• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Ninja Notes

Let us help you teach like a ninja!

  • Engaging Lessons
  • Teaching Strategies
  • Classroom Tips
  • Free Resources
  • Shop
  • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy

Guided Reading Instruction

15 Ways to Engage Readers During Your Read-Aloud

by BrainNinjasWP

If your administration thinks reading aloud to your students is a waste of time, you need to read this post full of ways to engage readers and teach your language arts outcomes. It goes far beyond listening skills. Come get a whole bunch of ideas on how to get the most out of your read aloud.

It seems that there is less and less time for reading aloud to your students, but if you use that read-aloud to engage your readers, you can teach so many different skills. Kids (and adults) of all ages love to be read to. If that weren’t the case, there wouldn’t be a thriving industry of audiobooks.

Administrators want teachers to focus their time on literacy and numeracy. Things like read-alouds seem like “entertainment,” but there is so much value in reading aloud to children. Come learn how we turn every read-aloud into a lesson (without our students even knowing it).

[Read more…] about 15 Ways to Engage Readers During Your Read-Aloud

Filed Under: Teaching Strategies Tagged With: books, First Year Teachers, first-year teachers, fluency, Guided Reading, Guided Reading Instruction, Listening Skills, new service teacher, new teacher, new teachers, read aloud, Reading, Reading Activities, reading comprehension, reading strategies

How to Set Up Your Reading Comprehension Schedule

by BrainNinjasWP

If you use our weekly reading comprehension sets (or maybe you want to learn more), come see how we schedule the first month and get some ideas for how you can use these reading and grammar activities in your classroom whether your instruction happens in the classroom or online.

If you are struggling with reading instruction in your classroom, you’re not alone. Upper elementary teachers are often not trained in how to teach students to read, despite the fact all the students in their classroom are unlikely to be reading at grade level. Setting up a reading comprehension schedule is one way to get on track.

We designed our Weekly Reading Comprehension Skills specifically for our students. We needed reading material for science and social studies that were at the right reading level and needed to teach grammar and reading skills. You might want to read this post about how we came up with them: Add Great Content to Your Literacy Lessons.

[Read more…] about How to Set Up Your Reading Comprehension Schedule

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: distance teaching, Google Apps, Guided Reading, Guided Reading Instruction, Reading, reading comprehension, reading strategies, reluctant readers, Teachers Pay Teachers, Teaching Reading

Add Great Content to Your Literacy Lessons

by BrainNinjasWP

There are so many things to teach and just not enough time for it all. We started using content from science and social studies to teach grammar and reading comprehension. Game changer! Come find out what we did and how we did it in our upper elementary classroom literacy lessons (even during distance teaching).

It took fifteen years of teaching and professional development before we felt confident teaching reading to students in upper elementary. Reading is one of the most important skills any teacher is responsible for, but it is often taught by stabbing at strategies until something works-only to find it doesn’t work for the next student. Literacy lessons were hard to design and we didn’t really know where to start.

The most important thing we’ve learned is that reading comprehension skills are also skills related to grammar, word parts, word families and patterns, and writing. The same skills are used in a variety of ways.

If a student missed one of these skills, they trip over it in everything other subject. By the time students get to the end of Grade Three, if they aren’t reading at grade level, they are statistically unlikely to catch up. So, what is a teacher to do?

[Read more…] about Add Great Content to Your Literacy Lessons

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: grammar, Guided Reading Instruction, Reading, reading comprehension, reading strategies, Teachers Pay Teachers, Teaching Reading, Weekly Reading Skills

How to Run Your Guided Reading Instruction

by BrainNinjasWP

Are you learning to run reading groups in your classroom as part of your reading instruction? Great! Here's what we do during our reading instruction groups in upper elementary.

You’re giving Guided Reading instruction a try. Great! Do you know what you should be doing with your Guided Reading groups and reading instruction? You’re going to teach students to read. But what does that mean?

We teach in upper elementary (usually Grade four or five) which means we have readers in our classroom reading from Grade one through to Grade six. We have English Language Readers, students with learning difficulties, avid readers and all the ones in between. This means we often need to use more than one strategy to teach reading.

[Read more…] about How to Run Your Guided Reading Instruction

Filed Under: Teaching Strategies Tagged With: Guided Reading, Guided Reading Instruction, professional development, Professional Learning, Reading, reading strategies, Teaching Reading

How to Prepare For Your Reading Groups

by BrainNinjasWP

Teaching reading is as much organization and planning as it is about teaching. Get yourself organized with these tips that will get you ready for the whole year from our classroom experts. Come read the whole post.

You’ve been asked to do teach reading as part of your Language Arts program and you’re a little worried. It seems overwhelming. Teaching reading can be challenging.

We’ve been there. It feels like you have to learn so much on the spot and you’re concerned that you won’t do a good job. Here’s the truth. You’ll learn as you go and you will get better at it. Everyone has to start somewhere.

A big part of doing a good job maximizing your teaching time with students comes from being prepared and organized. So, let’s dig in and get you organized so you can do a great job of teaching reading.

[Read more…] about How to Prepare For Your Reading Groups

Filed Under: Teaching Strategies Tagged With: Classroom Organization, Classroom Set Up, guided, Guided Reading Instruction, Reading, teaching

How to Teach Small Groups and Keep the Rest of the Class Busy

by BrainNinjasWP

Are you trying to teach small groups at a table when there are non-stop interruptions? Get some practical tips on how to get the other kids working while you teach. It can be done and we want to help. Come read more!

Hands down, this is the biggest question we get asked on a regular basis when working with teachers in the classroom. In fact, this is a question we ask ourselves daily. What will the other students be doing while I meet with my Guided Reading groups?

First of all, before you can make your time with your Guided Reading groups count, you need to establish the routines in your classroom. If you don’t have your classroom management down pat, your small group instruction time will be constantly interrupted and your students won’t progress. Nothing good will come from everyone being frustrated.

[Read more…] about How to Teach Small Groups and Keep the Rest of the Class Busy

Filed Under: Teaching Strategies Tagged With: Classroom Management, Guided Reading, Guided Reading Instruction, read aloud, Reading, reading strategies, Teaching Reading

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Most Recent

  • Teaching students to measure capacity can be a fun and engaging hands-on activity for your upper elementary math class. Come learn about some of the different ways we help our students learn to measure capacity in metric units.
    Five Amazing Capacity Quests to Enliven Your Classroom
    Teaching students how to calculate capacity...
  • There are lots of fun ways to explore perimeter measurement in your upper elementary classroom and we've written up a whole post full of our favourite ideas. Come read it today!
    Love Math and Explore Perimeter With Your Young Mathematicians
    When people ask, "When will I...
  • Instead of teaching poetry in a unit, have you ever considered sprinkling poetry throughout the school year? It's a great way to show students that poetry is all around us. Come learn about some of the ways we include poetry in our language arts lessons throughout the year.
    How to Teach Poetry All Year Long
    Many teachers add a poetry unit...

Before Footer

Looking for something?

Footer

Copyright © 2025 · Wellness Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT