In January, I started doing reading conferences with my students for the first time. There are two main schools of thought about what teachers should do while students are reading silently during independent reading time in class: one is that the teacher should read silently with the students to model and encourage reading (and prevent …
Valentine’s Day 2019
Valentine's Day is almost here! I posted some ideas for Valentine's Day back in 2017, but I wanted to post about some new ideas I have for this year. In my classes, I'm planning to use this Romantic World Records activity. It's a group guessing game I created using information from the Guinness Book of …
Video: My Students’ Favorite Part of Class
It’s important to ask our students for feedback about our class. What do they like about our class? What do they not like? How did our class make them feel? I typically give my students a paper survey to fill out at the end of the semester. I tell them not to write their names …
How to Add a Little History and Culture to Class Every Day
One of my plans for the new year is to start integrating more information related to U.S. culture and history into my classes. At the end of last semester, as I talked with my classes about what they liked and didn’t like, several students mentioned that they liked learning about U.S. history, culture, the news, …
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Books to Put on Your Reading List
Winter Break is the only long (well, kinda long) break I get, so I always feel like it’s my one chance to catch up on all the reading I want to do! Of course, I never get as much done as I’d like to, but I’m trying to learn to be okay with that and …
More Picture Books for ESL Class
I’ve written before about how I use children’s picture books in class with my ESL students, but I've discovered some more great picture books, and I really wanted to share them! You can read my original post to find out how exactly I use the books in class and to see some of my recommendations. …
In Defense of Reading Aloud to Students
Sitting back and listening to a story is wonderful. Not only is it an enjoyable experience, but it’s also good for language acquisition. We know that students need to listen to a lot of oral input in order to acquire a new language, and listening to the teacher read aloud is a great way to …
