California Subject Matter Project (CSMP)
California Reading & Literature Project
Christine Ybarra, a teacher leader with the California Reading and Literature Project, offers valuable classroom management tips for secondary classrooms. She stresses the importance of clear expectations, engaging introductions, and consistency. Ybarra also advises on handling unforeseen challenges positively. Her insights empower teachers to improve classroom management for more effective teaching.
Join Carisa Barnes, a seasoned Literacy Instructional Coach, to unlock the secret to conquering challenging texts with her strategy, “Chunking a Text.” Perfect for teachers in grades six through twelve, this technique can elevate reading comprehension in various subjects. Learn how to set reading purposes, craft engaging questions, and make sentences more manageable.
Discover the “Four Corners” activity with teacher leader Jennifer Schafran. This versatile classroom technique encourages active engagement and builds trust and community. It can be a quick five-minute exercise or an extended lesson based on debatable statements. Watch your students discuss, listen, and even change their minds while making learning interactive and enjoyable.
Learn the engaging “Counting in a Circle” or “Sparkle” activity from teacher leader Kara Holtzman. This versatile routine is perfect for practicing counting and can be adapted for all elementary grade levels. Discover how to use it for multiplication, skip counting, spelling, vocabulary, and more. Keep the pace fast and fun to boost fluency while building classroom camaraderie.
Julie Kanel, a reading specialist, shares three interactive “Listening Word Games” for young learners, promoting phonemic awareness. These games, suitable for grades TK to 2, help improve students’ reading and spelling skills. The activities include “I Spy” for beginning and ending sounds and rhyming, “Guess My Object” where students deduce the object based on clues, and “Rhyming Categories” to reinforce rhyming and sound discrimination. These games make phonics practice engaging and enjoyable.
Kate Bowen, an experienced Elementary Consultant, shares an effective strategy called “Sentence Stretchers” to enhance students’ writing skills. Using four sentence strips labeled A, B, C, and D, students construct detailed sentences by adding descriptors and rearranging the strips for variety. This approach improves writing quality, engages students in creative sentence construction, and suits various grade levels.
Dr. Liliann Patterson, third grade teacher at Westmorland Union Elementary, tells us how to use the “Interactive Read-Aloud” activity to help students learn, use, and practice new language through meaningful conversations.
Janine Campos, language arts specialist in the National School District, tells us how to use the “Summarizing with the ABCs” activity to help students identify and differentiate between the minor and major details of a text.
Janice Anderson, a primary grade resource teacher at Encanto Elementary School, tells us how to apply the “ABCs for Positive Classroom Management” strategies to create a safe learning environment that allows for students and teachers to interact and engage in a positive way.
Evy Baca, kindergarten teacher in the National School District, tells us how to incorporate the “Before, During, and After” activity when doing a read aloud to build students’ vocabulary and support their reading comprehension.
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