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How to Teach Students to Find the Main Idea

The main idea is the central theme of a story. Finding the main idea of writing can be a challenge, but it is an essential reading comprehension skill for our learners to develop. Learners who become skilled in this art will benefit from it far beyond the school gates’ perimeters. From the print of an insurance document to writing a book review, the capacity to filter through a text and identify its central idea is a crucial life skill and an essential literacy-based learning objective. What is the Main Idea Whether we are talking about a paragraph, a poem, a …

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An Overview of Explicit Instruction

Have you ever attempted to follow a new recipe, only to identify that a step is missing or unclear? Or maybe the directions had too much info for your brain to process.  The same thing can happen when your learners learn something new. Some learners can make inferences to figure out the next steps or to work through ambiguity. But for learners who learn and think differently, one unclear direction or having too many things to remember can be a deal-breaker. That’s why it’s so essential to make sure your instruction is as clear and complete as it can be. …

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A Guide to Teaching Phonics

Teachers and parents alike should work together to facilitate a child’s learning, especially during the child’s early development years. In this guide, I will share some vital information on how to effectively teach phonics. Phonics: What are they? To put it simply: phonics has to do with teaching students about the alphabet and how it works. After a child memorizes the alphabet, the next step is to learn how to read. Phonics is the method of teaching the awareness and understanding of how letters, when put together, form words. Reading and writing are milestones that have to be developed through …

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Issues to Consider While Designing for a Reading Intervention For Elementary Students

A key to maintaining an effective literacy program is making sure that reading interventions reach students who need them. Before the COVID-19 Pandemic, supplementary tutorials targeted learners struggling with reading skills to support their education. However, after the pandemic struck, there was a massive switch to online learning platforms during the first quarter of 2020, which disrupted many in-person reading tutorials. Researchers predict that as a result of this shift, only about 70% of the reading progress attained in a regular year is achievable by the start of the 2020-2021 school session. To prevent this statistic’s consequence, we will have …

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Many low-income students use only their phone to get online. What are they missing?

Crystle Martin, University of California, Irvine For many of us, access to the Internet through a variety of means is a given. I can access the Internet through two laptops, a tablet, a smartphone and even both of my game systems, from the comfort of my living room. However, this access is unequally distributed. Although nine out of 10 low-income families have Internet access at home, most are underconnected: that is, they have “mobile-only” access – they are able to connect to the Internet only through a smart device, such as a tablet or a smartphone. A recent report, “Opportunity …

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The Business of Lesson Plans

Creating and writing lesson plans are activities common to basic teacher education courses. Before entering a classroom, young educators are taught how to meticulously plan their time for the benefit of their students. Through online collaboration though, many teachers now take a different approach to lesson planning than even a decade ago, and it has stirred up some controversy from both sides of the aisle. Buying or borrowing lesson plans The most obvious way that teachers avoid the traditional lesson planning concept is by finding ideas, or even entire plans, online. This shortcut can be as simple as finding an …

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