Latest Reading Posts from the Blog

Haiku Poetry for Upper Elementary
Teaching haiku poetry is so much fun in the upper elementary grades! Kids this age seem to enjoy the process and their creativity really shines

Motivating Reluctant Readers in Upper Elementary
One of the most important things about teaching reluctant readers in upper elementary is getting them to actually enjoy reading. While students need help building

The Best Reading Comprehension Strategies for Upper Elementary
The ultimate goal of any reading teacher is for students to have strong reading comprehension! Although reading comprehension encompasses lots of different reading skills, basically

Reading Comprehension Fix-Up Strategies for Upper Elementary
Comprehension difficulties happen to everyone… good readers, and struggling readers alike. They happen to adults too! Every time I read directions for a complicated IKEA

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