Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “book recommendations”
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans On last week’s exit ticket, I asked my students what they enjoy most in class. The majority of them said, “Reading my Choice book.” That makes this reading teacher want to jump for joy. Now in my twenty-fourth year of teaching, I’ve finally arrived at what I believe to be a winning formula for …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans Hope. Right now, we need it more than ever. 2020 was hard. We are all, to some degree, the walking wounded here. We are all a bit weary of pep talks, we are all feeling the strain of social distancing and wearing these (insert expletive here) masks…ready to throw up our hands, crawl into …
One of the first steps to getting your reluctant readers excited about reading is getting to know what interests them as readers. A reading interest survey is a great way to do this. Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans Reading Interest Surveys – Through Conversation, Paper, or Digital You can get to know what sorts of books interest your 3rd, …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans Let’s start with something familiar: the story of Cinderella. Then let’s take a trip around the world and transport this classic tale to many different settings and cultures. Let’s use the story of Cinderella to teach point of view, theme, compare and contrast, and summarizing. Doesn’t this sound like a fun reading unit? …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans It can be a challenge to stock your classroom library with quality literature, especially if you are living on a teacher’s salary – with no additional side hustle or supportive spouse and no one is offering to give you money to buy books. I’ve been in your shoes and here is how you solve …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans Reluctant readers don’t have to stay reluctant. They just need the right book to motivate and engage them. Choosing the “right for me” book is a critical piece of crafting a competent student reader. Honestly, so often as students they don’t even know what they don’t know! And who will explain all that to …
When looking for good back to school books to read aloud to your upper elementary students, you will likely come across many suggestions that just aren’t that appropriate for a 4th or 5th grader. Many back to school books focus on emotions that are more geared towards younger students. Older students just aren’t as concerned about leaving their parents or …
Sometimes I recommend products using affiliate links. If you click through and buy, I may be compensated at no cost to you. Wordless books are an underused resource in upper elementary classrooms. There are so many ways to use them with your students to teach a variety of skills, from making predictions, to story elements, to writing dialogue. If you …
Most upper elementary teachers I know could easily tell you their favorite fiction books to read aloud to students, but choosing a nonfiction book is harder. We just don’t read nonfiction or informative texts as much as we read fiction texts because it is harder to find engaging books. We lean on fiction books with positive themes and inspiring stories …
Sometimes I recommend products using affiliate links. If you click through and buy, I may be compensated at no cost to you. Fiction read alouds were essential to my education in elementary school. Almost 30 years later, I can still remember the chapter books that my 3rd grade teacher read aloud to my class. Those read alouds helped instill a …