The RAFT strategy is a great strategy for being able to differentiate instruction in terms of content, process, and product. It is that time of the year again in terms of viewing the infamous lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree in New York City. But, have your students ever investigated the process of how that huge tree actually gets to its final destination? Have your students traced the history of how this celebration and tradition originated in the first place? Have your students investigated the history of the ornaments on the tree? What about the history of the lights on the tree? Have they determined how November 30th is celebrated in terms of “lighting” the tree? This is an awesome opportunity to explore all of the answers to these questions through using such strategies as jigsaw, discussion, inquiry, and discovery. Then, after this portion of the teaching and learning sequence has taken place, students can take part in the RAFT activity where they get to make a choice in each column of the activity. For example, students might choose to write from the perspective of the Christmas tree itself and write to the farm from which the tree has been growing all of these years prior to it being cut. The writing might be in the form of a narrative piece of writing where the tree tells the story of growing up on the farm all of those years and how he/she might have longed to become the famous tree in Rockefeller Center one day. The tree might narrate his/her journey all the way to the final destination and the lighting on November 30th. This is only one example. Of course, there are many, many other options, and many other opportunities for mini-lessons along the way!

Enjoy this set of bookmarks with your students! Students always need a great bookmark to hold their place in a great book! Laminate these and place them in the treasure box as well. Also, you might give them out as students check out their new Accelerated Reader books from the library! Have fun and enjoy!

This is an awesome list of one hundred fifty January words to use as a springboard for writing in January. These words will aid in narrative, informative, and argumentative writing as well as poetry! This sheet can be given to each student to place in his/her Writer’s Notebook! This is a tool that is sure to improve literacy skills of students! Have fun!

Evidence suggests that children who reverse numbers or letters may have a visual tracking problem that produces dyslexia. Use these “blue bandages” to place under the text or problem that students are working on to help them focus. The “blue bandages” might be placed on a craft stick for more durability or laminated for longer use! This resource packet contains thirty “blue bandages.” Students will be able to focus better on keeping up and tracking as they read with this tool!

In this packet, you will find an awesome classroom management tool for students who are oppositional and refuse to follow directions. Oftentimes, these students fall behind in their academic progress because of challenging behavior. This communication tool is to help increase the chances of these students having a positive response and follow the directions given! The first four pages are the tickets that challenging students can earn for “not wanting to do something but choosing to do it anyway!” The next set of four pages are the tickets that challenging students earn when they “choose to say NO!” This is a great Tier II and/ or Tier III intervention as well!

How many of us have great intentions when it comes to placing on our "To-Do" list making a positive call, email, text, etc. to one of our students' parents to communicate with them something great their child has achieved. While we have great intentions, all too often, it "slips to the back burner" and doesn't happen as often as it should. Use this resource to make sure this happens, and use it as a tool to make sure that within a given amount of time most all of your students have received that magic "bellsouth" call expressing something that everyone can be proud of... we know that many times the not-so-positive phone call, email, text, etc is received so much better and more positive when a positive piece of news has been shared as well along the way. Use this log to keep track of your communication as well as a tool to utilize at parent conferences-- great tool to begin the year with not to mention how much students will love your efforts!

In this packet, you will find a colorful set of mini-posters to illustrate twenty popular fruits. As young children are learning each fruit, use these mini-posters to illustrate to students what the fruit looks like. This is a great set of mini-posters to post in the classroom above the whiteboard!

In this packet, you will find approximately twenty posters each illustrating a different vegetable. These posters are perfect for posting above the whiteboard while teaching a science and/or health unit on vegetables! Each mini-poster is very colorful and is labeled.

In this packet, you will find a set of four posters each describing mean, median, mode, and range. These mini-posters can serve as a reference tool in helping students calculate mean, median, mode, and range, as well as determine which best represents a given number set. Examples of each term are given as well!

Use this fall pennant to accomplish multiple tasks within your classroom during this wonderful fall season. This packet contains a fall student centered pennant for each of your students to complete to share in your classroom! The pennant is made in five different fall colors and ask the students to write three favorite things that he/she enjoys doing during the fall of the year. Also, students are asked to write the names of three sports which are played during the fall! Finally, students are to write a goal they hope to accomplish during the fall! You will love this short writing task as a springboard for a writer's notebook, a tool for brainstorming to create a poem for fall, or simply to use as a pennant hanging in your classroom for this wonderful time of the year!

Here is an October word bank that will completely come in handy for a Writer's Notebook. This word bank is comprehensive of the many words that come to mind during the month of October and are sure to get your students' creative juices flowing! There are approximately 20-25 words that spur your students' brains for all kinds of writing-- narrative, expository, argumentative, etc. Use this October word bank for writing, ABC order, poetry, etc. It's uses are only limited by your imagination!

