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

Just like I hope you’re celebrating our country’s independence, today’s episode is all about a different kind of celebration in the classroom. Over the past several episodes, I’ve been discussing the writing process and sharing ways to make it smooth and effectives for your students. Today I’m sharing 8 ways to celebrate published writing with your students.

If you’ve been listening to these recent episodes, you know that publishing is the last step in the writing process. It takes a lot of hard work and effort to complete a published piece of written work for your students, so why not celebrate it?! Celebrating their final product has a lot of benefits to it. One of those being that I find when taking the time to showcase writing, students can make the connection between truly writing for an audience, they tend to take writing a bit more seriously and will generally give a better effort.

The eight ideas I share in this episode are all ideas I’ve done in my classroom that my students have loved! Make sure to mix it up and use a variety of these ideas when you celebrate in order to keep it fresh and new. However, keep in mind one key factor before having your students read their final work out loud to others. 

Remember, celebrating your students’ work is supposed to be fun, engaging, and enjoyable, which these ideas reflect! By designating time to have your students showcase their work in some way, you will see the joy on their faces for all that they’ve accomplished. After completing the writing process, your students, and you, will appreciate being able to celebrate published writing in your classroom! 

Resources:

• Writing Prompts Freebie

SHOW NOTES: https://theliteracydive.com/celebrate-published-writing/

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The past couple of episodes have been focused on student writing and the writing process. If you haven’t listened to last week’s episode, Episode 88, make sure you go back and listen to it now. I discuss in detail the steps of the writing process, which is a prelude to today’s topic. In today’s episode, I’m continuing to talk about the writing process with 6 best practice tips to keep in mind when it comes to writing and having your students keep the writing process in mind.

The writing process is more than just knowing the order of the steps and having your students just write. In order for students to become effective and successful writers, it’s a process that takes time and effort on your end. These 6 best practice tips ensure your students utilize the writing process to support their writing needs. The 6 tips are:

1. Use a variety of writing prompts
2. Have students write daily
3. Move at the pace of your students
4. Conference with your students throughout the process
5. Explain the why 
6. Experiment with different writing skills and strategies

Over the last few weeks, I hope you have a better understanding of why we should guide our students to using the writing process as their milestones from brainstorming to publishing, while implementing these best practice tips. You know that I’m a lover of writing, but I can guarantee this produces some writing excitement for you in your classroom and that you’ll make time for it during your literacy or writing block. Let the writing begin! 

Resources:

• Monthly Writing Prompts Sample Pack Freebie

• Writing Process Charts & Writing Checklists

SHOW NOTES: https://theliteracydive.com/6-best-practice-tips/

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• Check out my TpT Store
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• Blog Posts
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If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please follow, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

Hey literacy friends! As you all know, I’m very passionate about literacy…especially writing. In last week’s episode, I shared 4 ways to enhance how you teach descriptive writing, so take a listen to that episode to further strengthen your students’ writing. In today's episode, I’m walking you through different steps of the writing process and focusing on the overall goal of each step. 

It is said that writing is a journey, not a destination, which explains why it’s called a process and takes time to complete effectively. In order to do that, it’s important to note the steps of the writing process, which are brainstorming (or prewriting), drafting, revision, editing (including peer editing), and publishing. Throughout the episode, I dive further into each of those steps and provide ways to help your students achieve each step of the process fully. 

Teaching writing as a process is the key to showing kids how to navigate language and the different purposes of writing on their own. If you’re unfamiliar with the writing process, this will help give you an overview of what the steps are and how to implement them in your classroom. By explicitly explaining and modeling the writing process, you are helping your students become better and strong writers, which is the ultimate goal! 

Stay tuned for next week’s episode where I share some best practices when it comes to teaching writing. And then look for a future episode where I go more in depth with the additional ways you can allow students to celebrate their published work. 

