English Language Arts Archives - The Teacher Studio

On Demand Writing Assessments – Easy Grade Writing Prompt BUNDLE Grades 3 – 5

Laine Sutherland — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 04:28:18 +0000

By far one of the biggest “difference makers” for me as a writing teacher has been my use of demand writing prompts to guide my instruction and assess writing. In our class, we have a balance of free writing, process writing, and demand writing—but for me, the most effective writing assessment involves doing a regular demand prompt to see how students are doing on the targets we have worked on all year.

Process writing is critical in the classroom, but as students work together, confer, share, revise, and so on—it becomes difficult to know what they can do independently.

Enter this set of easy to score demand writing prompts!

The resource that follows is a version of what I have done in my classroom for years and have found to be the most efficient, effective, and stress-free way to measure student growth and to see what areas I need to provide additional instruction—to individual students, small focus groups, or the entire class.

The method is simple:

Each prompt is graded using the exact same checklist at the top.
If you use prompts from multiple sets (descriptive, opinion, narrative), you will see that the top portion of the checklist remains the same, allowing you to measure student growth ALL year.
The bottom few lines of the checklist are more specific to the genre of writing.
Each set contains 8 different reproducible prompts complete with checklist, class recording sheet, individual student recording sheet, and directions and suggestions for use.

This resource is a bundled set of my opinion, narrative, and descriptive prompts available at a reduced cost. I hope you find it useful!

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Want to check out the other sets?

Narrative Demand Writing Prompts!

Opinion Demand Writing Prompts!

Descriptive Demand Writing Prompts!

A BUNDLE of all three!

Something different–CLIFFHANGER Demand Prompts!

What about our primary friends? Here you go!

PRIMARY EDITION Opinion Writing Demand Prompts

PRIMARY EDITION Narrative Writing Demand Prompts

PRIMARY EDITION Descriptive Writing Demand Prompts

PRIMARY EDITION Demand Prompt BUNDLE

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All rights reserved by ©The Teacher Studio. Purchase of this resource entitles the purchaser the right to reproduce the pages in limited quantities for single classroom use only. Duplication for an entire school, an entire school system, or commercial purposes is strictly forbidden without written permission from the author at fourthgradestudio@gmail.com. Additional licenses are available at a reduced price.

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Idioms Activity – Figurative Language Activity – Teaching Idioms

Laine Sutherland — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 04:27:57 +0000

Is figurative language a part of your literacy program? This resource contains 3 different idioms activities that you can use to help your students become more familiar with these unusual sayings so they can recognize how authors use “figurative” language to help tell their stories.

What do you get?

32 ready-to-use idiom “poster” pages for students to draw/write about the “literal” meaning of the idiom AND the “figurative” meaning. They have a blast with this! The finished posters make a GREAT display.

I’ve even made a great bulletin board heading for you. It’s ready to print, cut, and display by including all the letters needed to spell “Literal or Figurative? IDIOMS IN ACTION!” You can make a complete bulletin board in one class period!

A second activity is a writing prompt. Students select one idiom to write at the top of the page. They then write a piece with the idiom as the title. It could be a reflective piece, a personal narrative, or even an opinion piece! The “sky’s the limit” with this one!

The final activity is a game of idioms charades. A team of students pulls one of the idioms “out of a hat” and acts it out. The other team tries to guess which idiom they are representing! Several suggested ways to play are included along with a checklist of all 32 idioms.

Also need your students to learn about ADAGES?

Check out these great task cards!

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On Demand Seasonal Writing Assessments – Easy Grade Writing Prompt BUNDLE

Laine Sutherland — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 04:27:42 +0000

“NOTE: This is a bundled set of three other resources in my store available at a reduced “bundle” price…please do NOT purchase if you have bought the following sets separately. THANKS! Please see individual listings for more information.

(PLUS one bonus prompt!)

What are these? By far one of the biggest “difference makers” for me as a “teacher of writers” has been my use of demand writing prompts to guide instruction. In our class, we have a balance of free writing, process writing, and demand writing—but for me, the most effective way to ASSESS students is to do a regular demand prompt to see how students are doing on the targets we have worked on all year. By having a simple writing checklist on the page, I can quickly assess an entire class–either by using the entire checklist or just certain skills I am looking to collect data on.

Process writing is critical in the classroom, but as students work together, confer, share, revise, and so on—it becomes difficult to know what they can do independently. The resource that follows is a version of what I have done the last 4 years and have found to be the most efficient, effective, and stress-free way to measure student growth and to see what areas I need to provide additional instruction—to individual students, small focus groups, or the entire class.

Each of my “seasonal” sets contains 6 different prompts—to be copied back to back with the prompt/checklist on one side and the full writing sheet on the back. I have included a variety of genres including opinion writing, personal narratives, and descriptive writing. Pick and choose what works best with your class!

Two different data recording sheets are included as well.
Common Core Aligned and geared for grades 3-5.

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Looking for other demand prompt resources? Check these out!

