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Effective classroom management:

Establishes and sustains an orderly environment in the classroom.

Increases meaningful academic learning and facilitates social and emotional growth.

Decreases negative behaviors and increases time spent academically engaged.

Although effective classroom management produces a variety of positive outcomes for students, according to a survey conducted by APA, teachers report a lack of support in implementing classroom management strategies. Chaotic classroom environments are a large issue for teachers and can contribute to high teacher stress and burnout rates. Therefore, it is important to use effective classroom management strategies at the universal level in a tiered model, as they serve as both prevention and intervention methods that promote positive outcomes for students.

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Reading Rocket. (n.d.). Phonological and phonemic awareness: Introduction. Reading Rocket.

https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading101-course/modules/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness-introduction

University of Oregon. (n.d.).

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. University of Oregon. https://dibels.uoregon.edu/assessment/dibels

Reading Rockets. (n.d.).

Phonological awareness: instructional and assessment guidelines . Reading Rockets.

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonological-awareness-instructional-and-assessment-guidelines

Early Childhood Teacher. (n.d.). 5 quick, easy, and fun phonemic awareness activities. Early Childhood Teacher. https://www.earlychildhoodteacher.org/blog/5-quick-easy-and-fun-phonemic-awareness-activities /

Jill Staake. August 13, 2020.

20 Fun Phonics activities and games for early readers. We Are Teachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/phonics-activities/

Thomas G. Gunning. (2019). Creating literacy instructions for all students. Pearson Education, Inc.

Reading Rockets. (n.d.).

Activities to encourage your preschooler. Reading Rockets . Https://www.readingrockets.org/article/activities-encourage-your-preschooler

D. Ray Reutzel. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction in an era of common core standards . Pearson Education, Inc.

University of Oregon. (n.d.).

DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency and Retell Fluency (ORF). University of Oregon.

https://dibels.uoregon.edu/assessment/dibels/measures/orf.php

Reading Rockets. (n.d.).

Fluency . Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading-basics/fluency

Reading Rockets. (n.d.).

Choral reading . Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/choral_reading#:~:text=Choral%20reading%20is%20reading%20aloud,aloud%20have%20built%2Din%20support.

Reading Rockets. (n.d.).

Reader's theater. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/readers_theater#:~:text=Reader's%20theater%20is%20a%20strategy,thus%20developing%20their%20fluency%20skills.

Reading Rockets. (n.d.).

Paired (or Partner) reading . Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/paired_reading

Reading Rockets. (n.d.).

Vocabulary . Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/vocabulary#:~:text=Reading%20vocabulary%20refers%20to%20the,greatly%20to%20a%20reader's%20comprehension.

JCFS Chicago. (n.d.). The importance of vocabulary. JCFS Chicago. https://www.jcfs.org/blog/importance-vocabulary

Kathryn Starke. (2020). The Frayer Model: What is it and how to use It. TeachingHub.com. https://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies/2020/09/the-frayer-model-what-is-it-and-how-to-use-it/
Mary Gormandy White. (n.d. ).

How to assess vocabulary: Ideas for measuring progress . Your Dictionary. https://education.yourdictionary.com/for-teachers/how-to-assess-vocabulary.html

Reading Rockets. (n.d.).

Strategies that promote comprehension. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/article/strategies-promote-comprehension

Harry K. Wong & Rosemary T Wong. (2014). The classroom management book. Harry K. Wong Publications.

Marcus Guido. (2017).

15 easy peer teaching strategies to help students. Prodigy.

Reading Rockets. (n.d.). Writing. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading-basics/writing

Reading Rockets. (n.d.). Writing Conference. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/writing_conferences

Thoughtful Learning. (n.d.).

7 steps to a great writing workshop. Thoughtful Learning. https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/blogpost/7-steps-great-writing-workshop

Thomas R. Kratochwill. (2010).

Classroom management module. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/education/k12/modules-classroom-management#:~:text=Classroom%20management%20systems%20are%20effective,their%20social%20and%20emotional%20development.&text=Identify%20important%20student%20behaviors%20for%20success.

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Phonics involves the relationship between sounds and their spellings. The goal of phonics instruction is to teach students the most common sound-spelling relationships so that they can decode or sound out words. This decoding ability is a crucial element in reading success. Phonics instruction plays a key role in helping students comprehend texts. It helps the students map sounds onto spellings, thus enabling them to decode words. Decoding words aids in the development of word recognition, which in turn increases reading fluency. Reading fluency improves reading comprehension because as students are no longer struggling with decoding words, they can concentrate on making meaning from the text.

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Toss and blend with plastic cups
Blending is important because being able to mentally join speech sounds together to make words helps students to decode unfamiliar words using letter-sound patterns when reading. A consonant blend is when two or more consonants are blended together, but each sound may be heard in the blend. The most common beginning consonant blends include: bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fr, tr, fl, gl, gr, pl, pr, sl, sm, sp and st. In a consonant digraph, two consonants stand together to represent a single sound. The most common consonant digraphs are: sh, ch, th, and wh.
Materials: Plastic cups, ping pong balls.
Grab a stack of plastic cups and some ping pong balls for this fun phonics game! Label the cups with different letter blends and set them out (tape them down if they tend to fall over). Kids toss a ball into a cup, then come up with a word that uses that letter blend to earn a point.
Connection to NVAC
RF.1.3a Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
The students are able to practice blending and recognizing consonant blends and digraph sounds in this activity.

