Literacy Moment

So many of our kids struggle with writing summaries.  Even some 8th graders.  It's not an easy skill and if the content is challenging, summarizing may be quite a tough challenge.    The Common Core asks that students begin summarizing in grade 3 so I thought this strategy might be a good one to share.  One strategy which scaffolds it is called GIST.  For students who need that scaffolding,  they can plan a summary using the graphic organizer.  Here is a link to ReadWriteThinks lesson plan and template.

Hope you find this useful.

Castine Humor

ELA Teachers Might Find This Resource Useful

One of my favorite things to do is blog.  Last count I had 6 current blogs going!  What is wrong with me!!   However, the Teacher Talk blog stalled out last Spring, but I've returned, with my Literacy Facilitator hat on,  to a commitment of posting regularly.

First, I must say this.  If anyone needs resources to build lesson plans that include a specific literacy component, please please let me know.  My Masters is for Literacy,  and a great deal of the work we've been doing on the Literacy Team has been focused on content literacy.

My first blog of the new school year is this…I am emailing a link to all Staff and offering a set of materials you might like to use these first few days.  They may need tweaking for younger ones, but I will be using these with Grades 6-8;  I'll share with you.  They came from Erika Forth, a TpT person (though she specifies single classroom only, copyright allows my purchase to be used for nonprofit in schools).

Hope you have a positive and productive start to your year.

Cutler Harbor Summer 2015