By Brenda Krupp & Lynne Dorfman

It’s All About the Books: How to Create Bookrooms and Classroom Libraries That Inspire Readers (2018, 21), authors Landrigan and Mulligan state, “The classroom library is the home of the class’ reading community . . . . Its primary role is building a literacy community in each classroom and ensuring that each student is a member” (21).

Classroom Libraries are Essential

A classroom library is often the hub of the classroom. According to the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), “All students must be able to access, use, and evaluate information in order to meet the needs and challenges of the twenty-first century….Reading in all its dimensions – informational, purposeful, and recreational – promotes students’ overall academic success and well-being.(Position Statements: Statement on Classroom Libraries, 2017).”   Books are often arranged in easy-to-navigate categories such as favorite authors, fiction and nonfiction, genres, themes, and topics that relate to across-the-content area reading. Shelves are arranged to showcase books students want to read and ones the teacher has researched and knows will meet the needs of the readers in the classroom. A well-stocked classroom library will give all students access to relevant, engaging texts (fiction and nonfiction) and magazines that represent their diverse identities and reading tastes.

The Top Ten Benefits of Classroom Libraries

1. Students’ motivation and engagement increases by encouraging voluntary and recreational reading in school and outside the school setting.
2. A wide range of reading materials that reflect reading abilities and interests of the class is at your students’ fingertips.
3. Choice in self-selecting reading materials for self-engagement is a key factor.
4. Enhanced opportunities for assigned and recreational reading encourage students to bookshop often.
5. Immediate access to texts will keep reading a top priority in the classroom community.
6. Classroom libraries can personalize book choice that reflects the students’ favorite authors, interests, and genres within the classroom.
7. Teachers can curate the library to introduce new authors and genres with a comprehensive assortment of books that support individual reading, book club reading, inquiry projects, and classroom discussions about current topics in our students’ world outside of school.
8. By having a voice in what materials will be in the library as well as how the library is organized and arranged, students have myriad opportunities to create a space for books within their classroom they want to use and will use.
9. As books are weeded and replaced, these books become available for students to select and keep. Book ownership often increases reader engagement and skills. Having books in the home is an important part of raising and sustaining a student’s reading identity.
10.  Reading widely and often builds students’ vocabulary and background knowledge, giving them a chance to use their reading strategies to make meaning of texts across the curriculum.

A Classroom Library Collection Reflects the Community Members

Texts can provide a sense of belonging for all students. When books reflect the cultures and experiences of the readers in your classroom, they provide a welcome experience and allow readers to connect to what they are reading on a more personal level. When the books in our libraries are inclusive and socially conscious, students develop awareness, empathy, and compassion for others by learning about cultures and customs they may not experience in their own community. Books can also create opportunities to celebrate cultures and experiences that are like and different from their own. If classroom libraries contain books that reflect the world we live in, students have the opportunity to see themselves as a part of this world, learning how to navigate and participate in a global community.  Listen to Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop talk about windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors here: Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors

Curating a classroom library that is timely and relevant takes time and effort on your part. Websites such as We Need Diverse Books, Colorin Colorado, and Jane Addams Peace Association are three places to start. Be sure to use NCTE’s journals (Language Arts and Voices from the Middle) and ILA’s The Reading Teacher, which regularly highlight new texts. An important resource will also be your school and local librarian, but always try to be the first reader of books you add to your classroom collection.

How to Highlight the Books in Your Library

Highlighting the books within your library will build an excitement for more books in your library. As the teacher you can promote books you think your students will enjoy based on what you know about the readers in your classroom and your knowledge of new titles. Getting students to promote a favorite book can ignite an excitement for a title, book series, genre, or topic that will ensure the book is read by their peers.

• Book Blurbs written by students and placed inside the front covers of books are often a welcome surprise. Students share their opinions as well as a short blurb on a 3×5 card and place the recommendation/blurb inside the front cover. Students sign their work. This allows readers to share ideas and discuss the text later. Students can also place sticky notes directly on the cover with a short recommendation (i.e. If you like eerie books that will keep you awake at night, you have to read this book!)

• Consider creating a “if you liked this book… try this next…” shelf. This allows students who enjoyed a genre or series the opportunity to try something similar yet different. It can help expand the readers’ reading repertoire and help build new reading interests. Your school librarian can help you gather books and can give you newer titles.

