Motivating Reluctant Readers and Writers
WordPress
Get students motivated to learn by creating a website or blog. WordPress is free, or a minimal cost. Students can engage in digital literacy by responding to and writing information on a blog.
Author Visit
Schedule an author to come and visit. Students will apply academic knowledge to real world situations by hearing a guest speaker. These experiences help students appreciate that knowledge is constantly evolving, not fixed and static.
Find a local author on the SCBWI website.
Family Projects
Students make home–school connections with family projects. Involving the family in school provides motivation for students to succeed.
Teachers can ask parents to come up with ideas for family-school projects. Develop curriculum based on parents’ suggestions. Develop a monthly newsletter with descriptions for monthly family projects and any materials that need to be brought to school that month. Example of family project: Family Reading Month- Parents and students read to and with each other daily. Books read and time spent/ pages read are recorded in journal/log and turned in at end of month.
You can create a Facebook page for parents and students to access information.
Comprehension Strategies
Read, Write, and Talk
Use this strategy to model comprehension during reading. Students infer, react and question throughout their reading. Science Daily has the latest science research news.
Read Aloud
Use Read alouds on YouTube for variety. Students can read and reread a book online. Have students pause the read aloud and make predictions about how the story will end.
Visit a Museum for a real-world connection
Students can visit a museum like the American Writers Museum in Chicago. This museum encourages students to write using interactive exhibits and featured authors. Write In is a youth education program middle and high school students take part in when they visit.
https://americanwritersmuseum.org/write-in-youth-education-program/
Strategies to Teach Vocabulary
Newspaper Noun Hunt
Use Pinterest to find resources to teach word sort activities. In this link by Brooke Beverly, students use a the newspaper to hunt and record nouns.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Newspaper-Noun-Hunt-165111
Tossed Terms
Have students review vocabulary using this cube. Terms and ideas are presented in new ways with partners. Landing on the term prompts students to question and recall information.
http://printables.atozteacherstuff.com/435/cube-pattern/
Frayer Model Vocabulary Card
Students create vocabulary cards to see connections between words. Students record the definition, characteristics, examples and nonexamples of a word.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Frayer-Model-Vocabulary-Template-3354819
Strategies to Teach Fluency
Fishbowl
Enhance class discussions by encouraging students to contribute multiple viewpoints within a small group. The teacher prints off copies of a topic in their content area, or uses a video or website. Students talk with a partner about their thoughts and opinions. Then a small group of students discusses the topic in the “fishbowl” or center of class. The other students can only listen as fishbowlers discuss. The fishbowl rotates and everyone gets a turn to express their opinions. Use a hot topic like gun control to peek student interest.
https://newsela.com/search/#/?needle=gun%20control
Reader’s Theater
Students practice fluency by reading aloud their parts in a play. Find a play to connect to your content area below.
http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm
Conversational Roundtables
Hear Jim Burke explain what a conversational roundtable looks like in the classroom. Have students use them to discuss different aspects of a topic. The second link is for a printable.
A Little Writing Nook 