The Literacy Dive Podcast: Reading and Writing Strategies for Upper Elementary Teachers and Parents

Over the last month, we’ve been discussing all the different factors that can affect a student’s reading comprehension, even in upper elementary. We’ve gone over fundamental and cognitive factors, and now we’ve hit the last factor, which is environmental. So, in the last episode of the series, I’m sharing interventions for environmental factors that affect reading comprehension, the impact those h...

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been diving into intervention strategies for students who have difficulty with reading comprehension. The reality is that some upper elementary students aren’t proficient or on grade level when it comes to reading or reading comprehension. So, as literacy teachers, we’ve got to come up with ways to support these students in our class. Last week, I shared strategies fo...

Getting students in upper elementary on grade level with their reading and comprehension skills can be challenging because there are so many factors and reasons why they’re lacking in that area. However, one of the biggest reasons is a lack of fundamental and foundational skills. I talked in last week’s episode about the different areas this can be found, but I want to go deeper into providing you...

One, if not the biggest, thing we focus on as literacy teachers is getting our students to be successful readers. But as upper elementary teachers, you know that you will have several students in your class who struggle with reading comprehension. This then becomes a major focus in our classrooms, but we know a student’s lack of reading comprehension can vary based on the student’s needs. So, how...

I’ve always made it a priority of mine to find simple yet effective strategies that support literacy teachers in the classroom. One of our main jobs as literacy teachers is to provide our students with the skills to become successful readers and writers. And one way to do that is by giving your students scaffolds to support their literacy growth and development. So, in today’s episode, I’m sharing...

Over the last few episodes, I’ve been covering several test-taking strategies in order to help prepare your students for the end-of-year standardized test. Unfortunately, most standardized tests are timed, so having efficient time management is so important for the success of their performance. Knowing how to pace themselves during a timed test is difficult for many students, which is why I’m shar...

When it comes to preparing for a state standardized test, we tend to focus our energy and time on the content our students need to master in order to get a high-achieving score. We implement daily practice and review for weeks leading up to the test. However, one aspect that we don’t focus on but plays a big role in our students’ performances is test anxiety. In today’s episode, I’m providing you...

I’m so passionate about writing and helping students develop their skills and become better writers. One aspect of writing that is often complex and difficult for students to master is learning how to understand and respond to writing prompts. This is a vital skill because it not only helps students with standardized tests, but it’s a task that can be used with any subject area. So in today’s...

Even though testing season isn’t here tomorrow, it is just around the corner and will be here before you know it. And instead of stressing and trying to prepare your students in a short amount of time, why not get started now? But whether you’re preparing students for a standardized test or wanting to work on different writing skills throughout the year, this episode is for you! Over the next few...

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been diving into the topic of student writing stamina. We’ve explored strategies to keep students engaged in writing, challenges students face while they’re writing, and how to build stamina through practices implemented in the classroom. By having all this background information and fresh new ideas on ways to keep them engaged, it’s time to create natural ways to in...

In last week’s episode , we learned that writing stamina is built over time and includes more than just an amount of time, but when students are actively engaged in a particular writing task. Since having writing stamina can be difficult for students, I wanted to create a series that provided teachers with strategies that improved a student’s writing stamina and developed their writing skills at t...

I am passionate about literacy, especially finding creative and engaging ways to get students writing. However, none of that matters if their writing stamina is low. I know from my experience being in the classroom, that so many of my students didn’t have the writing endurance for longer pieces of writing, which meant I had to come up with ways to increase their stamina over time. In the first epi...

Podcasts are one of the fastest growing platforms to gain information in a short amount of time. I obviously love the idea of podcasts and how it can reach so many people with a variety of topics. With the availability that it brings, there are so many opportunities to make listening to podcasts part of your daily life. I want to help you discover new podcasts, so in today’s episode, I’m sharing f...

Over the last month I’ve been sharing different ways you can engage your students in that helps develop their simple sentences into more detailed and complex sentences. With this being the final episode in the series, I’m finally covering my favorite way to bring writing to life, which is by using sensory details to create sensory storytelling.  Using sensory details in your writing engages t...

We are now well into our series on how to enhance simple sentences using a variety of descriptive strategies. What I love about each new idea is that these are grammar concepts you teach your students, but now you’re able to dive deeper and use them in a whole new way. In today’s episode, I’m sharing another strategy which is using prepositions to enrich simple sentences. Simply put, prepositions...

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been discussing different strategies that help with sentence expansion. In today’s episode, I’m sharing the third strategy in this series. Just like the previous two strategies, you might have already talked about and taught this particular skill, but I challenge you to intentionally have your students use it in their writing. Using conjunctions to combine sentences i...

This series is all about how to easily get students to expand their sentences by adding details to their basic sentences. Last week’s strategy was all about adding the 2 A’s, adjectives and adverbs, to create a story and description. But today’s strategy also serves a greater purpose than just sentence expansion. In today’s episode, I’m discussing how to add the 5Ws and H strategy to your students...

Happy New Year, my friends! Let's jump-start 2024 with some practical and easy strategies to expand student sentences. At the beginning of the year, our goal is for students to write a complete sentence, but our goal at the end of the year is for them to add meaningful details to those sentences. And while that might seem challenging, I’ve come up with easy ways to make this achievable for your st...

With this being the last week of 2023, I wanted to take an opportunity to share some reflections I’ve had from this past year. I’ve been open on this podcast about certain things I went through, even resulting in me taking a break from this podcast. With that experience, along with other personal and work related things, I wanted to share some end of year inspiration with you. So in today’s episod...

We discuss all the time the difficulty that students have when it comes to writing and getting their ideas out on paper. But now imagine English isn’t your first language. The challenge now becomes greater, but there’s a way to meet their needs. This is through using scaffolds with your writing. In a special episode from Beth Vaucher of the Equipping ELLs podcast, she’s sharing how to use differen...

We all have those students who don’t like writing and have a lot of negative emotions surrounding writing in general. Even though winter break is coming coon, there are still things you can either try during these last few weeks or implement when you return in January. But either way, we want our students interested and engaged in writing. So in today’s episode, I’m sharing five strategies for eng...

Do you ever see students reading in your classroom that have great fluency and can recall the words on the page, but can’t give any details about what happened in the text? If this describes students in your classroom, it’s time to implement active reading strategies. This comprehension strategy is used to evaluate a students’ understanding of a text. In this episode, I’m sharing five active readi...

I’ve loved going through the different stages of vocabulary from a basic understanding, misconceptions, strategies, and now how to use it as an emphasis in student writing. When we can merge vocabulary with writing, it’s an opportunity for students to use their literacy skills in writing, while also simulating real world communication and relevance. In the last episode in our series about vocabula...

Over the last few weeks, we’ve done a complete deep dive into vocabulary acquisition, its importance, and debunking common myths and misconceptions. Now that we covered the background information, in part three of this series, it’s time to discuss practical vocabulary strategies. In today’s episode, I’m sharing how to seamlessly integrate vocabulary strategies in your classroom and already existin...

Last week I brought attention to vocabulary acquisition and the importance of expanding your students’ vocabulary toolbox. But before you start incorporating more vocabulary into your instructional day, I wanted to bring awareness to some common vocabulary myths and misconceptions as you focus on this in your upper elementary classrooms. So in today’s episode, I’m debunking vocabulary myths and hi...