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Blind Sort
Rhyme is important to emergent literacy and learning to read because it teaches children about the language. Rhyming helps children learn about word families such as let, met, pet, wet, and get. Rhyming also teaches children the sound of the language.
Materials: Word cards that have words ending with different rhymes.
Set up the head/keywords only. The teacher reads the words to the students. Without looking at the word, the students have to think about the pattern in the word and point to the category to which it belongs. The teacher then places the word under that category so the child can make sure his answer is correct. If the student's answer is not correct, he moves it to the correct column.
Connection to NVAC
RF.K.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
RF.K.2a Recognize and produce rhyming words.
This activity helps students deepen their understanding of phonics elements. Through sorting, students classify words and/ or pictures on the basis of sound and spelling and construct an understanding of the spelling system.

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Matching Sounds and Letters
The ability to associate sounds with letters is an essential early phonics skill learned through explicit teaching and practice. Phonics knowledge is important for developing accurate—and, ultimately, automatic—word identification skills.
Materials:

Pieces of paper

Paper bag

Write letters on pieces of paper and put them in a paper bag. Have your child take a piece of paper from the bag and say the name of the letter and the sound that it represents. Then have him say a word that begins with that sound.
Connection to NVAC
RF.K.3a Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
This activity helps children practice matching most letters with the sounds that they represent, helps them learn that words are made up of sounds. It gets them ready to match spoken sounds to written letters. This, in turn, gets them ready to read.

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Phonic Elements Assessment

This assessment should be given one-on-one.

Examples of assessment questions:

What sound do the letters's' and'h' make? (Correct response: /sh/.)

How can I turn'cap' into'cape'? (Correct response: Add an 'e' to the end of the word.)

This assessment measures phonic elements at a given grade level. Phonic elemements should be assessed several times throughout the year in grades one through three to help guide instruction.

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Letter/Sound (Alphabet) Recognition Assessment

This assessment should be given one-on-one.
Examples of assessment questions:
Show student one letter at a time and ask:

Can you tell me what letter this is? (Record the student's response)

Can you tell me what sound it makes? (Record the student's response)

This assessment measures the student's ability to recognize letters and sounds. Letter/sound recognition should be assessed three times during kindergarten, at the start of school, at mid-year, and at the end of the year.

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Jill Staake. August 13, 2020.

20 Fun Phonics activities and games for early readers. We Are Teachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/phonics-activities/

Thomas G. Gunning. (2019). Creating literacy instructions for all students. Pearson Education, Inc.

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What is Phonological and Phonemic Awareness? 

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What is Phonological and Phonemic Awareness? 

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Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the spoken parts of sentences and words. Examples include being able to identify words that rhyme, recognizing alliteration, segmenting a sentence into words, identifying the syllables in a word, and blending and segmenting onset- rimes . The most sophisticated — and last to develop — is called phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. This includes blending sounds into words, segmenting words into sounds, and deleting and playing with the sounds in spoken words. Phonological awareness involves a continuum of skills that develop over time and that are crucial for reading and spelling success because they are central to learning to decode and spell printed words.Children who cannot hear and manipulate the phonemes of spoken words will have a very challenging time learning how to relate phonemes to letters when they see them in written words, Phonics. Therefore, Phonological Awareness skills are foundational for Phonics. It primes readers for mapping speech to print, connecting sounds with written symbols, and also gives children a way to approach sounding out, blending sounds to make and read new words.

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In My Box
This game is great to use after your students have at least some understanding of how rhyming works. That means you have already read lots of rhyming books, poems, and songs and played with those rhyming words.
Materials: A small box, rhyming-word cards.

How to play: Get a small box and place some pictures in it with pairs of familiar words that rhyme (like box/socks, cat/hat, or chair/bear). Use enough pictures so that everyone in your class has a turn. Sit in a circle with your students. Start with a child you know is strong in rhyming. Hold the box and choose a picture. If the picture shows a cat, say “In my box, there's a cat”. Call on him or her to come up with a rhyming word. The child might say, “In my box, there's a hat” (or some other rhyming word). After he or she answers with a rhyming word, hand him or her the box. Now he or she gets to choose a card and continue the play.
Connection to NVAC
RF.K.2a Recognize and produce rhyming words.
The students are able to practice reconizing and producing rhyming words in this activitiy.

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Bippity Boppity Bumble Bee
This is a fun game. You get the kids clapping out names, first. As they get used to the game, you can start using other words with more syllables.
Materials: A stuffed bee or a printable bumble bee
How to play: Sit in a circle with your students. I have a little stuffed bee that the kids love to hold. You could also use a printable bumble bee. The teacher begins the chant and walks around to a child:
Teacher: “Bippity Boppity Bumble Bee, Will You Say Your Name For Me? ”
The child responds, “Jennifer.”
Teacher:” Let's all say it.” And the class says her name out loud, while clapping once for each syllable.
Teacher: “Let's all whisper it.” And the class whispers her name, while quiet-clapping the syllables again, once per syllable.
Teacher and class: “Bippity Boppity Bumble Bee, Thank You For Saying Your Name For Me!”
Repeat with another student and his/her name. As students become familiar with the game, you can allow students to take on the “teacher” role .
Connection to NVAC
RF.K.2b Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
This activity allows the stduents to count and segment syllables in spoken words.

