Like most of you, I spend my summers trying to refine my classroom practice so I can best service all of my students.  I want to make the most of my limited classroom time, so I sit down and brainstorm what went well in previous years, and what didn't. Over this past year, I feel like I finally refined my math rotations to the point that I feel very successful in its implementation.  So much so, I decided to do the same thing with reading!  I plan to do a few different posts on it for you all, but with this one, I am going to lay out the basics of what is happening in my room. My entire language arts block is actually fairly long.  I have a good 2 hours in the morning for grammar and reading and then can take another 30 minutes later in the day for writing.  Grammar, skills, root words , etc... (and morning business, like Breakfast in the Classroom and stuff) takes place in the first hour of the day.  The second hour is dedicated to Reading Rotations.......

I have been arguably the worst blogger in the world lately.  I mean, it's been....what?  3 weeks since my last post???   Sheesh!  I don't think I have ever gone that long without posting *something*!  Well, here I am with my something. I have been preparing my students and my classroom for my imminent departure, trying to get it all settled so that there is some semblance of normalcy in my absence.  Routines and procedures are in place with my kids.  They pretty much know the expectation and are abiding by it (plus, they really are great kids this year.)   So to keep all of that going, I made a "Long Term Sub Binder" for the teacher who will be in my room for the next three-ish months. Basically, I tried to lay out all that she would know in order to function as me.  I know she is a credentialed teacher, and will do things her own way, but I can *try* to have her do things as I would, right? So the rest of this post is going to be p......

When I was in college, the big push was towards thematic teaching.  No longer were we to teach in isolated chunks of information, but we were to pull it all together under one big umbrella theme.  Because I learned that way, my brain is now wired to teach that way.   So when I approach a big unit of study, I not only am thinking about how my social studies (for example) will be taught, but I am trying to bring in literature, make a math connection, work out science experiments....all under the big umbrella of the unit. As most of you know, I am in the midst of my most favorite unit, the American Revolution.  When I set about planning this, I broke out my trusty old organizer.  I use this when I am entering into any sort of planning.  It helps me to see what it is that I want to accomplish and how I am going to do that.  It also helps me to visualize how things are going to go, how I will keep it all tied together....everything. I left it at school th......