Resources:

• Writing Process Charts and Writing Checklists
• Writing Process Sticky Notes and Checklists
• Punctuation Anchor Charts
• Writing VOICES - Six Traits of Writing Posters
• Writing Paper Templates

SHOW NOTES: https://theliteracydive.com/understanding-the-writing-process

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

The ability to write and use descriptive language is a skill that doesn’t come easy to most, especially our young learners in our classrooms. So what can you do as a teacher to help your students? In today's episode, I’m sharing 4 ways to teach descriptive writing and ideas that you can put into practice in the fall.

Last week, I had a special guest, Anna Brekken, a 16 year old high school student, on the podcast. She talked about what teachers should avoid when teaching descriptive writing, so if you haven’t listened to it, go take a listen now! 

Teaching descriptive writing can be tricky, but it’s important to remember that it is a behavior that has to be taught and learned. But how do you do that? I’m sharing 4 ways to teach descriptive writing that are super easy and effective! Those ways include: use it, show it, find it, give it. 

Throughout the episode, I go into detail and provide examples of how to incorporate those four ideas in your classroom. You’ll find that I never miss opportunities where I can be intentional with helping kids find where descriptive language exists because that’s going to help them with understanding how it works. Then, once kids start experiencing descriptive writing and language, it changes the world for them and opens up a whole new dynamic of words and language. 

That’s ultimately the goal, right? I am passionate about writing, particularly descriptive writing, and know that after implementing these strategies in your classroom, it will increase your students’ vocabulary on descriptive writing and start using it in their everyday language.

Resources:

• Descriptive Writing Anchor Charts Bundle 

SHOW NOTES: https://theliteracydive.com/teach-descriptive-writing

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

You all know that I love writing and enjoy sharing tips when it comes to teaching writing. But I have a treat for you today! On today’s episode, I have guest Anna Brekken, who is a very accomplished 15 year old student! Anna is sharing three things teachers should avoid when teaching writing. 

Anna is a high school student and creative writer. She believes everyone has an incredibly important story to share, and creative writing is the tool to uncover your voice and stand out. When Anna started high school, she was disappointed in the way English was taught, so she did a TEDx talk about how to improve it.

Before that, Anna launched a blog, built her greeting card shop on Etsy, and pondered major life questions like, “Which font is worse, Comic Sans or Curlz?” 

If she’s not connecting with other teen business owners, you might find Anna chasing Pickles (her cat) or making every school assignment aggressively creative. Anna is an aspiring speaker and writer– new ideas flood her notes app daily!

One of the reasons I enjoy this episode is because our conversation revolves around a student perspective instead of the typical teacher or adult perspective. Anna is open about the three things teachers should avoid when teaching writing, which are: shy away from basic retell of texts repetitively, focus more on a specific audience, and not prioritizing grammar over the actual content and writing.

SHOW NOTES: https://theliteracydive.com/anna-brekken/

Resources Mentioned:

• Listen to Anna’s Ted Talk 
• Check out Anna’s Etsy Shop 
• Follow Anna on Instagram

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 follow, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

Let’s celebrate YOU! You’ve finished, or almost finished, the school year! While it’s a time for celebration, it’s also a time to think about how the year went and find changes or positives throughout the year. In today’s episode, I’m sharing why implementing an end of the school year 5W reflection is so powerful and beneficial. 

If you know me and have been following me for awhile, you know how much I value reflections, but I find reflections are the most powerful at the end of the year. When it comes to an end of the year reflection, I like to go back to the basics of the 5W’s: who, what, when, where, why, and the bonus area of how. 

These 5W reflections are designed for you to think about all different aspects of your school year from your students, parents, activities, schedule, management, and most importantly, yourself. Throughout the episode, I present a variety of questions involving each category that will help you think about all variations of your school year.

Please remember that no school year is perfect, but when you can do the intentional work, you are making the vow to make it as best as it can be for the kids. By implementing an end of the year 5W reflection, it will provide a clear vision for what next year will hold and what that will look like for you.

SHOW NOTES: https://theliteracydive.com/5w-reflection

Connect with me:

• Check out my TpT Store
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If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please follow, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

While the majority of teachers have summer on their minds, other teachers are extending their time in school to teach summer school. Whether you’re required or volunteering, please know you are doing a great thing! In order to make your time more enjoyable, on today’s episode I’m sharing 6 tips for summer school success. 

