ELA Essentials

We all know that independent reading is essential in developing critical literacy skills in our students. In my first few years of teaching, I struggled with portioning out time for students to read independently even though I knew its importance. I tried a handful of ways to provide more accountability so that it wouldn't feel like I was using time unwisely, but nothing really stuck. The items featured in this bundle have helped me a great deal in not only keeping my students accountable for

Hey, y'all! Looking for a way to implement student-driven, self-selected vocabulary in your classroom? Maybe you're looking to add a word study component to your students' independent reading, or you might just need a way to differentiate your vocabulary instruction while you work through a whole class text. In this assignment, students go beyond the standard "word and definition vocab. lists" to select words that are unfamiliar to them and create an illustrated dictionary that forces them to

Add a dose of relevance to your students' reading projects! This project walks students through the process of choosing quotes from their novels that are personally meaningful and teach valuable life lessons. File includes the following: -assignment sheet with written instructions for students -printable planning template for student use -printable scoring guide for easy grading Project is aligned to 9-12 CCSS but can easily be adapted to younger grades.

Checklist-style form students can fill out to get them thinking about themselves as readers. Paste into a reader's notebook or use as a springboard for discussions and goal setting.