Latest Reading Posts from the Blog

Causes of Reading Comprehension Difficulties in Upper Elementary
Reading Comprehension is the overarching goal of reading instruction. If kids can’t understand what they read, we, as teachers and parents, often start looking for

Building Your Upper Elementary Classroom Library
Having a wide selection of books in the upper elementary classroom is such an important part of the reading program! Especially when students are able

Signs of Comprehension Difficulties in Upper Elementary
Reading Comprehension difficulties may happen at any grade level. Teachers in upper elementary may start to notice an increase however when students reach third grade.

Compare and Contrast Activities
Teaching students to compare and contrast is a lot of fun for me! Unlike theme or the main idea, which can be tricky, students seem

Teaching Nonfiction Text Features
I really think teaching nonfiction text features is a lot of fun! It’s not as abstract of a concept as many reading skills may be

8 Activities to Build Inference Skills
Making inferences is one of the most important reading skills. It’s crucial not only because it helps kids comprehend text, but it is a key

Teaching Inferences Using Informational Text
Last week in reading in my fourth and fifth grade class, we started to focus on the very important foundational skill of making inferences. This

Close Reading Using Informational Text
Close Reading asks students to dig deeper into a text, to pull out greater understandings from it. I think it’s a great strategy but might

Teaching Text Evidence
Teaching text evidence can be challenging…but it can also be a lot of fun! Want to find out how to lead your students step by

Teaching Themes in Literature
It’s one thing to teach concepts like characters, setting, and plot. Most kids get these without too much trouble, but it’s another thing to teach

Teaching Character Traits in Reading
Teaching about character traits in reading can be challenging but fun! One of the hardest parts for kids is that in most pieces of literature,

Teaching Main Idea Using Informational Text
When I teach one of reading’s key concepts, finding the main idea using informational text, I like to start off the unit with something really