an English teacher from Tennessee.  Julie shares with us how a shift in your view of how to accomplish Common Core standards can change everything.  Thanks, Julie! I am excited to guest post for such an accomplished blog – Minds in Bloom! When Common Core was first introduced to me, I saw lists of standards, new testing requirements, and instructional shifts. I

Reading disabilities are all too prevalent in schools today. Our guest blogger is a reading specialist, and she's sharing 15 signs that a student has a reading disability, as well as 10 solutions for reading disabilities to aid in reading progress for kids.

Reading Disabilities: 15 Causes and 10 Solutions

I am once again so thrilled to welcome Dr. Erica Warren to Minds in Bloom. This post is a must-read for any teacher (or parent) who teaches reading or works with struggling readers.   Many young learners encounter obstacles with the reading process and, for some, it is a pervasive problem. New estimates report that as many as 1 in 10 children have reading disabilities,

20 Terrific Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry month. If you are looking for some fun ways to share poetry with your students, we’ve got you covered! Assign each student a different day to bring a poem to share with the class. For younger students, the teacher could read the poem out loud instead of the student. The sharing student could be required to tell why he or she

Spring ELA Task Cards

Spring-Themed ELA Task Cards (Autumn and Winter too!)

Here are three sets of season-themed multiple choice sentence ELA task cards that are perfect for reviewing some of the most common and important English Language Arts skills. Skills include: Parts of speech Prefixes and suffixes Punctuation Capitalization Complete sentences Homophones Synonyms Context clues Multiple meaning words Shades of meaning Complete sentences Many of the ELA Common Core standards are addressed, making this a great

Sometimes a book or other text can help students better understand certain skills they need to learn in order to be successful in the classroom. This non-fiction book, Ben and Baily Build a Book Report, helps students learn how to correctly write a book report! Click through to learn more about how the book accomplishes this goal.

Ben and Bailey Build a Book Report

Make Book Projects More Fun with this Book Report template! Grab this FREE BOOK REPORT DOWNLOAD and your students will be creating their own report report project in no time! Are you ready to teach your students how to write a book report? This fun children’s book will walk your students through the steps of writing a book report. If you want your students to

Teaching Word Roots plus a Freebie!

Krista and Julie from Reading Olympians have some wonderful information to share about why it is so important to teach word roots and how to do it. Hi Everyone!  This is Julie and Krista from Reading Olympians, and we are incredibly honored to be guest bloggers for Rachel! Over the past few years our vocabulary instruction has taken us on an interesting and exciting journey—we

Do your students need practice expanding their sentences? Rachel Lynette created three sets of task cards to help you how to do just that! These Super Sentences Task Cards teach students how to make their sentences more descriptive and interesting to read.

Super Sentences Task Cards

Seriously, would you read this post if it started out like this? Students should write good sentences. They should use good words. They should write long sentences. Clearly, learning to expand sentences and choose more precise words is an important part of becoming a good writer. Not only that, but these skills are also part of the Language Common Core Standards. That is why I

Teaching Contractions

For words that are supposed to make things easier, contractions can make things a whole lot harder, until your students understand how to use and spell them properly. Here are some ideas that can help. Be sure your students know what a contraction actually is. The word “contract” means to make something smaller – and that is exactly what a contraction does. Explain that the

Thanksgiving books provide a fun and relaxed way to teach about this special holiday and its history. Minds in Bloom followers share their favorite Thanksgiving books that they read to their students in their classrooms. Check out the list for inspiration!

Thanksgiving Books to Read Out Loud

Once again I asked my Facebook followers for their favorite Thanksgiving books. Of course, they had some terrific suggestions. Old favorites as well as some with which I am not familiar. You can click on any title or image to be taken to Amazon for more details. NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases. A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting “I use it

Reading Strategy Task Cards – FREE

I have this idea that if a teacher who has never used task cards tries them, she will love them so much that she will simply have to get more. That is one reason why I made this set of free Reading Strategies Task Cards. While totally useful as a stand-alone activity, this set of task cards is kind of a sampler of some of

Idioms Guest Post

Want some ideas for teaching idioms? Head on over to the PediaStaff blog where I am guest posting! I would be thrilled if you would consider leaving a comment while you are there.

Multiple meaning words can be a challenge to teach, especially for English language learners. But, they can be a lot of fun to teach, too! Check out these tips on how to teach multiple meaning words to your class.

Exploring Multiple Meaning Words – and a Freebie!

How cool is it that a duck can be a common water fowl or something you do to avoid being bashed in the head? Multiple meaning words, while somewhat confusing to those who are learning English, are also loads of fun. Not only that, but they are also part of the Common Core Standards across the grades from 1-12: L.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown

This list of ideas for teaching homophones will not only have your students mastering them before you know it, but they'll also have them learning and practicing homophones in fun, authentic ways! Teaching homophones doesn't need to be a challenge!

Ideas for Teaching Homophones plus a Freebie!

Eye love teaching homophones! Their are sew many fun activities, and as wee all no, it is an important skill four students two learn inn order too right correctly and meat Common Core Standards. Hear are sum ideas: NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases. Create Double Homophone Sentences My third graders had a ball with these. The challenge is to put both

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