Writing Across the Curriculum

If you are like me as a writing teacher...you are always on the hunt for literature that connects the subject you are teaching and your student's writing. This website is great for connecting Social studies and writing. This gal has alot of ideas for teaching the subject as well as picture books and chapter books for children based on the subject. I just had to recommend and promote her!

www.carolhurst.com

Fall in Northwest Arkansas

Finally Back!

Well, it has been an extremely busy Fall, ya'll! This is my favorite season!! I have simply been covered up and drowned in a new approach to teaching reading...and it's great! My school is giving it a trial run...with the intentions of adopting it completely after all of us have been fully trained. It really teaches kids to "think" about what they are reading. I must say...that it is powerfully effective! Through the combination of questions as well as graphics to organize the "picked a part" story, students are compelled to "get" what they are reading. It was amazing to see the light bulbs going off in their heads...as seen on their faces...while discussing and finding the problem, climax, and resolution of this week's well loved story...Lon Po Po, a Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood. After working through the "plot-line" visual graphic...students understand how the author thinks while planning out a narrative piece. I believe it is going to make them stronger writers in the end...I am loving it!!

Great Virtual Tours of Classrooms

If you are like me....you enjoy taking a peek into other classrooms just to see what other educators are doing in the way of management and set-up. I don't feel that any of us ever "arrive" in regard to our teaching or our classrooms. I hope that you will find this as useful a site as I have!! Just go to this website: www.angelfire.com/stars3/education/primaryed.html#thirdgrade

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Great Children's Author (ages 8-11 years)

We adopted two new books in third grade this past year. Kate DiCamillo was a hit with both of her books: Tales of Despereaux and The Miraculous Journeys of Edward Tulane. I have to say that the kids absolutely loved both of these books. The characters were endearing. Students couldn't wait for our novel time each week. We spent Friday afternoons reading through the novels. Since our normal reading curriculum occupies the better part of our week, we save our Friday afternoons for putting the curriculum away and just diving into our good novel study. Not only is the time spent reading, but students are also engaged in related activities (i.e. vocabulary, character webs, comparison/contrast of characters, etc...) I would highly recommend both of these books for novel studies.

Can you Guess Who I am Portraying?

Welcome to My New Blog!!

I am anxious to share what my students are currently doing in third grade. If you are like me, I am always thrilled to find out what other teachers are trying and implementing within their classrooms on a daily basis. My students are writing biographies on the historical figures whom they are learning about in the Social Studies curriculum. I believe that it is critical to tie my writing across the curriculum with the core subject areas: Social Studies, Science, and Reading.