• Book Talks given by students introduce books and create an excitement for reading.  Research by Williams and MacDonald (2017) shows that peer recommendation is a powerful way to get kids to read. Welcome to Reading Workshop: Structures and Routines that Support All Readers offers examples and formats you can use to help students book talk in your classroom.

• Book Reviews can be modeled by the teacher and simply displayed on a bulletin board or on the class website. Students can write a review for extra credit or in place of certain assignments that are designated by you as possibilities where students can substitute a book review. Some students may choose to post a review on Amazon, GoodReads, or other public venues.

• Creating special displays once a month to spotlight an author, new books, a specific genre, or a specific topic. Here’s a chance to highlight books to grab your students’ attention. Nonfiction displays are valuable – highlight books about climate change, space travel, and immigration.

Supporting Summer Reading with Your Library             

Reading is probably the most important thing kids can do in the summer. There are many summer reading programs offered by local public libraries. There are summer reading camps and online summer reading programs, too. So, how can you help your students continue to read over their vacation in ways that other programs may not be able to do?

First of all, no one knows your students better than you do. Build summer readers by helping them choose a book from your classroom library that they cannot possibly put down. To accomplish this task, make sure your library collection has multiple copies so best friends can both choose to sign out the same book. Your library should be home to many series books. What happens when you read the first book of a series and love it?  Will you look for the sequel?  Reading books in a series helps students be successful. They get to know the characters, how they react, how the plot goes, and all that knowledge helps them read the next book, and the one after that. Before they know it, they’ve polished off two or three books. Wow!  Encourage students to form summer book clubs and partnerships – The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Harry Potter. Sometimes, a benefit to a series may be that there’s a movie or two about the book. A summer movie night after the book is read – possibly to be enjoyed by family and/or friends!

Help your students set a goal for summer reading before the end of the school year. Perhaps some students want to explore a new genre such as science fiction or poetry. Some students may set a goal pertaining to how many books they read or how many minutes per day will be devoted to reading. You can provide easy access by creating a sign-out system and letting your students choose one, two, or more books to take home over the summer.

Final Thoughts

A classroom library can be the hub of your community. It has the potential to buzz with excitement when books are carefully chosen and strategically displayed. So often, it seems like the teacher is the curator/owner of the space. Yet when we hand over the responsibility to our students, the space becomes something they own and want to use. Inviting students to suggest book titles based on their interests and expertise will help diversify your collection. Letting students create spaces around the classroom to display books and organize and label the shelves in a meaningful way for them will help your library appeal to the entire community. A library is more than just a corner of books; it can be a place to sit and quietly read for research purposes or pleasure. Ask your students to help design a space they would find comfortable and inviting.

Stop and Reflect:

• Is your library being used? Do students utilize the classroom library to get reading material for pleasure? For research?
• What steps can you take to make your classroom library a place students want to use?

By Dr. Kris Felicello

There are certain days when February 2020 seems like it was yesterday, but others where it seems to be a lifetime ago. Looking back is a surreal experience. Effective August 1st, I had been appointed to begin as Superintendent of Schools in North Rockland, a diverse district 35 miles north of Manhattan.  I was excited to be attending my first New York State Superintendent’s conference in Albany, NY.  I was experiencing feelings of excitement and nerves as my boss Ileana, the Superintendent I was replacing, introduced me to folks, shared insights, encouragement, and often laughed at what was to be her last conference as the North Rockland Superintendent.  Almost as an afterthought, she suggested we attend a pop-up session scheduled on the final day of the conference that discussed what at the time seemed like just another worst-case scenario about a potential threat, the Corona-19 virus.  Little did I know that in just two short weeks, our schools would be closed for the remainder of the year, and education, politics, health care, entertainment, and culture would never again look the same. 

When we first closed, I felt similar to the musicians who refused to stop entertaining passengers as the Titanic sank. The world seemed to be ending, but our team of administrators and clerical staff were busy assembling and copying work packets for students to complete while this Corona issue was worked out.  I am sure we all lost a few years off of our lives those days by breathing in the fumes from the Lysol we were incessantly spraying on the packets and throughout the office, or maybe it was just me spraying that stuff.  How did I get here? An Assistant Superintendent for Instruction who had, throughout his career, advocated for meaningful, thought-provoking assignments, basically the exact opposite of what we were spending our time doing. I was completely shocked when the lines to receive these packets rivaled those for Cabbage Patch dolls circa 1985. What I didn’t realize at the time was that a shift was happening. In a time of uncertainty, schools were becoming more: more important, more volatile, more controversial, more to blame, more to praise, just more, fair or not.

