Ways to Motivate Students to Read We all studied motivation for at least a nanosecond in our teacher training programs. I remember them focusing on extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. When finding ways to motivate students to read, we tend to focus on extrinsic. Positive reinforcement, like sticker charts, raffles, and prizes. Negative reinforcement, like losing…
Category: Reading
Easy Lesson Planning with ChatGPT for Teachers
ChatGPT for Teachers Have you played around with ChatGPT yet? I finally got around to it amidst all the things, and I am very excited about some of the possibilities of ChatGPT for teachers using the four moves every literacy lesson plan needs for soaring reading growth. If you haven’t had a chance to check…
Joyful Reflections with a Reading and Writing Portfolio
Reading and Writing Portfolio As I get sucked into the day-to-day of teaching, I can lose sight of the big picture–and so can my students. That’s why taking time to breathe, reflect, and dream are so important for me to do with my students. Finding activities that help us pause makes sure we focus on…
What Reading Means: Do You Really Know?
What Reading Means Secondary language arts teacher training programs almost exclusively focus on reading comprehension, with maybe a little fluency and vocabulary thrown into the mix. While this may seem to fit the majority of secondary readers, it doesn’t include all of them. It privileges those who have had neurotypical, middle-class, and/or native-English experiences. Those…
Helping Students Become 3-D Readers
My students set reading goals every six weeks, and over the course of the year, I want them to become readers who read along the x-, y-, and z-axes. If those math terms send chills up your spine, think of it as horizontal, vertical, and diagonal reading. All three dimensions are important to becoming a well…
