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 reading the famous classic ~ A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. During the reading of or after, the students have read this great classic, allow them to utilize the RAFT strategy where they get to make a choice in each column of the activity. They decide from what perspective they will write from, whom they will write to, in what format they will write, and what will be their topic.

This is a packet of three mini posters. These posters can serve as aids for encouraging students to make connections to the world, to the text itself, and to themselves while reading; henceforth, text-to-world connections, text-to-text connections, and text-to-self connections. These mini-posters are a perfect fit above a whiteboard to make reference too as the class is reading or working on an assignment with literature and informational text!

This packet contains a set of nine mini-posters which display each element of literature. Elements include: plot, setting, theme, characterization, conflict, mood, style, tone, and point of view. The mini-posters are the perfect size to display above a whiteboard in a reading/language arts classroom.

In this packet, you will find seven great at-a glance reading comprehension strategies mini posters that are a perfect fit above your white board in your classroom. They will also work ideal on a bulletin board. The seven strategies include: predicting, visualizing, questioning, connecting, identifying, inferring, and evaluating. They are all designed with colorful animal print borders!

Show your students there is more than one way to express their words in poetry! In this packet, you will find eight mini posters each featuring a form of poetry to use when teaching each instructional format. Each poster also has an example of the type of poem explained. Students are sure to love writing these forms of poetry about their favorite topics. As well, this could be converted into a fall poetry unit utilizing the awesome fall scenes as springboards for brainstorming. Forms of poetry included are: limericks, diamantes, cinquains, haikus, couplets, acrostics, shapes, and free verse.

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!

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!

You will absolutely engage your students with this wonderful informational text article that most every child can relate to. This is an informational text article about the Home Alone mansion being on the real estate market. The article is approximately 680 words long and is completed with several illustrations, including captions, to motivate any reader. At the conclusion of the article, there is a ten question formative quiz that ranges from multiple choice questions regarding vocabulary to open-ended questions which require inferencing and multi-step thinking! You can't go wrong in working on vocabulary and comprehension utilizing this informational text!

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!

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!

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!

This resource is a mini-poster to celebrate the 100th day of school with your students. Each component of the mini-poster sets the stage for a thought-provoking response. Students must figure out what year they will be 100. They must say where they think that they will live and how they will travel. They must tell what they will be famous for as well as how they will communicate with family and friends 100 years from now. Finally, they must describe or draw a self-portrait of what they believe they will look like! Students will have a great time with this activity!

This is an awesome list of more than 100 March words to use as a springboard for writing in March. These words will aid in narrative, informative, and argumentative writing as well as poetry! These sheets can be given to each student to place in his/her Writer’s Notebook!