Your students will absolutely love this short passage of nonfiction informational text about none other than the highly decorated Drew Brees-- the New Orleans Saints quarterback. The article begins with information regarding Drew as a child and and gives information about his early life and one sibling. It continues to progress into his high school and college days and culminates with his career in the NFL. At the conclusion of the four page article, complete with illustrations that enhance some of the text, there is a six question formative assessment quiz. The quiz has four multiple choice questions and three open-ended questions asking the student to cite evidence from the text and defend his/her answer. Finally, there is a performance based assessment at the end of the quiz that students are sure to enjoy that includes a project regarding the two homes of Drew Brees. Your students will LOVE this text and the performances based assessment!

You are sure to enjoy this set of mini-posters to use with your students. As we all know, it is hugely important to continue to work with our students daily on refining their writing skills while also spending time writing for different audiences and purposes. To practice a lifelong skill, teach students the importance of annotating their work when reading and in turn they will better understand annotating when writing. This set of mini-posters all give students important hints and clues of how to read critically and write critically in annotating their work. This resource set includes six mini-posters all providing reference information for you to refer to when teaching annotating!

In this packet, there are eight writing prompts focusing on Abraham Lincoln. There are two prompts on each page and can be easily set up to use in writing centers or in whole group instruction. These are great tools as well for research and investigation. The prompts range from Lincoln's campaign to Presidency to his assassination. They are all somewhat open-ended in nature so that you, as the teacher, can dictate the length. Your students are sure to enjoy them!

A mini-poster your students are sure to enjoy! It's All About 100! *I can do 100... *I wish I had 100... *On the 100th day of school, I will... *In the last 100 days, I have... *In the next 100 days, I will... *A fact I can tell you about 100 is... *If I had 100 dollars, I would...

As your students prepare to go back to school from the Christmas holidays, this is an exciting resource that your students can make connections with for sure! This resource is an informational text article about the famous iconic series "The Love Boat." This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the show and the celebrations are being kicked off at the Rose Bowl Parade where the original cast members will be on "The Love Boat" float! This article is approximately 790 words long and includes a formative quiz which includes ten questions that range from multiple choice to open-ended formats. This is an awesome resource to review comprehension and get back into school after a long Christmas break!

As the 100th day of school approaches, get all of your students excited about what they have already accomplished this school year as well as what is in store for them for the rest of the school year. In this resource, you will find a mini-poster for students to all involve themselves in some writing activities that include: a self portrait of what they believe they would look like in 100 years, a listing of the games that they believe that children will play in 100 years, a writing activity about what their hope is in the world of medicine in the next 100 years, a writing activity about what they believe will be available in the world of technology in 100 years, a writing activity about what life was like for a student 100 years ago, and what they predict their world will be like in 100 years. Many of these exercises are meant to be springboards for further research and study and more extended writing activities as well as performance based projects. Students will all enjoy this activity. When complete, you might display each students’ poster!

In this training and support packet of materials, you will find a powerpoint presentation that can be used for a professional learning community session, a focused faculty meeting, and/or a professional development session. There are a total of fourteen slides which encourage teachers to shift students into "high gear" thinking. The slides focus on the point that as long as students are involved in only memory and recall then they have trouble with "low gear" thinking! The point is made to involve students in "high gear" engaging activities, and they will grasp and retain much more than when asked to simply recall. This training presentation is a "jumping off point" into constructing/creating engaging teaching and learning activities!

I am hoping this resource will be most helpful to all of you! This is a set of incentives and reward coupons specifically for middle and high school students. For example, some of the rewards and incentives include: (1) being able to work in the front office for one class period; (2) gaining free admission to one ballgame; (3) earning the opportunity for you, as the teacher, to write a postcard to the students parents with a positive note in regards to the student, and many, many others. Many students need that extra boost just for someone to notice that they have done the right thing. Obviously, we all strive for our students to be able to self-regulate their behavior and ultimately that is our goal in using incentives and coupons that we can get to the point where external motivators are not needed! These incentives carry a March theme; however, there are others available for other months throughout the school year! Use these these incentives and rewards to help motivate students in your classroom. They can be laminated, cut apart, and placed in a storage container for safe keeping. There are hundreds of different ways for you to establish a management system for how a student will earn one of these so that is your task! There are seventeen different pages of incentives and rewards, and each page contains approximately 6-9 coupons/incentives on each page!

This pennant is sure to get your students back in the groove of school after the Christmas break. On the pennant, students are asked to write a five to seven sentence paragraph about what they did over their Christmas break. Also, they are asked what was their most favorite present and who did they receive it from. Also, they are asked if they traveled anywhere during Christmas break and if so, where did they travel? Finally, on the perimeters of the pennant, students are asked to write an acrostic for winter as well as create a shape poem for a snowman! Students are sure to enjoy this activity as they "get in the groove" of school again in January!