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Finding things: Initial phonemes
This fun activity aims at practicing isolating initial sound of words.
Materials: Picture cards
Spread a few pictures cards out in the middle of the circle. Then ask the children to find those pictures whose names start with the initial sound on which they have just been working. As each picture is found , the child is to say its name and initial phoneme. (eg, cccc-at, /cccc/, cat f ).
Connection to NVAC
RF.K.2d Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel- consonant, or CVC) words.1 (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
This activity is to extend children's awareness of initial phonemes by asking them to compare, contrast, and eventually identify the initial sounds of a variety of words.

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Nonsense Words Spelling
This measure strongly predicts which kindergarten students will demonstrate growth in blending and segmenting after small-group phonological awareness instruction. Five nonsense words (feg, rit, mub, gof, pid) comprise the measure. Students receive one point for each phoneme that they represent correctly in the spelling.
Nonsense words are an indicator of a student's progress in acquiring early alphabetic principle skills. By using nonsense words, we can find out whether a child knows the most common sound for letters (letter–sound correspondence), and whether a child can blend the sounds to read words he has never seen before.

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DIBELS
DIBELS are a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of early literacy skills. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills. DIBELS are one-on-one and growth-centered.
They help provide individualized
instruction. DIBELS measures the big ideas ( Phonemic
Awareness, Phonics, Reading Fluency, Reading
Comprehension) and critical skills of beginning reading, such as the ability to hear and
manipulate sounds in spoken words only, ability to learn the individual sounds in spoken language and map those sounds to specific written letters
in the English language, the ability to read text accurately and automatically so that students can understand what they are reading, ability to understand what he or she reads.

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Reading Rocket. (n.d.). Phonological and phonemic awareness: Introduction. Reading Rocket.

https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading101-course/modules/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness-introduction

University of Oregon. (n.d.).

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. University of Oregon. https://dibels.uoregon.edu/assessment/dibels

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Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression. Reading fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. Because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words, they can focus their attention on what the text means. They can make connections among the ideas in the text and their background knowledge. In other words, fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time.

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Reader's Theater

Reader's theater is a strategy for developing reading fluency. It involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts. In using this strategy, students do not need to memorize their part; they need only to reread it several times, thus developing their fluency skills. The best reader's theater scripts include lots of dialogue.

Materials: Readers' theater scripts
Minimal props if needed
Steps:

1. Choose a story that can be divided into parts, or characters.

2. Assign reading parts to each child.

3. Ask students to read their scripts orally for practice.

4. Have students read assigned parts to the audience.

Connection to NVAC
RF.2.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Readers' theater promotes fluency, helps readers learn to read aloud with expression, and helps build reading confidence.

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Choral Reading

Choral reading is reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students. Choral reading helps build students' fluency, self-confidence, and motivation. Because students are reading aloud together, students who may ordinarily feel self-conscious or nervous about reading aloud have built-in support.

Materials:

One copy of a passage from any text genre, including poetry, nonfiction, fiction, or even songs.
Steps:
1. Choose a book or passage that works well for reading aloud as a group:
2. Patterned or predictable (for beginning readers)
* Not too long
* At the independent reading level of most students
* Provide each student a copy of the text so they may follow along. (Note: You may wish to use an overhead projector or place students at a computer monitor with the text on the screen)
3. Read the passage or story aloud and model fluent reading for the students.
4. Ask the students to use a marker or finger to follow along with the text as they read.
5. Reread the passage and have all students in the group read the story or passage aloud in unison.
Connection to NVAC
RF.1.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
This activity can provide less skilled readers the opportunity to practice and receive support before being required to read on their own. It provides a model for fluent reading as students listen. It also helps improve the ability to read sight words.

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Partner Reading
Partner reading is a research-based fluency strategy used with readers who lack fluency. In this strategy, students read aloud to each other. When using partners, more fluent readers can be paired with less fluent readers, or children who read at the same level can be paired to reread a story they have already read. Paired reading can be used with any book, taking turns reading by sentence, paragraph, page, or chapter.

Materials: Reading materials that are equally familiar and motivating to both students.

Steps:

Pairing students

Pair students either by same reading ability or by high-level readers with low-level readers. Use the following steps to pair high-level readers with low-level readers:

List the students in order from highest to lowest according to reading ability

Divide the list in half

Place the top student in the first list with the top student in the second list

Continue until all students have been partnered

Be sensitive to pairings of students with special needs, including learning or emotional needs. Adjust pairings as necessary

The reader from the first list should read first while the reader from the second list listens and follows along

The second reader should pick up where the first reader stops. If additional practice is needed, the second reader can reread what the first reader read

Encourage pairs to ask each other about what was read. "What was your page about? What was your favorite part?"

Implementing the strategy

1. Introduce the students to the Paired Reading strategy. This includes:

Establishing a routine for students to adopt so that they know the step-by-step requirements for engaging in paired reading (ie Will they read out loud, simultaneously? Will they take turns with each person reading a paragraph? a page? Or will one person read while the other person listens?).

Teaching students an error-correction procedure to use when supporting each other's reading (ie re-reading misread words; signals for difficulty).

Modeling the procedure to ensure that students understand how to use the strategy.

2. Ask students to begin reading in pairs and adjust reading speed if reading simultaneously so they stay together.

3. Have students offer feedback and praise frequently for correct reading.

4. Monitor and support students as they work.

Connection to NVAC
RF.1.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
This activity helps students work together. It encourages cooperation and supports peer-assisted learning, thus improves fluency for both readers.