Long gone are the days of children going off to school, sitting in rows, and listening as intently as possible to the directions of school personnel for fear of parental repercussions. The Pandemic served as an accelerant to what had already been shifting.  Schools were and are continuing to become the hub of their communities. 

Parents are looking for answers in a desperate time in which one in three female teenagers have had suicidal thoughts and three in five young people have persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness (as reported by the CDC in February of 2023.) 

Schools have become the battleground for a political agenda in which extremists on the left and the right pontificate about their political views via social media platforms with vigor, passion, and bravado due to their anonymity and lack of consequences. Districts and communities are charged with staying united as those with a political agenda aim to divide.

Most importantly, though, schools have become institutions of healing as parents, students, and staff recover from the not-always-apparent trauma most of us are trying to manage. 

Schools have changed, and the debates are no longer about which teams are getting the best uniform, who my teacher is, and whether my child is learning and growing as a student and a person.  Now district leaders must be ready to debate the merits of the books in our libraries or should we have armed guards.  Questions arise about why schools have the audacity to present students with all sides of an issue, particularly ones in which parents are sure they are on the right side of history.

It is scary to think we are living in a world that is all too similar to the ones described in books I read as a middle schooler, such as Fahrenheit 451. The challenge is to provide students with the skills necessary to formulate their own opinions, participate in civil discourse, listen to others, and be open to the possibility that an opinion different from theirs may have merit. Many citizens long for a time when they didn’t know or care who their neighbors voted for. Today, we seem to be heading toward a place in which politics serves as another avenue to foster hate.

These are scary times, but I have hope. The Pandemic has left educators with tools they may not have acquired in such a short time.  We are now more efficient and creative than ever before. We have become pros on virtual platforms and have embraced our role as teachers, cheerleaders, mentors, and supporters. We have been forced to examine what is truly a priority in our courses, classes, and grade levels. We now know it is essential that we meet kids where they are at, and more and more of us understand now what Rick Wormelli has been teaching us for years, that what is Fair isn’t Always Equal. 

We have a daunting task ahead of us. We must protect what is great about our schools and our Country’s education system without the fear of change.  We must be willing to adjust and overhaul. Our schools should no longer be exemplary at developing factory workers. Instead, we need to focus on developing thinkers, problem solvers, and leaders who embrace service.  We must protect democracy, civility, and knowledge. It can be overwhelming at times, but as I spoke about while delivering a TEDX talk, “If not us who?”

Recently I have discovered my motivation, my fuel when feeling down, my why as (Simon Sinek says), is working directly with students.  Sure, it sounds cliche, but why else get into education but to work with young people? The inconvenient truth is the further you move away from the classroom, the easier it becomes to forget that “why,” to become out of touch and disconnected.

 It seems counterintuitive that those with the biggest influence on how young people spend their formative years often have little authentic interactions with those very young people they are responsible for guiding into adulthood. For me, the solution is working directly with kids.  It can be by covering classes, reading to students, or leading student groups. Without fail, when I work with kids, my day becomes brighter, and why I chose this field becomes clear. I would encourage all educators to work with students in a more authentic and direct manner. My work with students has been the best professional development since moving to a central office position and now the Superintendent’s seat. 

I had only been on the job for a few weeks when two young black women who attended our high school asked to meet with me.  These passionate and articulate student leaders were angry, frustrated, and scared.  We were in the middle of the shutdown, and despite the computer barrier between us, I could feel their energy and heightened desire to do something about their feelings of frustration around the injustices that the George Floyd murder shined a light on.  Out of that initial meeting, the student group “Voice” was born. Nilah and London, as President and Vice President of Voice, developed an application via Google Meet that was distributed to the student body.   

The introduction to the application is below:

Voice will be comprised of a diverse group of students in grades 9-12. The purpose of the group will be to provide a venue for students to be heard and to offer suggestions for making our school a better place for ALL students! Dr. Felicello, Nilah, and London Blenman will facilitate monthly meetings that will allow the group to discuss issues such as racial inequity in North Rockland, develop skills on how to make effective change and work together to implement initiatives that will make our school a more inclusive place.

