The Literacy Dive Podcast: Reading and Writing Strategies for Upper Elementary Teachers and Parents

Whether you are a first-year or veteran teacher, you know how incredibly important it is to build community at the beginning of the school year. You also know how stressful this time of year can be. Exciting? Yes. But still stressful! You have so much to do, yet you also want to focus on making your students feel welcome and valued. This is the prime time to really set the tone for the upcoming year!

Between organizing school supplies and establishing rules and routines, there is no time for activities that require hours of preparation. Over the years, I have collected several effective, simple, and FUN getting-to-know-you activities that can be used on the fly with little to no prep. Better yet, they can all be used for in person or virtual teaching! Send me a message on Instagram @theliteracydive and let me know which activity is your favorite!

In this episode I share:

-6 engaging “getting to know you” activities to use anytime of year

-How to manage each activity with ease

-My experiences using these back-to-school activities

-Why the beginning of the year isn’t the only time to have students get to know each other

SHOW NOTES: misspsstyle.com/podcast-episode42

Resources Mentioned:

-FREEBIE - "This or That" & "Would You Rather" Slides

-FREEBIE - All About Me Share Bag Labels

-Episode 41, Small Group Must-Haves

Connect with me:

-Check out my TpT Store

-Subscribe to my E-mail list

-Instagram Posts

-Blog Posts

-Facebook Posts

-Watch my YouTube channel 

If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

True story - small groups are 100% my teaching love language! So when Emily asked, “What are some of your favorite small group must-haves?” I jumped at the opportunity to share. While I can’t list EVERYTHING, I’m going to list my 15 most-loved small group staples. I bet you won’t be surprised to hear that sticky notes are on this list, but what about a laser pointer?! These items can all be found on Amazon or at your local Target/Dollar Tree.

As with any supply list, don’t let this overwhelm you. If you’re new to using tools in small groups, start slow. Choose a few items to begin! Slowly begin to implement materials, gauge the student response, and go from there! Have fun building your unique small group toolbox this year and let me know which items are your favorite by sending me a DM on Instagram @theliteracydive.

In this episode I share:

-My top small group tools and how to use them

-Which items to use for decoding texts and responding to reading

-Creative ways to hold student’s attention during small group

-How to organize your tools to save time and space

SHOW NOTES: misspsstyle.com/podcast-episode41

Resources Mentioned:

-Guided Reading Calculator

-FREE Running Record Cheat Sheet

-Guided Reading Strip Overlays

-Dry Erase Pockets

-Mini Magnetic Dry Erase Boards

-Students Response Cards

-Reading Choice Boards (use a dice) 

-Whisper Phones

-Reading Reference Helpers

-Observation Tracker Sheets

-Laser Pointer

Connect with me:

-Check out my TpT Store

-Subscribe to my E-mail list

-Instagram Posts

-Blog Posts

-Facebook Posts

-Watch my YouTube channel 

If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

I have trouble with getting my students to sit for extended periods of time and accomplishing their goals. How do you help students increase their stamina when it comes to independent reading and writing? This question comes from Craig and I’ll bet many of you have the same one!

Here’s one thing I know for sure. Stamina takes time! So, give yourself and your students some grace. Tune in to hear my favorite strategies that I have used with students in second through fifth grade. Whether you implement these at the very beginning of the year, or the middle of the year, they will  help students succeed in increasing their stamina over time!

In this episode I share:

-How important it is to take the time to establish systems and expectations

-How to tap into student’s interests to increase buy-in

-Incorporating various media types into independent reading and writing time

-Why peer collaboration can help students stay on task longer

-Using a visual timer, choice boards, and stamina graphs to support students in reaching their goals

Resources Mentioned:

-Writing Genre Posters

-Daily Writing Prompts

-Free Reading and Writing Choice Boards

-Online Stopwatch

For full show notes, head to misspsstyle.com/podcast-episode40

Connect with me:

-Check out my TpT Store

-Subscribe to my E-mail list

-Instagram Posts

-Blog Posts

-Facebook Posts

-Watch my YouTube channel 

If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

Today we have a question from Shelby! Shelby asks, “How do you help kids who just want to finish writing as fast as they can and do not want to add any details because of the time it takes?” Just like Shelby, we all have those students in our writing block who say “I’m done” before most kids even have their name on the paper! Few things are more frustrating than watching students who rush to get done without implementing the skills that you have worked so hard to teach!