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DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
ORF is a standardized set of passages and administration procedures designed to (a) identify children who may need additional instructional support, and (b) monitor progress toward instructional goals. The passages are calibrated for each grade level. Student performance is measured by having students read a passage aloud for one minute. Words omitted, substituted, and hesitations of more than three seconds are scored as errors. Words self-corrected within three seconds are scored as accurate. The number of correct words per minute is the oral reading fluency score.

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One-Minute of Reading Test Plus Prosody
The 1-minute of reading test plus prosody is similar to the oral reading fluency test (ORF) mentioned previously, with three exceptions:
1. Teachers use their own graded classroom passages from the adopted core reading program or leveled books.
2. Teachers use a norm-referenced table established by Hasbrouck and Tindal to determine student progress in terms of wcpm.
3. Teachers consider prosody in determining students' overall reading fluency development based on the work of Benjamin and colleagues.
The data we can get from this assessment focuses mainly on screening students for special program eligibility, setting instructional goals and objectives, assisting students to specific groups for instruction, monitoring academic progress toward established goals, etc.

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D. Ray Reutzel. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction in an era of common core standards . Pearson Education, Inc.

University of Oregon. (n.d.).

DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency and Retell Fluency (ORF). University of Oregon.

https://dibels.uoregon.edu/assessment/dibels/measures/orf.php

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Reading vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to understand what we read. Vocabulary growth is directly related to school achievement. It helps children to think and learn about the world. Expanding a child's knowledge of words provides unlimited access to new information. It is the basis for the development of all the other skills like reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, spelling, and pronunciation.

Vocabulary plays a fundamental role in the reading process and contributes greatly to a reader's comprehension. A reader cannot understand a text without knowing what most of the words mean.

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Semantic Maps
Semantic mapping is a visual strategy for vocabulary expansion and extension of knowledge by displaying in categories words related to one another. These almost graphic organizers are not pre-made but made by the students to help "web" out their ideas. Semantic maps go beyond just a graphic organizer. Their strength is an adaptation of concept definition mapping that builds on students’ background knowledge or schema. While drawing on prior knowledge, it recognizes important components and shows the relationships among them. This building on previous knowledge is extremely important for their development of vocabulary.

Materials: Classroom whiteboard, graphic organizers

In this activity, the teacher chooses a word and displays it for the class on a whiteboard, etc. Students read the word and then think of words that come to mind when they see that word. A list is created of all of the words that come to mind, and then those words are categorized.
This can be done as a whole class or in small groups. Students then create a “map” using a graphic organizer and discuss it. Additional or substitute categories can be suggested. As students read through the text, they can add related words to the map.
Connection to NVAC
L.K.5a Sort common objects into categories (eg, shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the
concepts the categories represent.
LK5b Demonstrate understanding of frequently occurring verbs and adjectives by relating
them to their opposites (
antonyms ). LK5d Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action (eg,
walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings.
This activity organizes information graphically according to categories. It can be used for concepts, vocabulary, topics, and background.

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Heads Up Vocabulary Game
Why not use games to help kids learn vocabulary? It sure is much more engaging than handing them a list of words and telling them to memorize them. Play the heads up vocabulary game to teach content words. Kids engage with the words by giving clues and guessing the word.
Materials: Word cards with familiar words on them
Students hold a word on a card in front of their foreheads. The students don't know what words they have. Students ask each other a series of questions to determine the meaning of their words. Or, students can give clues to the person with the word to help that person guess the word.
This is a review activity, and it's not for initial instruction.
Connection to NVAC
L.1.5d Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (eg, look, peek, glance, stare, glare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (eg, large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings.
This activity is great for recall, solidifying explanations, and ironing out misconceptions.

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Frayer Model
The Frayer Model is a graphic organizer for building student vocabulary. This technique requires students to define target vocabulary and apply their knowledge by generating examples and non-examples, giving characteristics, and/or drawing a picture to illustrate the meaning of the word. This information is placed on a chart that is divided into four sections to provide a visual representation for students.

Materials: Frayer model graphic organizers
The Frayer Model is a type of graphic organizer that uses a four-square model to determine, clarify, and analyze word meaning and structure. The Frayer Model can be used in whole-group, small-group, or in one-on-one instruction. The key to using this graphic organizer is for the teacher to preselect the vocabulary words and model the process of completing each component. Use a common word to show children how to complete the Frayer Model; a term that children can actually picture is best.
Connection to NVAC
L.2.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on grade 2 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
The Frayer Model teaches vocabulary by teaching synonyms, antonyms, examples, non-examples, and characteristics or attributes of the word.

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Think-Alouds
To assess students' use of word analysis and to provide guidance in their use, conduct a think-aloud. In a think-aloud, students stop when they come to a difficult word and then give a description of what is going on in their minds as they try to figure out the word. Instead of providing direct instruction, the teacher offers neutral prompts that encourage students to explain their thinking:" Can you tell me what you are thinking? Can you tell me more?" Once you know what strategies students are using, you can then use the think-aloud as an instructional tool.

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Identify the Opposite

To really push students to higher-order usage of vocabulary terms, test their knowledge of vocabulary words by using antonyms. Instead of asking students to simply define vocabulary words, provide them with terms that are the opposite of the words they're learning. Upon being presented with a word's antonym, they'll need to tell you which vocabulary word means the opposite. For example, if one of the vocabulary words is "used," provide students with the word "new" as its antonym. This assessment can be done verbally or as a written test.