Due December 23rd, 2020

Space is limited, so please submit your application ASAP

Black, Latinx and POC are highly encouraged to join!

After reviewing applications, approximately 20 students were accepted, and the work began!  We meet monthly for approximately two hours to learn from each other, grow together, and embrace the beauty and strength of diversity. Ultimately, our goal is to make our school a more accepting, welcoming place for all students, regardless of their background or how they identify.  

Voice Mission: We are a group of diverse North Rockland High Schools students who wish to amplify the thoughts and ideas of the student body.  Our group hopes to raise awareness by educating those in our school community and the community at large to embrace the diversity of thought, increase empathy and unify the citizens of North Rockland.

Life as a Superintendent is one in which you rarely have time to catch your breath, so as you can imagine, I rarely have the time to dedicate to VOICE and other student groups. However, I find I care more about the activities I plan with my students than the adult lead sessions I run. I refuse to cancel these meetings or just go through the motions no matter how much I have on my plate, and for good reason.  My wife says I seem to be my happiest after working with “my kids” and “light up” when I talk about them. That is certainly true, but what she doesn’t see is how much I learn from them, how much I respect them, and how much they can accomplish when they are empowered.  

I truly believe we are moving the needle,  raising awareness, and projecting their truth.  Young people, like adults, can do great things, have creative ideas, and look at the world more refreshingly than we do as adults. 

I am proud of the work we have done, such as our faculty literature awareness initiative (linked here) and District policy and procedure adjustments that were driven by these students as well as the speakers we have brought to our staff and students.  I am also excited about the projects we are working on, such as an HBCU-specific college fair, partnering with The Center for Safety and Change, and a High School wellness center for students, to name a few. 

While these initiatives are wonderful and something we are all proud of, the relationships I have built with these students and their families, the lessons they have taught this middle-aged white male who grew up in a non-diverse region of upstate New York, and the thought-provoking discussions, sometimes controversial that our work has to lead to, have been life and career changing for me.  Thanks to these students, I am a more knowledgeable, empathetic, more in-touch educator who is determined to improve our schools and provide our students with all the experiences and tools they deserve so they can pursue their dreams. 

There have been bigger changes to how we do school over the past three years than any time in the past 100 years. We’d do things differently now, and it’s obvious that more adjustments are needed. I suspect the answers we are looking for are right there, an untapped resource that can drive school reform, and that resource is the students we are responsible for.  

I encourage all educators who want to improve, who want to make schools better for kids, who want to bring us together instead of driving us apart, to work with kids in a different capacity. Trust them, listen to them, get to know them, and work with them as partners.  You may feel like you do not have the time, I would argue that if we are serious about schools becoming the pillars of our communities, beacons of strength and fairness, then our schools should be dedicated to helping students become the best version of themselves, If we are serious about school reform, the time to start is now!

We suggest you check out Kris’s book with Gary Armida, The Teacher and the Admin

By Dr. Sam Bommarito

The reading wars have become more inflamed in the past few weeks. With recent podcasts and other posts, the social media branch of the Science of Reading has doubled down on its pronouncements that Balanced Literacy is at the root of today’s reading problems. The suggestion has been made that major publishers like Heineman are in it for the money, and they are selling products they know are inferior. That makes for a great public relations campaign. It makes for terrible science. Please consider the following:

• It is not settled science.

Researchers talking to the Washington Post say that it is not settled science LINK, P.L. Thomas says it is not settled science LINK. Most importantly, The Executive Summary of the Reading Research Quarterly says we are not there yet to establish a Science of Reading. LINK. Given all that,  common sense says the claim by Moats and her followers that it is settled and that they represent the one and only SOR is not justified.

• There are problems with the social media version of SOR

Moats’ approach makes almost exclusive use of synthetic phonics. Analytic phonics is ignored or viewed as an inferior approach. There is considerable evidence that programs based on Moat’s approach don’t work for all kids. The Hechinger Report found OG isn’t a magic bullet LINK. A full decade of using synthetic phonics in England has had equivocal results LINK. Reports from Australia indicate that some children don’t progress even after years of synthetic phonics LINK. The research backing up claims of SOR success often uses weak standards LINK. Common sense dictates that we have other things ready when SOR fails to do the job for selected groups of children.  