I’m sharing 10 strategies to help with motivation and getting students taking their time when it comes to writing. These are tips that have helped my students look forward to writing time and shift from saying “I’m done” to “how can I make my writing better?”.  Are you ready to watch your writers grow and transform?

In this episode I share:

-Common reasons why students tend to rush through their work and how to fix it

-Focusing on small achievable writing goals

-How to use checklists to eliminate rushing and increase accountability

-Using a timer to set expectations

-Implementing frequent check-ins to eliminate behaviors before they even begin

Resources mentioned:

-Writing Process Charts and Checklists

-Writing Process and Writing VOICES Checklists

-Descriptive Writing Anchor Charts

-FREE Writing Choice Boards

Connect with me:

-TpT Store

-Instagram: @theliteracydive

-Blog

-Facebook Page

-YouTube

For full show notes, head to misspsstyle.com/podcast-episode39

If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

Picture this: you are in the middle of a well prepared mini-lesson and it’s going great. When the time comes to start a written response, all of your students get started right away working on the exact same assignment and moving at the exact same pace. Hah! That would be nice, right? The reality is, it’s far more likely that you will have students at all different levels. The solution to this challenge is to differentiate your instruction. But how? 

This week’s question comes from Karina! Karina wrote, “I struggle with differentiating. I have some advanced fourth graders and others at a kindergarten level. How can I better differentiate to reach all of my students?”. Do you share Karina’s challenge? Today I’m diving into all things differentiation to give you new ideas and strategies to take back to your classroom.

In this episode I share:

-The very first thing to do when making a differentiation plan

-Celebrating each student’s growth throughout the year

-4 ways to implement differentiation when your students are grade levels apart

-My #1 favorite way to support students

Resources mentioned:

-Reading Graphic Organizers

-Reading Response Sentence Stem Anchor Charts

-Reading Response Stem Cards Bundle

-Reading Response Question Rings

-Episode 15, The Power of Sentence Stems

Connect with me:

-TpT Store

-Instagram: @theliteracydive

-Blog

-Facebook Page

-YouTube

For full show notes, head to misspsstyle.com/podcast-episode38

If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

This episode is extra special because our guest is actually a long time friend of mine! Once upon a time, Sara and I even had classrooms right next door to each other. Tune in to hear how Sara and I first met and became teacher besties!

Sara is on the show to talk all about how you can create a classroom community who genuinely loves reading.  This episode will give you the inspiration you need as you intentionally plan for the upcoming school year. Standards and assessments are important, and part of our job, but first we need to determine how we can appeal to our student’s needs and interests when it comes to reading. Sara is going to tell us how!

Sara has over a decade of experience working as a classroom teacher and school administrator. She is now a literacy specialist and the CEO of the Stellar Teacher Company who is passionate about helping elementary teachers around the world grow their students into life long readers. Sara is also the host of the Stellar Teacher Podcast, where she loves to share her favorite literacy tips each week.

In this episode we discuss:

-The idea that you are teaching the reader, not the text

-Why students lose their love for reading and how we can we change this

-Reading picture books for fun without having an assignment attached to it

-Empowering our students to have a reading identity and voice

-Ways to increase student independence, buy-in, and engagement

Resources mentioned:

-Join the Stellar Teacher Membership Waitlist: https://learn.stellarteacher.com/join

-Genre Anchor Charts, Reading Passages, and Activities Bundle

-Reading Response Choice Boards

-Episode 23, Using Centers for Upper Elementary Kids

Connect with Sara:

-stellarteacher.com

-Instagram: @thestellarteacher

-Stellar Teacher Podcast

Connect with me:

-TpT Store

-Join The Literacy Dive Facebook group!

-Instagram

-Blog

-Facebook Page

-YouTube

For full show notes, head to misspsstyle.com/podcast-episode37

If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

Teaching writing is tricky to say the least. It can feel very chaotic when our students are each in various places in their writing and all have different needs. On any given day, you may have students who are pages in while others are struggling to write their first sentence. If you are finding it difficult to teach writing, and be excited about it, you are most definitely not alone! My guest today, Jamie Sears, is here to help take the chaos out of writing workshop so that you can feel in control of your classroom again!

Jamie Sears is a fun-loving mom of 5 (soon to be 6), wife, entrepreneur, and forever a teacher at heart. After several years in the classroom, her passion to make learning fun and effective for students and teachers alike inspired her to start the Not So Wimpy Teacher. Now she has the honor of serving hundreds of thousands of teachers around the world by providing easy-to-use hands-on resources that help students to love learning and teachers to love teaching.