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Thomas G. Gunning. (2019). Creating literacy instructions for all students. Pearson Education, Inc.

Reading Rockets. (n.d.).

Vocabulary. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/vocabulary#:~:text=Reading%20vocabulary%20refers%20to%20the,greatly%20to%20a%20reader's%20comprehension.

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Informational text is nonfiction writing, written with the intention of informing the reader about a specific topic. They are written using special text features that allow the reader to easily find key information and understand the main topic. Narrative text includes any type of writing that relates a series of events and includes both fiction (novels, short stories, poems) and nonfiction (memoirs, biographies, news stories). Both forms tell stories that use imaginative language and express emotion, often through the use of imagery, metaphors, and symbols. If students understand how informational texts are organized and use their background knowledge while reading, they will be more likely to comprehend what they are reading.

Narrative text uses language in a completely different way than informational text. Language devices, like alliteration and hyperbole, make connecting words and crafting phrases fun and interesting, and they provide new ways to add details or change sentence structure to help students comprehend.

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Reciprocal Teaching
Reciprocal Teaching is the name for a teaching procedure that is best described as a dialogue between the teacher and students. "Reciprocal" means simply that each person involved in the dialogue acts in response to the others.
Materials: A trade book or textbook selection. A poster displaying the four comprehension strategies and what they mean: predicting, questioning, summarizing, and clarifying.
Steps:
1 Prediction. Students predict from the title and pictures the possible content of the text. The teacher records the prediction.
2. Questioning. Students generate purpose questions after reading a predetermined segment of the text, such as a paragraph, page, or section.
3. Summarizing. Students write a brief summary for the text by starting with "This paragraph was about..." Summarizing helps students capture the gist of the texts.
4. Clarifying. Students and teacher discuss various reasons a text may be hard or confusing, such as difficult vocabulary, poor text organization, unfamiliar content, or lack of cohesion.
Connection to NVAC
RI.3.1-9
Reciprocal Teaching provides students with opportunities to observe the value of applying strategies in their "real" reading. It also allows the teacher to identify problems individual students might have in using strategies and provide instruction that is geared to individual needs. It is also useful for helping students who have difficulties with comprehension and comprehension monitoring and those who are learning English.

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Retelling
Retelling is a short, consistent routine students can use to recall, order, and summarize a text. With this retelling routine, students practice important comprehension skills, including:

Determining key details

Understanding text structure

Making inferences

Synthesizing the main idea

Materials: Brief story or textbook selection.
Retelling involves having students orally reconstruct a story that they have read. The teacher uses explicit instruction, explaining why retelling is useful, modeling the procedure, giving students opportunities to practice, and providing feedback. As the following shows, students' retellings should become more detailed as they become better readers.
Types of Retelling

Simple retelling
The student can:

identify and retell the beginning, middle, and end of a story in order.

describe the setting.

identify the problem and the resolution of a problem.

More complete retelling
The student can:

identify and retell events and facts in a sequence.

make inferences to fill in the missing information.

identify and retell causes of actions or events and their effects.

Most complete retelling
The student can:

identify and retell a sequence of actions or events.

make inferences to account for events or actions.

offer an evaluation of the story.

Connection to NVAC
RL.2.5 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces
the story and the ending conclude the action.
RL.2.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in print or digital text to
demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
Asking students to retell a story involves reconstructing the complete story structure including the story sequence, recalling important elements of the plot, making inferences, and noticing relevant details.

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The KWL Chart
The KWL Chart starts students thinking about what they K now about a topic, what they W ant to know, and what they have L earned in the end. This note-taking device guides students through a three-step process to activate background knowledge, develop a purpose for learning, and summarize. KWL charts are effective tools for engaging students in the learning process, helping them recall knowledge, and tracking their learning progress. While they are often used to help students improve their reading comprehension, KWL charts can be applied to any topic or lesson.

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Web Graphic Organizer
A web graphic organizer is a visual representation of key story elements and the interrelationships among these parts. It helps students think of related background experiences and invite them to set a purpose for reading the story. It connects the new learning to past learning and other stories. It also organizes discussion, text talk, and thinking.

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D. Ray Reutzel. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction in an era of common core standards . Pearson Education, Inc.

Reading Rockets. (n.d.).

Strategies that promote comprehension. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/article/strategies-promote-comprehension

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Greet Students at the Door
When greeting students at the door:

Say the student’s name

Make eye contact

Use a friendly nonverbal greeting, such as a handshake, high five, or thumbs-up

Give a few words of encouragement

Ask how their day is going

Starting class by greeting the students at the door helps set a positive tone for the rest of the day. It promotes their sense of belonging, boosting their academic engagement, and reducing disruptive behavior.

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Establish Classroom Routines

How to establish classroom routines:

* Explain the routine to students
* Model the expectations
* Have students practice the routine
* Implement the routine
* Review your routine as necessary

Routines allow students to quickly accomplish day-to-day tasks that are required of both the teacher and students. Routines also help to create smoother transitions between activities and therefore allow fewer opportunities for disruptions to occur.

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Peer Teaching
In short, peer teaching occurs when students, by design, teach other students. The teacher selects students who want to and can tutor. Peer teaching dramatically increases the on-task behavior and performance of both students with ADHD and students without ADHD.

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Assign Classroom Seating
Teachers can label desks with students' names to assign the classroom seats. Assigned seating helps keep classrooms under control as letting students sit wherever they want can create chaos. A more controlled classroom leads to better learning.

