Quality Counts

This unique mnemonic device titled C.O.M.M.A.S. lists, with examples, the six main uses of the comma. Each category has a brief explanation and a few examples for the students to immitate. It is an excellent tool for teaching this confusing grammar topic. When students need to remember how to effectively use the comma, they just need to think C.O.M.M.A.S. Customers who are impressed by this unique memorization tool should check out some of my other mnemonic techniques for grammar, reading, a

This worksheet contains six different ways you could teach your students how to write an effective 'topic sentence'. There is also some advice on what phrases should not be included in topic sentences.

This is a superb TOP SELLING script to be used with 1st-3rd grade students that teaches a little about the different end of year holiday celebrations around the world. It is designed to be used with a whole class. Two choral groups mean that almost any sized class is appropriate. It is excellent to build fluency for young readers due to the amount of repetition. This is a politically correct play giving equal attention to the different traditions celebrated around the holiday season.

This is simply a must have lesson for all classrooms. We monitor students ability to listen and we talk about their inability to maintain lesson focus, but how often do we TEACH how to listen and HOW to focus. This is a wonderfully creative session that models for students what good listening is with a series of 6-7 steps that are so tangible every student from 3rd-8th would easily understand. Students are also taught how to recognize their own distractions and given a strategy to limit these di

This is the perfect way to begin a course in 5th-8th grade. It was designed for a Language Arts classroom but could be adapted for other subject areas. The resource is an 8 slide powerpoint and 4 page set of inspirational quotes. The lesson would take between 40-60mins to complete. The idea is to inspire students on the very first day to be the very best they can be. The powerpoint contains teacher notes where needed. The lesson begins by getting students to focus on the power of words - having

This is an 11 page HOLIDAY PLAY that can be used with a class or theatre group to put on a performance to both small and large audiences. It is based loosely on the story 'Scrooge.' It centers around a student that wants to quit the Holiday play out of selfishness. After visits from Spirits the main character learns the errors of his ways. The play teaches a moral about how others depend on us even though we don't realize it. For adventurous teachers, there are also some recommendations for s

This game gives students practice at writing and punctuating complex sentences. Amusing dependent and independent clauses are joined after the throw of dice. Students progress to creating their own clauses. along the way students learn about the need for the subordinating conjunctions and different way complex sentences are puntuated. proof reading patch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

This is an excellet powerpoint slideshow explanation with examples of how to create a flashback paragraph in a narrative story. It shows students through four simple steps that their narratives need not all be in one tense. Great for your advanced story writers. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Learn how to use one of the BEST iPad apps, the app Book Creator, to make simple books to share with students. You can also have students make books to share with you! This app is easy to use and the finished media-rich books created are excellent! Also included are the various workflows that can be used to share these amazing books. This is an 8 slide powerpoint that can be used in a 1:1 or 1:2 iPad classroom (or just for a single teacher) that has your students creating books (with the stu

This is a 2 page script that teaches a few basic facts about the jobs people do in society. There are enough parts from a class of 8 to a class of 28 if larger groups are assigned the choral reading parts. It is designed to be used as part of a first grade Social Studies unit on Our Community, but it can also be used to improve reading fluency for 1st-2nd grade or perhaps even struggling 3rd grade readers. All the lines are manageable pairs of rhyming couplets. It is perfect for a class perform

This narrative writing model encourages students to create narrative stories that 'M.O.V.E.S.S.' readers. It is a unique mnemonic that gives students six key areas to examine their narrative writing. It can be used as a teaching tool when introducing narrative work, a technique for students to examine the strength of their sentence construction, or during the drafting and redrafting stages. The Writing that 'M.O.V.E.S.S.' model is perfect for any creative writing instruction. Teachers who en

Teaching the reading skill 'inference' can be challenging. The 'In SPACES' inference reading strategy helps prompt students to organize and formulate their ideas around the clues given in any text resulting in a more comprehensive understanding of the text. Included are also 7 group discussion scenarios requiring students to make an effective inference as practice and application of the 'In SPACES' model. proof reading patch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3

This is a tool teachers can use in Reading and Writing class to model how to do effective visualizations of scenes from stories. The tool breaks Vi-Su-A-Li-Zing into 5 sub skills. Teachers then model each sub skill using a class novel. e.g. Vi=Viewpoint. Students should be encouraged to look at scenes from the point of view of different characters. It's a powerful tool to get your students to think deeper about what they are reading. Visulizations Techniques by Russell Buxton is licensed und

Many students are familiar with quoting evidence from text to support their opinions. However, very few students are taught to recognize the four different types of evidence in text and how to use them to support their opinions about their stories. This engaging video lesson uses a beautiful picture book read out loud to teach middle school students about sophisticated levels of evidence, (the four types). This is a packaged plug and play lesson that will lay the foundation for your entire year

This is a Reading Response log template that can be made into simple booklets for your students. This is the perfect tool for 2nd-5th graders to monitor their independent reading at home. The template is easily adaptable for teachers to personalize add their own name or their school logo. The log also contains a list of possible activities and a self assessment tool for the student to rate their independent reading practice. This is the perfect addition to every elementary teacher's tool kit. T

This is an 10 page workbook that was created for a Solar System unit. It is the perfect resource for any 1st or 2nd grade study of the Sun and Plants. Each page gives some basic facts about the a plant. Students then work independently using the word banks given to complete cloze exercises on the content. For differentiation, teachers can remove the word banks for more able students. This also is the perfect type of resource to use for H/W activities during a Solar System unit. Check out my sol

This is a great consolidation activity after a study of plural nouns and possessive nouns. It is simple for students to learn. The game also makes a great literacy center activity. Possessive Noun Game Option 1 – Whole Group Teacher shows one card to the class at a time. (The teacher would just need to display the chart on an IWB) The class work in table teams using whiteboards to create a sentence that follows the instructions on the card. Table teams hold up their whiteboards. Each table t

This document can be used to teach students how they can determine which 'part of speech' an unfamiliar word might be. With this information students are then shown how to decode unfamiliar words. This is an excellent lesson introduction to 'parts of speech' or a vocabulary course or for even teaching 'decoding skills.

Working in a 1:1 classroom? Do you use google docs? Are you tired of kids not finding their work or having disorganized notes? This VERY SIMPLE system will change all this. Perfect for a Middle or High School age range. You are purchasing a link to a Master copy google doc that has been created as a 'digital notebook' - Students simply write down the title of each lesson and the contents page (once refreshed) automatically populates. Students can take notes in an organzied way in the basic tem

This is an outstanding session that teaches your students how best to make fair judgments. Watch the video preview to see the session in action. Copy/paste link http://screenr.com/6OX7 The supporting handout is attached on the preview link to simply download