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

Today’s episode is about a topic that has taken over the world of education and is probably the focus of most of your staff meetings. If you guessed this episode would be about higher order thinking then you’d be correct! Lucky for you, the strategies I will talk about today are ones that you can put into practice as soon as tomorrow! Some of my suggestions may be exactly what you try not to do du...

As promised, this episode is a continuation of the conversation on ways to increase motivation and writing skills with your students. Let’s be honest, we all have at least one student who desperately avoids any writing task. It’s those exact students I always think of when I introduce new strategies because we’ve got the opportunity to show them that writing can be fun!   If you listened last week...

What if your students actually looked forward to writing time?  What if they all cheered instead of moaning and groaning when you announce it’s time for writing? I’ll bet that sounds like music to your teacher ears!    I continue to hear from many of you that getting your students excited to write  is still one of your greatest challenges. That’s why today I’m going to share ways to improve studen...

I am a huge proponent of reading aloud for pure joy with no strings attached. These moments are one of the best ways to foster a true love of reading within your students. However, I also know the immense power of interactive read alouds and the great effect in has on our young readers. For example, did you know that interactive read alouds can build community as well as vocabulary and communicati...

Do your students look back at you with blank stares when you ask them to “show, don’t tell” in their writing? If so, it’s for a good reason! While it seems simple to some, show don’t tell is a difficult concept to understand. The real way to ensure students fully grasp this strategy is through a lot of intentional practice and exposure. This is why I recommend teaching show don’t tell at the very...

Whether you are a first-year or veteran teacher, you know how incredibly important it is to build community at the beginning of the school year. You also know how stressful this time of year can be. Exciting? Yes. But still stressful! You have so much to do, yet you also want to focus on making your students feel welcome and valued. This is the prime time to really set the tone for the upcoming ye...

True story - small groups are 100% my teaching love language! So when Emily asked, “What are some of your favorite small group must-haves?” I jumped at the opportunity to share. While I can’t list EVERYTHING, I’m going to list my 15 most-loved small group staples. I bet you won’t be surprised to hear that sticky notes are on this list, but what about a laser pointer?! These items can all be found...

I have trouble with getting my students to sit for extended periods of time and accomplishing their goals. How do you help students increase their stamina when it comes to independent reading and writing? This question comes from Craig and I’ll bet many of you have the same one!   Here’s one thing I know for sure. Stamina takes time! So, give yourself and your students some grace. Tune in to hear...

Today we have a question from Shelby! Shelby asks, “How do you help kids who just want to finish writing as fast as they can and do not want to add any details because of the time it takes?” Just like Shelby, we all have those students in our writing block who say “I’m done” before most kids even have their name on the paper! Few things are more frustrating than watching students who rush to get d...

Picture this: you are in the middle of a well prepared mini-lesson and it’s going great. When the time comes to start a written response, all of your students get started right away working on the exact same assignment and moving at the exact same pace. Hah! That would be nice, right? The reality is, it’s far more likely that you will have students at all different levels. The solution to this cha...

This episode is extra special because our guest is actually a long time friend of mine! Once upon a time, Sara and I even had classrooms right next door to each other. Tune in to hear how Sara and I first met and became teacher besties!   Sara is on the show to talk all about how you can create a classroom community who genuinely loves reading.  This episode will give you the inspiration you need...

Teaching writing is tricky to say the least. It can feel very chaotic when our students are each in various places in their writing and all have different needs. On any given day, you may have students who are pages in while others are struggling to write their first sentence. If you are finding it difficult to teach writing, and be excited about it, you are most definitely not alone! My guest tod...

Teachers, do you ever feel like there’s just not enough time to cover everything that your students are meant to learn throughout the year? Perhaps every time you look at your pacing guide, you think about how unrealistic it appears! I hear you. For quite some time this was me. While teaching, I constantly felt like I was running out of time to teach the required content and do it well. If you hav...

Our question today comes from Tina L. Her question is, "My fourth graders have a hard time finishing the book by the end of our session together. What is one thing I can try to help with this?" Oh, how I love this question! This may surprise some of you but I recommend that you do not have your students finish their guided reading book in one sitting (or in some cases, ever at all). Tune in to fin...

Welcome to the second episode in our summer Q&A series! This week we have a question from Marsha T. She asked - Can you give some insight into what free choice Friday entails? Ya’ll. Free Choice Friday is seriously my jam, so I am thrilled to answer this question today!   There’s a reason we say T.G.I.F. By the end of the week, you are ready for a much needed break. You’re thinking about closing o...

Let’s talk writing centers. Do you use them? If so, do you find them to be effective? Writing centers are such a powerful way to provide students with authentic and engaging writing experiences while also practicing important skills. Better yet, when set up intentionally, your writing center can run on autopilot with very little maintenance!   Today I’m answering all of your questions regarding wr...

For students who are acquiring the English language, writing can be an extremely difficult and intimidating task. Today we’re talking all about how to bring down the fear of failure in ELL students. Our guest, Beth Vaucher, is an expert in this topic. She is sharing so many amazing tips that will help you provide the very best writing instruction not only for your ELLs, but for your whole class. W...

Teachers, you’ve almost made it. The end of the year is so close! In all the excitement of summer break, there’s one thing that may cause some lingering concern. Summer slide. You and your students have worked so hard all year long and you know how important it is for them to continue practicing their skills over the summer. Doing so will set them up for success in the upcoming school year.   Ther...

Lesson planning, parent conferences, endless meetings, and working way beyond contract hours. The job of a teacher is truly never-ending. Feeling underappreciated on top of all of this can really negatively affect your mental state.   I’m here to help you find ways to stay motivated, even when feeling a major lack of appreciation. Rather than relying on others for validation of your hard work, it’...

It’s that time of year again. Test season. Although it seems crazy to continue with testing despite the inconsistent year everyone has had, the show must go on right? This time of year is an important opportunity to fill in the gaps and squeeze in some extra practice. Let’s take a look at how we can best prepare your students while having a little fun too!   My number one piece of advice is to avo...

How many times have you had a student begin a story with “one day” and close with “the end”? Probably more than you can count! Today is the day to finally put an end to the overused leads and conclusions. This episode is all about exposing your students to better leads and conclusions so they can begin incorporating them into their own writing. If you take some time to make leads and endings the f...

We have an incredibly fun guest on the show today! It’s Shane Saeed and you may know her over on Instagram as Fantastically Fourth. Shane and I are chatting about all things inferring. Making inferences is something that we do all day long without even realizing it. When it comes to reading comprehension, inferring is one of those very tricky concepts for kids. Luckily, Shane is giving us all sort...

April is National Poetry Month and I am here for it! Poetry is something that is not typically embedded in the curriculum all year long, yet exploring poetry with your class provides numerous learning opportunities. It opens the door to new reading and writing experiences that your students may have not tried out before. The more exposure that you and your students have to poetry, the better. If y...

Today we’re taking a deep dive into one of my favorite reading comprehension strategies…visualization. It seems so simple, yet it’s one that kids tend to really get stuck on! I believe that learning the skill of visualization can also help strengthen other challenging reading comprehension strategies such as inferring, predicting, and summarizing.   Essentially, visualizing is creating pictures in...

When you think of literacy stations, what do you envision? It's likely that you picture a kindergarten, first, or second grade classroom. However, it's so impactful to use centers for your big kids too! I learned this after making the jump from teaching kindergarten to fourth grade.   By the end of this episode, I know that you'll be able to see the value in working centers into your daily routine...