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Thomas G. Gunning. (2019). Creating literacy instructions for all students. Pearson Education, Inc.

Harry K. Wong & Rosemary T Wong. (2014). The classroom management book. Harry K. Wong Publications.

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Writing is a complex process that requires a wide range of skills — a strong vocabulary; an understanding of genre, text structure, and voice; basic mechanical skills (grammar and punctuation); organizational skills; and higher-order thinking. It is a terrific way for children to express their thoughts, creativity, and uniqueness. It is also a fundamental way in which children learn to organize ideas. And learning to write well helps children to be better readers. A child's writing development parallels the child's development as a reader. Children move through a series of stages as they are learning to write. The stages reflect a child's growing knowledge of the conventions of literacy, including letters, sounds, and spacing of words within sentences. Almost every interaction in a child's world is preparing them to become a reader and writer.

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What does kindergarten writing look like? - Milestones from GreatSchools

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Conferencing
Research on the writing process suggests that writers learn the most about writing when they share and reflect on their writing. In classrooms, this is most commonly done through writing conferences as part of the revision stage. Whether they occur with pairs, with small groups, or with the teacher, the social benefits of sharing writing improves writing.
Materials: Students' writing piece
Pencils
Notebooks
Directions:
There are many ways to conduct writing conferences. Teachers will have the most success if they model conference behaviors with the whole class. Class discussions can focus on what sorts of comments and actions are useful and constructive, and what sorts of behaviors are less helpful to the author sharing his or her work.
Some teachers decide to create very focused conferences, for example encouraging kids to only react to a piece of writing. Other conferences focus only on editing a piece of writing. It may be difficult for young kids to parse apart the differences. Many conferences with young kids involve both reaction and editing.

Donald Graves (1982) identified six characteristics of successful writing conferences. Conferences should: (1) have a predictable structure; (2) focus on a few points; (3) demonstrate solutions to students' problems; (4) permit role reversals; (5) encourage the use of a vocabulary appropriate for writing; and (6) stimulate pleasure in writing.
Connection to NVAC
W.K.5 With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions
from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
In writing conferences, peers or teachers can provide immediate feedback or can immediately ask for clarifications. They can promote positive attitudes about writing and increased motivation to revise. Students experience a wide range of writing abilities and topics.

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Kindergarten Writing Conference: Promote Self Expression with Writers' Workshop (Virtual Tour)

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Quick Writes
Quick Writes is a versatile strategy used to develop writing fluency, to build the habit of reflection into a learning experience, and to informally assess student thinking. The strategy asks learners to respond in 2–10 minutes to an open-ended question or prompt posed by the teacher before, during, or after reading. It helps students remember, organize, and manage information, and it can be used at any point in a classroom lesson to help them communicate their thoughts, experiences, and reactions to what they are reading and learning.
Materials: Papers & pencils
Books, topics, or
questions
Steps:
1. Explain that Quick Write helps engage students in thinking about a content topic before, during, and after reading. Stress that in a Quick Write, students respond to a question or prompt related to the text by writing down whatever comes to their minds without organizing it too much or worrying about grammar.
2. Select a topic related to the text being studied and define the purpose for the quick write: Examples:
• Summarize what was learned
• Connect to background information or students' lives
• Explain content concepts or vocabulary
• Make predictions, inferences, and hypotheses
• Pose a question that addresses a key point in the reading selection
3. Tell the students how long they will have to do the writing, typically 2–10 minutes.
4. Use Quick Write as part of instruction, assessment, discussion. Note: Typically a Quick Write is graded only for completion, not for quality or accuracy.
Connection to NVAC
W.3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons.
Quick Writes get students' ideas down on paper and help them write frequently.

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Writing Workshop
Writing Workshop is an instructional practice designed to help children become confident and capable writers. During Writing Workshop, children have time to work independently and with their peers. They engage in the writing process by selecting topics, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing their original work. They receive explicit instruction in the craft of writing from exploring genre to organizing their pieces, to word choice, style, and mechanics.

The workshop structure encourages children to think of themselves as writers and take their writing seriously. It gives children the skills to express their important thoughts and celebrates the fact that their stories and ideas matter and are worth expressing.
Materials:
Paper choices
Student writing folders
Pens or pencils
Bins/baskets
Writing supplies
Writing folder tools/mini anchor chart
Steps:
Step 1: Set up a writing workshop framework.
For example:
Writing Minilesson (10minutes)
Work check (2 minutes)
Student Work (30 minutes)
Whole-class Sharing (5 minutes)

Step 2: Be a writer!

Teach by example, showing not only how you write, but also how to collaborate, respond to other writers, and make improvements based on responses.

Step 3: Create a writing community.

Help your students work side by side, learning from each other in much the same way that artists do in studios or cooks do in the kitchen. Provide spaces for individual work and spaces for small-group work.

Step 4: Provide many models and topic choices.
Models help students see how other writers have shaped their ideas in essays and stories. They also serve as springboards for minilessons and class discussions about specific writing strategies.
Students need to write about topics that interest them. When students have strong feelings about their topics, they stay with their writing longer and do their best work.

Step 5: Let students work at their own pace.
On any given day, some students may be researching a topic; others may be drafting or revising; and still, others may have finished one piece of work and started on another. As workshop manager, your job is to make sure that everyone is gainfully working on a project.

Step 6: Invite peer responses.
Your students need the feedback of their peers to develop strong writing and feel part of the writing community. Help them carry out peer response groups.