• Through podcasts and other social media posts, critics of Balanced Literacy have carried out vicious attacks claiming BL has failed. Their attacks totally misrepresent what BL is about. Their data “proving” BL doesn’t work doesn’t hold up under close scrutiny. Too often, the attacks are based on complete misrepresentations of the actual facts LINK. Also, despite research around the long-term negative impact of retention,  LINK, LINK, LINK, they laude the success of literacy programs like the one in Florida, which include retention as part of the program.

What is Balanced Literacy? Consider this excerpt from the 5^th edition of Michael Pressley’s upcoming book.

“.. The cover of this book states that the topic is balanced reading instruction, a term that has recently become associated with meaning emphasis or whole-language approaches to teaching reading. I urge readers not to make that assumption, as this book does not fully support meaning-emphasis (whole language) or skills-emphasis instruction (phonics); it rather pulls the research for the many components required of reading and presents the most effective instructional approaches based on reading research…” (bolding is mine)

For a complete view of BL and what is really done in BL,  readers are also invited to read Fisher & Fry’s book about Balanced Literacy LINK.  

The story currently being told on social media claims that districts have been buying programs that don’t work for decades. Common sense dictates that even the most gullible folks would never keep buying things that don’t work over that length of time. There is plenty of data showing that BL works for many students LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK.

• To some degree, both sides are right, and both sides are wrong.

We’ll begin with the thought that both BL and the constellation of practices encouraged by SOR help some but not all. My dissertation focused on the last round of the reading wars. One of my committee members had an important insight into those wars. He said, “Sam, the reading wars have never really been about phonics vs. no phonics. They have always been about my phonics (analytic) vs. your phonics (synthetic). During the ensuing years (2000-present), many districts adopted programs that favored analytic phonics (meaning emphasis) approaches and deemphasized synthetic phonics (code emphasis)—doing things that way WAS NOT a complete failure. Kids were getting phonics. Analytic phonics did work for many of them. But it did not meet the needs of all the children.

I am critical of both “sides.” We have tried (or we are trying) both ways of teaching phonics and found both helped some but not others. We are at a crossroads. If we go to either extreme (mainly meaning emphasis)  or the other (mainly code emphasis), some children will not be helped. Common sense dictates that we must find a way to provide both approaches to phonics and give each child the kind of phonics instruction that is most likely to help. That is a topic for a future blog.

• There is more to comprehension than providing background LINK. Teaching comprehension strategies requires the use of the time-consuming gradual release model. Yet some SOR advocates call for reducing the amount of time that we spend teaching comprehension strategies. Duke’s work around the Active Reading Model and the Sciences of Reading is compelling LINK, LINK. It makes more sense than the “provide background knowledge & all will be well” approach.

• The weaponization of research. Some folks use the SOR label in order to sell a particular program. See what Jorden Page says in this blog entry LINK. Also, consider Rachel Gabriel’s thoughts on this topic LINK.

.

Finding common ground and common practices.

I’ve often explained my centrist point of view LINK and my concept of a Reading Evolution LINK. They are rooted in P.D. Pearson’s concept of “The Radical Middle” LINK. I want to take special note of something Pearson said in that paper:

“In educational research, more generally, I find the debate about qualitative versus quantitative research about as compelling as the new phonics versus whole language debate. I cannot imagine why any field of inquiry would want to limit itself to a single set of tools and practices. Even though I find both debates interesting and professionally useful, I fear the ultimate outcome of both, if they continue unbridled by saner heads, will be victory for one side or another. That, in my view, would be a disastrous outcome, either for reading pedagogy or educational research…”

The common sense solution of cutting through the Gordian Knot around the issue of how to best teach reading is to use the best ideas from all sides.  

Doing that is the key to identifying common ground. Districts must create a curriculum first, find materials and programs to fit it and implement it. The key to making that implementation happen is informed, empowered teachers working within that curriculum. Districts must be allowed to create a curriculum that fits their particular children the best. They should not be forced to buy expensive programs that may or may not fit their needs, especially since research-based alternatives are available. LINK.

So as I first said four years ago- it’s time to walk the centrist path and create a Reading Evolution. Dare to dream!