Check out Jamie's Not So Wimpy Writing Masterclass!

You can connect with Jamie on notsowimpyteacher.com, on IG @notsowimpyteacher, on her YouTube channel [Not So Wimpy Teacher] or by joining one of her grade-level-specific teacher Facebook groups!

In this episode we discuss:

-Components of a super successful writing block

-The importance of keeping your mini-lessons MINI

-Problems that arise with the traditional writing workshop model

-How you can make writing workshop work regardless of how long your writing block is

-Simple and creative ways to get our kiddos excited about writing

Connect with me:

-TpT Store

-Join The Literacy Dive Facebook group!

-Instagram

-Blog

-Facebook Page

-YouTube

For full show notes, head to misspsstyle.com/podcast-episode36

If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

Teachers, do you ever feel like there’s just not enough time to cover everything that your students are meant to learn throughout the year? Perhaps every time you look at your pacing guide, you think about how unrealistic it appears! I hear you. For quite some time this was me. While teaching, I constantly felt like I was running out of time to teach the required content and do it well. If you have the same concern, this episode is for you.

Today we’re diving into the question of “how do you find enough time to teach new or spiraled content? I feel like there is never enough time to actually cover the standards I’m supposed to"! The strategies I share today will hep to decrease your overwhelm so you can feel in control of your literacy block again.

In this episode I share:

-My favorite tips on teaching reading and writing standards even when you feel crunched for time.

-Why you should be revisiting familiar texts and writing prompts

-The transformation that takes place when you use the bite-sized approach

-The practice of embedding skills into routine work stations

Resources mentioned:

-Episode 23, Using Centers for Upper Elementary Kids

Connect with me:

-TpT Store

-Join The Literacy Dive Facebook group!

-Instagram

-Blog

-Facebook Page

-YouTube

For full show notes, head to misspsstyle.com/podcast-episode35

If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

Our question today comes from Tina L. Her question is, "My fourth graders have a hard time finishing the book by the end of our session together. What is one thing I can try to help with this?" Oh, how I love this question! This may surprise some of you but I recommend that you do not have your students finish their guided reading book in one sitting (or in some cases, ever at all). Tune in to find out why!

While there are some books that you’ll want to finish to support a specific reading strategy, you absolutely do not have to complete every single one! Today's tips will help your students truly enjoy the reading process without the rush and overwhelm.

In this episode I share:

-Why I don’t finish a guided reading book in one sitting

-Choosing the best course of action based on student need

-What to do if students finish tasks at different times

-Giving students the opportunity to abandon a book

-Benefits of repeating the same book for multiple sessions

Guided Reading Resources:

-Guided Reading Question Cards

-Reading Response Stem Cards Bundle

-Reading Skills and Activities Bundle

Connect with me:

-TpT Store

-Join The Literacy Dive Facebook group!

-Instagram

-Blog

-Facebook Page

-YouTube

For full show notes, head to misspsstyle.com/podcast-episode34

If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

Welcome to the second episode in our summer Q&A series! This week we have a question from Marsha T. She asked - Can you give some insight into what free choice Friday entails? Ya’ll. Free Choice Friday is seriously my jam, so I am thrilled to answer this question today!

There’s a reason we say T.G.I.F. By the end of the week, you are ready for a much needed break. You’re thinking about closing out the current week while also planning for the next. Friday is about slowing down and catching your breath. It is totally possible to make your Fridays FUN without sacrificing learning time. This is a practice I’ve used in kindergarten, second, and fourth grade, so you can absolutely use Free Choice Friday in ANY grade.

Remember, send me a DM on Instagram @missps_style with your question! I’d love to answer it on the podcast!

In this episode I share 5 benefits of Implementing Free Choice Friday:

1. Student Choice

2. Time to allow for catch up work

3. Time to review data and pull strategy groups

4. It's a way to not start new content before a weekend

5. It gives YOU a break from the long week you just had!

Resourced mentioned:

-Episode 32, Diving Into Your Q&As: How Do You Set Up Effective Writing Centers?

-Small Group Notes Observation Tracker

-Reading Skills and Strategies Posters

For full show notes, head to misspsstyle.com/podcast-episode33

Connect with me:

-TpT Store

-Join The Literacy Dive Facebook group!

-Instagram

-Blog

-Facebook Page

-YouTube

If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!