Step 7: Offer your support.
Hold brief (2- to 3-minute) conferences with students as needed during independent writing time. During these conferences, don’t act as a fixer but rather as someone who listens and suggests and offers the next steps.
Connection to NVAC
W.3.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
Within the Writing Workshop, students gain power as their writing process is strengthened. This happens through experiences that include daily writing minilessons, independent writing, the use of a writer’s notebook, writing conferences, and share time.

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Writing Workshop in a First Grade Classroom- How We Plan Our Stories

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Analytic Scoring
Analytic scoring involves analyzing pieces and noting and reporting specific strengths and weaknesses. It requires a set of specific scoring criteria. Instead of overwhelming students with corrections, it is best to decide on a limited number of key features, such as those that have been emphasized for a particular writing activity. A popular assessment approach, The Six Traits Plus analytical model, focuses on these elements: Ideas, the heart of the message; Organization, the internal structure of the piece; Voice, the personal tone and flavor of the author's message; Word Choice, the vocabulary a writer chooses to convey meaning; Sentence Fluency, the rhythm and flow of the language; Convention, the mechanical correctness; and Presentation, how the writing actually looks on the page.

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Portfolio
Portfolios can be used to assess the literacy growth of elementary and middle school students. So that they can more readily assess their progress over time, students should have a place to store and keep track of their completed works, works in progress, and future writing plans. Portfolios facilitate in-depth assessment. Collecting representative pieces from several types of writing assignments gives the teacher a broad view of a student's development. Including pieces written at different times of the year allows the teacher to trace the student's growth. Rough drafts, as well as final copies, illustrate the student's writing progress how well the student handles the various process.

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Okay.

You know what you want.

You want to be a freelance writer.

You've done your research and you know this is the creative outlet you need and help you quit your 9-5 job for good! But, now, you have no clue what to do to get started.

Do you pitch first?

Do you start a blog?

With anything new, there will be different ways to get to the same end goal. For me, I had absolutely no experience writing for businesses or being online. Sure, I went to Facebook or Pinterest, but I did that for personal reasons, not to market something.

I didn't know what to do or how to do it once I realized I wanted to freelance write.

I made mistakes in the beginning too and had to learn the hard way what tools I needed to start freelance writing.

But, I'm here telling you what you do need first. You need a writing portfolio.

This is a sample of your writing in the writing niche you want to get paid for.

Oh, dear. Did I open up a can of worms when I talked about a writing niche????

Technically you need to have a writing niche to write samples for your writing portfolio, but it's not required.

A prospect typically won't hire you unless they have read your writing in the niche they require. You can click the image below to view it better.

A recent inquiry let me know that they read my writing samples on my writing portfolio page on my site. My samples told them that they liked my style and wanted to hire me this year.

Having a solid writing portfolio filled with your best writing can really make or break you as a writer trying to make this a business.

So, let's dive into all of this and see what the best way is to build your portfolio.

What is a Writing Portfolio?

A writing portfolio holds your best writing as a freelance writer. Your writing portfolio demonstrates your writing skill in your niche topic and shows off the places you have written for.

You can house your portfolio on your blog - the best place - or on a portfolio site like Contently or LinkedIn.

Learn in this video about different portfolio sites for your writing portfolio

Does your writing portfolio have to house EVERY piece of writing you've ever done?

No.

It should only have relevant, up-to-date content that showcases your best writing ability in the writing niche or niches you want to write for. On my portfolio page I share writing samples for different topics I enjoy writing about - digital marketing, blogging, social media, WordPress and personal development.

A Writing Portfolio Example

There are many ways you can display your freelance writer portfolio as I mentioned.

By far the best way to display your portfolio is a page on your writer website.

You can just add links to your writing portfolio page or stylize it using a page builder or using WordPress's editor.

To me, this is the most professional way to display your writing portfolio to potential clients.

The Content to Use in Your Freelance Writing Portfolio

So, do you only put blog posts in your writing portfolio?

No. You put the type of content you want to get paid for. This might mean sample emails, mock-ups of white papers, site content for an About page or a blog post.

I typically write blog content, so my writing portfolio is made up of blog content. I also think this is the easiest type of content to create and to market for your business. You can land regular work as a freelance blog writer.

But, should you just draft up samples in Google doc or is there a better way to build your portfolio? Yes!!

Creating a Writing Portfolio From Scratch

The best way to create a writing sample for your writing portfolio is to guest post.

This means your post is published on someone else's blog. It can be paid contributions, but more often than not, it's a free opportunity for you to market your business in front of a brand new targeted audience.

Guest posting also gives you the 'street cred' as a professional freelance writer.

My first three writing samples were not really in my niche, nor were they at all related to each other.

The first was for A Nation of Moms. I wrote about gut health for toddlers. I thought natural health would be a good niche to get into. My second was for Social Media Today.

This post is in my writing portfolio currently because it has helped me break into the digital marketing niche - the niche I currently write in.

Finally, the third sample was for Psych Central on how to improve your mood. I was ecstatic for this sample as it was on a very prestigious platform, even though I wasn't sure I wanted to write about mental health.

As you can see, not defining a niche didn't stop me from writing about things I knew - natural health, mental health and social media (the last one I was learning at the time and wanted to write about it).

So, how do you guest post to fill up your writing portfolio from scratch?

1. Run a Google Search

The easiest is to run a Google search on the niche you want to write for + "write for us." Here is an example of dog blogs!

