Using illustrations to understand text

One of our second grade common core standards is using information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot. I love to use the story Officer Buckle and Gloria to teach this skill. It's also in our reading series. We talked about how important illustrations are for helping us understand what we are reading. They love seeing what Gloria will be up to next in the illustrations. I made this little…

Like most teachers out there all my time is spent existing in my classroom trying to make each and every second count for my students. If I'm not there then I can almost guarantee that my thoughts are. How can I make this better? What's the best way to introduce this? When will I finish all this testing so I can meet with small groups?! I know most of you are in the same spot...with that said I can *just* manage taking photos and then dumping them on here :) READING: This is a take off of…

When my daughter, received My No, No, No Day! by Rebecca Patterson in the mail from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, she instantly fell in love. It became the new book that we read over and over and over. The first thing I thought when I overheard my mom reading it to her for the first time was 'wow, that reminds me of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. ' My mom (former teacher and librarian) said the same thing. It is almost like a pre-school…

Just about any fiction text or poem you select can be used to teach visualizing in reading. But which books have the best descriptive language and are the most effective for practicing this reading comprehension strategy? Check out these 10 picture books for visualizing that will spark elementary students' creativity as they make their own mental images! Plus be sure to download the FREE printable list of mentor texts for your reading instruction!

This free Kindergarten sentence building and writing center is perfect for practice with making simple sentences for beginning writers!

If you’ve ever had (or possibly you currently do have) a student who struggled with phonics even after receiving daily, systematic instruction, it’s most likely because they have not yet developed their phonemic awareness abilities. Read more

Need an anchor chart to teach character traits? Here it is! This anchor chart is based on the book “The Recess Queen”. I use these anchor charts everyday in my class to really engage my students with the skill I am teaching. The anchor charts allow the students to understand what they are learning by using colorful pictures, easy to read phrases and characters that they know. I can customize the anchor charts to any book, character or theme you are interested in. Will be shipped in poster…

These 12 certified Lexile measured reading comprehension passages with standard based questions are perfect for teaching, developing, or reinforcing 2nd grade & 3rd grade using illustrations skills. Aligned to CCSS RL2.7 & RL3.7, students learn to use information from illustrations and words in text to demonstrate understanding of characters, setting, plot, and create mood. Includes standard based questions, anchor charts, and two skills focused test passages.