Words to Guide You

From their strengths and challenges in the classroom, to favorite television shows and genres of books, discover more about your class members in order to enhance your instruction and build stronger relationships throughout the school year.

Guide your class through a reading of the popular children's book, Frindle, with this comprehensive literature unit. Starting with a brief introduction to the guided reading process, the class goes on to read the story two chapters at a...

Next time your class is stumped trying to find the perfect transition word to fit in their narrative, remind them to take out this extensive list that is divided into beginning, middle, and ending transitional words. 

In this all about me worksheet, students cut out pictures of things that rhyme and have the same initial consonants and match them up about themselves. Students have 16 cards for 2 activities.

Identify the unique personal attributes of your class members. Begin by viewing the Visual Thesaurus and discussing displayed attributes associated with famous American leaders. Using these identity maps as models, pupils generate nouns...

Students engage in an "All About Me," series of activities in the beginning of the year. All sorts of ideas are in this lesson plan to help students express themselves and get to know their classmates.

Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...

Developing a clear sequence of events is essential for any narrative writer. The fourth lesson in this series helps learners write about the key events of The Story of Dr. Dolittle using transitional words and phrases. Pause the video to...

All good stories must come to an end. Fourth graders wrap up their narrative responses by writing conclusions that describe how the characters feel at the end of the story. Allow learners to practice this skill by pausing the video and...

The best stories ever written are those with characters that come to life. The fifth lesson of this narrative writing series teaches young writers how thoughts, feelings, actions, and dialogue add depth to characters. Pause the video at...