You can search for literally anything + write for us to get guest blog opportunities.

2. Read The Guest Blog's Guidelines

Every place you guest blog for your writing portfolio will have a different set of guidelines to submit your post. Some may want a Google doc while others want you to send an attachment via email.

There may be strict rules on what types of links to include, who you can mention in your post and how to write your post and the length of the post. Here are The Abundant's Artist's guidelines.

3. Create Your Guest Blog Pitch

Now comes the fun part - crafting your writing pitch based on the guidelines you just read!

Again, different blogs want different things. Some want 3-5 topic suggestions while others want an outline of one post idea. Figure out what they want and come up with a great topic or list of topics.

Here is my pitch for A Nation of Moms:

I suggest you research how to craft a pitch for guest blogging. It's important that your pitch comes off personal and sounds like you know the blogger's content. Simply using a template for your guest pitch, won't work in landing any guest posts.

Instead, read the blog you want to guest post and learn about:

This information can help you stand out in your pitch. The blog owner will know you did your research.

4. Write the Guest Post

When you get accepted, it's time to write the guest post. One thing to note - don't pitch the SAME topic and outline to multiple guest blogs.

If you pitch the steps to eat paleo to five health blogs and two of them accept your pitch, you can't write that post. And you can't swap another idea either.

Instead, think of similar blog topics to pitch. So, for the health example, if you want to guest post on a health site, come up with several ideas that can be similar if you have a hard time coming up with blog topics:

5 Steps to Get Your Family Eating Paleo

Why Paleo Eating Isn't Just a Fad

25 Easy Paleo Snacks to Take on The Run

5 Easy Ways You Can Start Eating Paleo

5. Craft Your Author Bio

One of the best reasons you want to build your writer portfolio using guest posts is you get an author bio.

Your author bio is the place to market your freelance writing business!

A good bio has these components: what you are offering, what type of content you provide, how to reach you and some kind of way to tell your personality.

My author bio has evolved over the years as I've grown as a freelance writer. Here is my most current author bio:

6. Submit Your Post And Wait

After you submit your post (via the way the blogger indicated in the guest post guidelines) it's time to wait. You will probably get a response from the blog owner saying that they received it and give you a timeline of when your post will be published.

Other blogs may want you to edit and revise your content before they publish your post.

Once all of that is handled, you wait until your post is published. During this time you can pitch for more guest spots, work on your writer website and start pitching to job boards.

As a new freelance writer, you gotta hustle every day. Figure out the tasks you need to do to get your business up and running!

7. Create Your Writing Portfolio

You hear back! They published your guest post and you have a link now!

That's great! Now you can create your writing portfolio.

Create a page in your WordPress site and name it Writing Portfolio or writing samples. From there you can drop your link or stylize it with a page builder or with WordPress' editor.

Here's an example of using WordPress's native builder Gutenberg, a page builder, to create a writing portfolio.

Now what?

8. Fill Up Your Writing Portfolio

You just have one writing portfolio item.

You need more!

My suggestion is to have at least 3 to start out with. I would choose writing topics that are somewhat similar, unless you state different writing niches.

While guest posting is the best way to create a writing portfolio, another way is to create a Medium profile and submit your writing to publications on Medium.

Medium has thousands of publications that have submission sections. For these places, you don't need to pitch, just sign up or send your draft link of your Medium post.

For example, here's my piece on Storius, a Medium publication.

9. Create Multiple Writing Portfolios

A trick I use to look like a highly credible writer is to be everywhere online! You can do that easily by having multiple writing portfolios online. I have several from Contently to Clearvoice to LinkedIn to Medium and more!

Make sure to check out my video at the beginning of this post to check out all the places you can have a portfolio and go ahead and make some writing portfolios!

Writing Portfolio Q/A

1. What is a Writing Portfolio Format?

Typically, your portfolio is a page online that shows multiple links or images for your writing samples. There is no hard and fast rule for how your writing portfolio should look like, just that you have one or more than one to show your writing expertise.

2. What is a Good Writing Portfolio Mix?

It's up to you what type of writing samples you want in your writing portfolio. For me, I only have blog posts on my portfolio page. But for you, you might have mock up samples of a press release, white papers or emails.

List out your services on your writing portfolio and then share links or examples of those services.

3. Is a Writing Portfolio a Resume?

No it is not. Your writing portfolio demonstrates your writing skill while a resume summarizes your educational experience, accomplishments and skills.

You can, however, use your portfolio in place of a resume if a client asks for a writing resume and you don't have one to share.

4. What Should Not Be Included in a Writing Portfolio?

I would not put any writing samples that aren't in my niche, that are too short (since I write long-form content), or not the best type of writing I have online will not be shown on my portfolio.

It's Time to Create a Writing Portfolio

There you go!

A guide to building a writing portfolio from scratch. Don't feel that since you are a beginner you can't have a professional writing portfolio under your belt. It will take a bit of time, but you can definitely have one!

It's your turn - have you started your freelance writing portfolio? Let me know in the comments!

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How to Create Your Writing Portfolio from Scratch - Elna Cain

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Okay. You know what you want. You want to be a freelance writer. You've done your research and you know this is the creative outlet you need and help you quit your 9-5 job for good! But, now, you have no clue what to do to get started. Do you pitch first?

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Reading Rockets. (n.d.). Writing. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading-basics/writing

Thomas G. Gunning. (2019). Creating literacy instructions for all students. Pearson Education, Inc.