Dr. Bommarito has a 51-year career in education, teaching every grade from K through graduate school. He has served as chair of both the St. Louis and the Missouri ILA affiliates. He’s made numerous presentations at ILA (formally IRA) conferences, including national conferences. In spring 2022, he was a featured speaker at the LitCon conference. the main speaker at Albany New York’s ILA conference. Most of his career was spent working in Title 1 buildings as a reading specialist and/or staff developer. He has a weekly blog about literacy https://doctorsam7.blog/

By Patty McGee

Grammar.  The word alone harkens deep emotions in many of us. We all have a grammar story to tell.  My grammar story has diagramming sentences as its main character. Raise your hand if you loved this exercise.  I know I sure did!  I was stellar at horizontal lines holding the subject and predicate, tagging below on diagonal lines the other parts of speech, the adjective below the subject, the adverb below the predicate, and on down the page with more and more sophisticated usage.  

The problem was I had no idea how to transfer that know-how into my actual writing in order to inject it with power, purpose, and craft.  My personal experience is indicative of the central core of failed grammar instruction: grammar learning is oftentimes siloed so far away from writing that the leap is just too much for students to make. I offer you five instructional moves to ensure grammar and writing instruction stay up close and personal. 

Move #1: Expand the Definition of Grammar

In many cases, grammar is perceived in a prescriptive approach, which includes a set of rules to follow that we learn through identifying parts of speech and sentence types. Instead,  let’s redefine grammar in a transformational manner as a set of tools that a writer uses to mold, construct, and shape their writing. I liken grammar to the artist’s paintbrush or the whittler’s blade. The more we know how to use grammar, the more we are able to sculpt our writing to amplify our voice.

Move #2:  Teach Grammar in Units of Study

When we give students time to explore a set of related grammar concepts over an extended period of time, we build grammar know-how while creating ample opportunities to use this in their writing.  Here are a few tips for creating a grammar unit:

1. Remember that a true study gives learners the chance to question, hypothesize, seek answers, experiment, memorize, seek feedback, and reflect. Create 5-10 minute pockets of time, three to five times per week to study grammar.  Mix up the time to include a variety of these experiences.
2. Go deep with a focus area. For example, spend an entire unit on a sentence study exploring, playing with, and using simple, compound, and complex sentences (I suggest always starting a series of grammar units with a foundational unit on sentences).  
3. In each unit, follow the research on the three phases of learning which includes surface learning, deep learning, and transfer (Hattie 2008).  In phase one, surface learning, study the grammatical concept in mentor texts.  Notice how writers use, let’s say, different sentence structures.  Then study those sentence structures across time.  Practice using those sentence structures with partners.  In the last part of the unit, set up time to transfer these new skills into writing.  Be sure to revisit these new skills in writing across many text types across the year.

Move #3:  Prioritize Usage

The ultimate goal of grammar instruction is for students to use grammar effectively in their writing.  Take, for example, this piece from a primary student.  I have labeled the way this student used grammar.

Without knowing this student, I am confident that she was probably not saying to herself, “Let me begin this piece using a sentence with correct subject/verb agreement in the simple past tense.”  She did, however, do just that!  With a focus on usage, students are more likely to incorporate what they are learning into their writing.

Move #4:  Teach Grammar Strategically

When students are taught how to strategically use grammar, they are more likely to eventually master those concepts.  When teaching strategically, create an anchor chart that includes a step-by-step on how to use the grammar concept in writing. Model in your own writing so learners can envision what each step looks like.  It may look like this chart:

Move #5:  Build in time to play

Playful grammar?  Yes, please!  One way to play with grammar is to use Grammar Word Cards.  These cards are a collection of different parts of speech, endings, and punctuation. Here’s how to use them:

1. After printing out the cards, laminate so they will last for a long time.  Then cut the words out. Put in a baggie or envelope.
2. Create partnerships or trios of students.  Ensure there are enough bags of words for each partnership or trio.  So if there are 20 students in your class, be sure to have about 10-word bags.
3. Challenge students to use the Grammar Word Cards in different ways.  You might say:
   1. Build a compound sentence
   2. Build a compound sentence with words in alphabetical order
   3. Build a simple sentence that is more than ten words long
   4. Build a few simple sentences.  Combine them into a compound sentence.  Try to make them into a complex sentence.

Tip!  In lieu of correcting students if their attempts are off-base, challenge students to find and correct the error.  For example, if there is a comma missing in a compound sentence say, “That is almost a compound sentence. There’s one more thing you need.” Encourage students to problem solve.

These five simple yet powerful instructional moves will have a huge impact on how students use grammar as their artistic tool to mold, construct, and shape their writing. 

Go teach grammar brilliantly!

Learn more about Patty McGee- Click here!