teaching reading and writing skills

Finding ways to foster a love of reading and writing can feel overwhelming when you've got struggling readers and writers. Help your students develop their ELA skills through meaningful language arts activities designed to build word decoding, fluency, reading comprehension, and writing strategies. Learn ways to differentiate and assess to ensure all students are on-track to master essential language arts standards. You'll find resources & strategies for building skills and confidence with struggling and reluctant learners.

Getting Started: Teaching Reading and writing skills

Are you looking for a quick win when it comes to teaching reading and writing skills to your struggling learners? Check out these ready-to-implement ideas that are designed to be used immediately for building reading, writing, and language skills. 

How to Differentiate Reading Activities to Help Struggling Learners

shop for ELA Resources by grade level

Finding high-quality, engaging language arts resources can be a challenge. Select your grade level to see reading and writing resources designed with struggling learners in mind. 

GET more ela strategies & ideas

Looking for more strategies and ideas for teaching reading and writing skills in your language arts classroom? Here are some additional posts to help you teach language arts to your struggling learners. You'll find hands-on, engaging lessons, intervention tools and techniques, and ways to help struggling learners grasp challenging language concepts. 

Best Novels for 5th Graders
Novels perfect for your 4th grade readers. Get ideas for your next book club or literature circle and find new books to add to your classroom library.
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5 Benefits of Novel Studies - The Third Wheel
The importance of teaching academic vocabulary to students
novel study organization - The Third Wheel
Monthly book clubs are a great way to get kids reading regularly and frequently switching the content. But, it seems like every season, holiday, and month just has TOO MANY book choices! That's what I'm now sharing my top picks for big kids book club every month! Check out the January book club picks in this post.

TRY SOMETHING NEW in Language Arts

Looking for something new to use for teaching reading and writing skills? No problem! I've got you covered. 

Sign up to get a free resource for your classroom and new strategies and ideas for teaching reading, writing, grammar, and spelling in your classroom. Both options below offer a multi-grade sampler that you can print what you need for your learners. 

language spiral review

LANGUAGE ARTS SPIRAL REVIEW

This is ideal for students who need more consist practice with language & grammar skills. The format builds in complexity across the week to help students work toward mastery. Enter your information to get a free trial week to help you with teaching reading and writing skills.

    picture comprehension

    READ & WRITE WITH PICTURES

    Using photos instead of text can level the playing field for struggling readers. This format focuses on using fun & thought provoking pictures to practice comprehension skills to build confidence and competence without decoding interfering. Download a sample set to try it out now. 

      FIND WHAT YOU NEED IN READING & WRITING

      Sometimes when you're teaching a specific unit, you find yourself looking for reading & writing materials or ideas that align with what you're working on. In these moments, you don't have time to browse all the articles about teaching reading and writing skills that cover generic ideas or unrelated topics to what you're working on. You need exactly what you need, when you need it. That's why I created this section. 

      Over time, I'll be updating this portion of the site to cover more areas of reading & writing instruction, with a focus on how to help struggling learners. Feel free to click on any topic to learn more about teaching reading and writing skills in that area. 

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