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

The majority of this podcast’s content is literacy-focused, including effective strategies to implement in your classroom, which is all academic. While literacy is an important component in a classroom, so is a students’ mental health. In order to check on students and begin to look at the whole child, implementing SEL is the best way to do that.  Since the beginning of the pandemic and certa...

In order to change our future, it’s important to know and learn from our history. There are so many important events and people in our nation’s history, that we should take time to teach it in our classrooms. February is next month, and also Black History Month, which is the perfect time to teach your students about African American history and the people who have impacted our society and laws.&nb...

With today being Martin Luther King Jr. day, the topic of today’s episode aligns perfectly. We talked last week about morning meeting and how it’s a designated time to take in new information and build classroom community. Keeping those ideas in mind, I’m sharing ways to use morning meeting as a way to support black history.  In order to expose your students to and support black history, I’ve...

Routines and structure are important parts to a smooth and effective classroom, but when a routine involves students, engagement, and relationships, that’s when it becomes an essential part of your day. This routine is known as morning meeting. While you may have heard of this before, my guest today, Shelly Small, provides more insight as she shares how to build a classroom community through morni...

The last month has been all about resetting your classroom routines and reading and writing instruction. While all those are important, there’s another aspect of teaching we often forget about that might need a reset. That area is your relationships with parents. In today’s episode, I’m exploring three areas to consider when determining if a reset is necessary pertaining to your relationship with...

The beginning of the year is the perfect opportunity to think about the practices and routines that are set in your classroom. There’s power in asking yourself questions intended to see at what point you can add, remove, or adjust key elements in your instruction. In sticking with the theme of the past several episodes of reflecting, in this episode, I’m going to explore resetting the other side o...

In last week’s episode, I talked about the importance of reflection, especially with the start of a new year approaching. I asked you to think broad with classroom routines, but this week I want you to look more specifically at your writing block. We want our students to develop their skills and enjoy writing, so in order to do that, it might be necessary to revamp or reset your writing block. Ins...

With being so close to winter break, you’re probably just in survival mode and ready to leave the classroom behind for a while and not think about it until you go back in January. And while I totally understand your mindset, now is the perfect time to evaluate and reassess your current classroom routines, procedures, and systems and determine if a change is needed. Trust me, you’ll thank me come J...

Literacy Dive listeners, you are in for a treat today! On the podcast today, I’m doing something I’ve never done before, which is airing an episode from another show’s podcast. This episode is coming from the Teacher Approved podcast , co-hosted by Heidi & Emily, who share research-based and teacher approved strategies that make your teaching more efficient and effective. The episode they’re s...

Finding ways to support students, whether it’s in writing or other academic needs, is a passion of mine. Therefore, when I had ESL students in my classroom, it was my goal to help them grow, learn, and develop academically and in the English language.  In last week’s episode, Episode 110 , I shared writing strategies that support ESL students, so be sure to take a listen if you haven’t alread...

I’ve mentioned before about how writing can be difficult and students often struggle with it. But let’s take it a step further, and imagine what writing is like for a student whose English is not their native language. As the world becomes more diverse, so are our classrooms. Therefore, we want to be able to provide support for ESL students in our classroom. Take a listen to today’s episode where...

All month long I’ve been discussing the topic of read alouds, so if you missed episodes 106 , 107 , and 108 , make sure you go back and take a listen to hear all the different strategies, tips, and suggestions regarding read alouds. This episode is the last in our series, which helps bring it all together. Today, I’ll be sharing the benefits of using your read aloud specifically for spiral review....

All this month we’ve been having discussions around read alouds, why they’re effective, and what texts to choose. But did you know that you can also use read alouds to work on literacy skills with your students? One of the best literacy skills you could work on is fluency. In today’s episode, we have special guest Aylin Claahsen, who is sharing 5 ideas for focusing on fluency during read alouds. A...

As literacy teachers, we’re always finding new ways to read to our students that help develop their reading skills, which is why read alouds are so effective. We’re in the middle of our series all about read alouds, so if you haven’t listened to the first episode, Episode 106 , make sure you take a listen to get caught up in the series. In episode two of our series, I’m sharing how to choose effec...

My main goal in all that I do is to help teachers build ways to support and enhance their students’ literacy skills. While a lot of our discussions revolve around what students can do, with your guidance and support, this particular activity requires more from you as the teacher that ultimately supports your students, which are read alouds. I’m kicking off a new series that starts with today’s epi...

If you’ve been listening to the podcast for awhile, you know that we’ve been discussing all things writing. Our topics have ranged from finding time to teach it, effective strategies, and how to incorporate writing across various content areas. However, we still know that students are reluctant writers and one way to help with that is by making it more fun and enjoyable. So in today’s episode, I’m...

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been discussing the challenges that teachers face when it comes to writing with our students and how to incorporate more writing into your literacy block. However, there are definitely more ways to get your students writing, without them even knowing it! In today’s episode, I’m revealing 5 ways to sneak writing into other content areas throughout your school da...

Our number one complaint as teachers is we don’t have enough time. Enough time to lesson plan, gather materials, teach each content area with the same equity, communicate with parents, eat our lunch, or have time for ourselves. The list goes on and on. But let me ask you this: how are you using your time? Is it that you don’t have enough of it or are you not managing it in the best way? In last we...

Throughout our school day, teachers face a variety of challenges from a variety of different components. Some of them we can control, but some of them we can’t. One of the challenges teachers face is teaching writing to students. Although we can’t control every aspect of our literacy block or the skills students come to us with, we can start to change their mindset to grow their skills. In today’s...

With so many “buzzwords” circling through the educational world, it’s hard to keep them all straight. What do they mean? How is this different from what I’m already doing in the classroom? What type of activities do I need to be implementing in order for my students to be successful?  All of these questions can relate to the idea of orthographic mapping. Luckily, I have brought on guest Michelle S...

Small group instruction is a big part of a teacher’s literacy block and being able to work with students on certain skills. But the question always seems to be, what different types of activities can I do with my students during that time, especially when working with texts? In today’s (100th 🥳) episode, I’m sharing how to keep students engaged by leveling up your small groups with reading respon...

Small group instruction is an important and necessary part of your day. It’s a great opportunity to reteach and practice a variety of reading skills with a smaller group of students. I thought I had mastered small group instruction, until I accidentally stopped what I had planned, and it worked out for the better! So in today’s episode, I’m sharing 3 things to stop doing during small groups.  Duri...

I’m so excited about today’s episode because it’s a topic that I haven’t discussed in almost 100 episodes, but is so important and relevant in our world today. That topic is multimedia in a 21st century classroom. Now, you might think you know what all of this entails, but some concepts discussed might surprise you. To help me dive in, I have guest Rachael Parlett and we’re discussing using multim...

Bringing you descriptive writing strategies has been like Christmas morning to me, and today might be my favorite strategy of them all. Have you guessed it yet? It’s figurative language! In the last episode in the series about descriptive writing, I’m sharing my favorite and effective figurative language strategies.  First, let’s get on the same page. Figurative language is defined as the use of w...

Do you have students who are constantly using bland and boring words in their writing? I know I sure do! I’m continuing our series on descriptive writing, but if you haven’t listened to the first two episodes in the series, Episode 94 and Episode 95 , be sure to do that now. In today’s episode, I’m focusing on providing excellent word choice strategies to use with your students.  When I noticed my...