Teaching Behind Bars

I find that my students routinely have problems keeping equations and polynomials straight in their heads. They always want to solve the polynomial because they think of it as an equation. That’s where the idea for this bulletin board came from. I set it up almost like a comparison and contrast situation. I write random examples of equations and polynomials on sentence strips and display them on the board along with the pieces in this set. I start teaching these concepts at this board, pointing

We do a ton of sentence structure review in my G.E.D. classes. Good sentences are essential for good writing, and the G.E.D. test requires written answers on the Language Arts, Science and Social Studies sections. I use this review worksheet as a warm up in class to reinforce lessons from previous classes and keep ideas fresh in my students' minds.

As a teacher of adult learners, I find I am always adapting and changing ideas and materials to fit the needs of my students. With Read, Collaborate, Record, I've taken the popular reading strategy, Think, Pair, Share and aligned it more to how my classroom runs. We begin by reading things together as a class, and transition into small student groups. Student collaborate by sharing ideas orally, and when recording those ideas, they practice summary skills and sentence structure all at the same t

This simple graphic hangs in my classroom as visual reminder and reinforcement of our class discussion on Inferences. The thumbnail might look a bit crooked, but the download looks fine.

This simple graphic hangs in my classroom as a visual reminder and reinforcement of our Main Ideas and Details class discussion. The thumbnail may look a bit crooked, but the download is fine.

This simple chart hangs in my classroom as a visual reminder and reinforcement of our Context Clues discussion.

This simple graphic hangs in my classroom as a visual reminder and reineforcment of our class discussion on Question Words.

I find so many student who struggle with Apostrophes! This poster provides the apostrophe rules in an easy to follow format and simply shows students what apostrophes do and what apostrophes don't.

I use this graphic to illustrate the ides of adding Reading Strategies to our mental tool boxes as we learn them.

Using highlighters, students identify run on sentences in context while reading. Then students are asked to correct the errors they find, further reinforcing the concept.

Using highlighters, students identify fragments in context while reading. Then students correct the errors they find which further reinforces the concept.

The Associative, Commutative, Distributive, Identity and Zero properties of multiplication explained in a simple and colorful way!

I use this poster as a launching point for discussion about why we take class time to read. I find that adult students who don't typically read for pleasure need a little push to buy into the importance of reading. This poster does the trick!