I asked my students this week how they best reviewed their vocabulary words. One of my students, grabbed some cardstock paper and started to draw, freehand, a jigsaw puzzle....
In honor of Shakespeare’s birthday this week, I thought it would be fun to have my students create Shakespeare-like insults, but with vocabulary! SHAKESPEARE VOCABULARY...
I love the word bowdlerize-not because I love censoring (to bowdlerize is to censor/expurgate materials), but because I love the story behind this word’s origin. The word...
Greg Neri goes by the elusive “G” Neri as an author, but I feel pretty cool that I can now call him Greg. I think Greg’s books are outstanding, and appeal to kids outside of...
One of the vocabulary strategies I use to get my students to remember and practice vocabulary words is a Vocabulary Sheet of the Week. With this simple vocabulary strategy,...
Just when I needed some inspiration for this week’s vocabulary activity, my amazing new friend Becky Amaral, who teaches sixth and seventh grade English at The Country...
I just love Libba Bray’s insightful analysis, quirky characters and her ability to write such diverse yet equally fantastic books! She was incredibly gracious to allow me...
I particularly like the end of February and it has everything to do with Read Across America Day and the beginning of National Reading Month (March 1)! With these two...
In honor of President’s Day earlier this week, I’d like to say that I have interviewed President Obama. Unfortunately, he is a bit hard to reach, but I do have three awesome...
As promised, I mused over vocabulary activities involving awards after receiving approbation as a Best Teacher Blogger from We Are Teachers two weeks ago. The result: I...
Matt de la Peña comes from humble beginnings and has achieved a modicum of success that would make many authors a bit supercilious, but he remains nonchalant and humble.
So often, we think that students will never voluntarily expand their vocabulary. We think it is only through our constant inundation of vocabulary in the classroom that they...