Teaching summer school is an important job. You are the reason they’re not prone to the summer slide and you’re helping set them up for summer success. If teaching summer school, implement these 6 tips:

• Have empathy
• Try new strategies
• Offer incentive and rewards
• Collaborate with others
• Use your time wisely
• Have consistent communication with parents

SHOW NOTES: https://theliteracydive.com/summer-school/

Resources Mentioned:

• Online Summer Classes Google Form
• Free Literacy Choice Boards
• June Writing Prompts
• July Writing Prompts
• Guided Reading Small Groups Tools
• Memorial Day Reading and Writing Activities
• Flag Day Reading and Writing Activities
• Father's Day Reading and Writing Activities
• 4th of July Reading and Writing Activities FREEBIE

Connect with me:

• Check out my TpT Store
• Subscribe to my E-mail list
• Instagram Posts

With summer approaching, it’s important for teachers to take some time to take a break and relax because you deserve it! I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been good at taking the whole summer off. So in today’s episode I’m sharing 8 tasks that you can add to your summer to-do list that will help you ease yourself back into school!

Like I mentioned, I tend to get antsy or feel overwhelmed when I head back to school if I don't prepare just a little bit over the summer for the upcoming school year. Plus, I’ve found that taking the whole summer off can make it difficult to get back in the groove when school starts again. I’m a believer in a good balance between work and relaxation, and this teacher’s summer to-do list will accomplish just that.

The 8 tasks for a teacher’s summer to-do list include:

1. Prioritize what brings you joy
2. Read for work and enjoyment
3. Plan ahead for the next school year
4. Participate in professional development seminars
5. Create personal and professional goals
6. Start a side hustle or social media page
7. Find local meetups
8. Volunteer

SHOW NOTES:

https://theliteracydive.com/summer-to-do-list

Resources Mentioned:

• Online Summer Classes Google Form

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 follow, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

I’m so excited because today’s topic is something I’ve never discussed on the podcast, but it’s such an important conversation to have. On today’s episode, guest Kelsey Sorenson and I are having an open dialogue about providing tools and strategies to use towards a better mental health.

Kelsey Sorenson is a former teacher and sub turned homeschool mom and owner of Wife Teacher Mommy. She has helped hundreds of thousands of educators cut down planning time and balance the many roles in their lives with her time-saving resources, blogs, and her new podcast, Wife Teacher Mommy: The Podcast.

One of the reasons we decided on this topic is due to the fact that a lot of teachers are struggling with their mental health. It’s the end of the year, this is year three of teaching during a pandemic, and the educational gaps are at an all-time low. Teachers are dealing with a lot! Let alone all they have going on personally and at home. So this seems like the best time to have that conversation.

Kelsey gives a raw and real conversation about her own mental health journey that will certainly resonate with many of you. Along with her story, Kelsey provides tools and strategies viewers can apply and use today! 

SHOW NOTES:

https://theliteracydive.com/teacher-mental-health

Resources Mentioned:

• Grab a ticket to Educate & Rejuvenate
• Free Sub Planning Starter Kit
• Join the Wife Teacher Mommy Club

Connect with Kelsey:

• Listen to Wife Teacher Mommy: The Podcast.
• Follow her on Instagram @wifeteachermommy.
• Join our Facebook group: Wife Teacher Mommies Unite.

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 follow, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!

We can feel it - it’s getting closer and closer each week. I’m talking about summer! While we’re all excited for the break, it has a lot of us teachers asking the magic question: What am I supposed to do the last few weeks of school? This is one of my favorite times of the year, so I’m sharing engaging literacy-based end of year activities you can easily do with your students!

SHOW NOTES:

https://theliteracydive.com/end-of-year-activities

Resources Mentioned:

• Letter Writing Poster and Paper Freebie
• Independence Day Reading and Writing Activities Freebie
• Writing Center Posters and Writing Paper Templates
• Online Summer Classes Google Form

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 follow, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!