Demand Writing Prompts Bundle for Grades 3-5

Primary Demand Writing Prompt Bundle for Grades 1-3

A BUNDLE of “Great 8” Quick Writing Prompts/Assessments

and my students’ favorite…

“Cliffhanger” Demand Writing Prompts/Assessments

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Independent Reading Toolbox – Science of Reading for Upper Elementary

Laine Sutherland — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 04:27:06 +0000

As you may know, rigorous reading standards and the Science of Reading movement have asked us to rethink what we do related to independent reading and reader’s workshop. We know reading instruction is multi-faceted and needs to have direct instruction, small group reading, writing about reading, and so much more.

What some people don’t consider is that we often do so much WITH our students one-on-one and in small groups, that they struggle to successfully read on their own.

Many teachers want help establishing a culture for independent reading and the tools needed to make the entire year of independent reading as efficient and meaningful as possible. This resource has you covered!

This resource is geared toward helping teachers “teach” students how to be better independent readers so that precious part of your reading instruction is meaningful and effective. It addresses everything from introducing genres to picking good-fit books to setting goals and monitoring behaviors during independent reading time. Curious? Make sure you check out the preview to see all that you get!

What IS included?

Suggestions for lessons to start the year to build better independent reading
Genre resources and posters (2 different color/font options)
Photos with ideas to build excitement for reading including links to more information
Reading surveys
Reading goal sheets
“What is a good reader?” self-assessments
“What is a good reader?” self-assessments
My favorite books list list
My favorite books list
How to pick a “just right” book poster and bookmarks
Mini “Me as a reader” posters to go with the checklists!
Classroom signs to use in reader’s workshop
Classroom signs to use in reader’s workshop
Fun lesson ideas
* Explanations for all of it!

and more!

If you feel like you need a little “something” to help kick off your year on the right foot where students learn good independent reading habits and behaviors, this might help you out! It is geared for grades 3-5–but I am confident that grade 2 teachers can use a great deal of it as well.

It’s hard to assign a number of pages to this resource because there are several versions of some forms. The document is 139 pages, but you wouldn’t use all of them. I encourage you to download the preview so you can see exactly what you get as you think about starting your year off in an organized way.

Teaching Narrative Writing – An Introductory Narrative Writing Lesson

Laine Sutherland — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 04:26:47 +0000

Narrative writing is actually one of my favorite things to teach…and helping students use narrative writing graphic organizers to plan their stories makes everything flow so much more smoothly! Narrative writing checklists and graphic organizers seal the deal!

Whether writing personal narratives or fiction, this little resource helps me SO much every year! The best part? Students always feel successful and feel they have done their very best writing.

What is included?

I have included full directions (with photos!) to show you the lesson in action. It’s like built-in PD! Makes planning so easy!
Suggestions for anchor charts and classroom displays
Graphic organizers to help you teach the lesson yourself
Assessment options

This two-day lesson will help you introduce narrative writing to your intermediate students–and the planning is done for you!

From taking an idea, to mapping out the “scenes”, to enriching their writing with details, to drafting–it walks you through a two-day sequence complete with classroom photos! Also included is a graphic organizer to help, 2 anchor chart ideas (and printable student learning posters of them), a narrative writing rubric, and a student self-assessment tool.

Consider using yourself or having as sub plans—everything you need is included for easy copying or can be commonly found in your classroom (ex. chart paper, lined paper, office supplies, etc.)

CHECK THE PREVIEW FOR MORE!

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And now a part of a bundle of FOUR great narrative resources! Check out the bundle with the link below!

BUNDLE of narrative resources!

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The post Teaching Narrative Writing – An Introductory Narrative Writing Lesson appeared first on The Teacher Studio.

Creative Thinking Activities and Printables – Teaching Creativity BUNDLE

Laine Sutherland — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 04:26:13 +0000

Why teach creativity and creative thinking? If you are like me, you recognize that all the pushing we do to pass tests and get through our curriculum can be a dangerous game. I believe that if we prepare our students to be creative thinkers, hard workers, and team players and pair that with quality instruction–the rest will simply fall into place.

What we often don’t leave enough time for in our busy school day is time to do activities that nurture creativity. Whether it be letting students solve engaging real-world problems, write freely about topics they care about, research things in the world that interest them—or any other exercises in creativity, we must give students time to practice being creative.

This resource is geared toward helping you squeeze a little “creativity instruction” into your packed day! Whether you use these as warm ups, team builders, center activities, or exercises for fast finishers, this resource has everything ready for you to print and use and even has work samples to make it even more clear.

What’s included?

SIX different types of activities are included with this resource…(3 from each set for a total of 78 ready-to-print pages), including blank examples so you or yourstudents can make up your own! Check out the preview to see more detailed descriptions of the six different activities!

“Squigglestorm” sheets where students take a provided doodle and extend it into a drawing from their own minds.

“Braintimer” sheets where students need to think “outside the box” to come up with lists, drawings, and objects that fit certain categories in a set amount of time. The goal? Find solutions that no one else has tried!

“Word Power” sheets that ask students to brainstorm ideas off of a word and to make word “ladders” that take them from one concept to the next. Creativity is key—and there are countless solutions!

“Picture This” sheets where students take a piece of a drawing and design the scene around it.

“Number Namers” sheets where students work mathematically to come up many ways to make a number–and then try to predict what methods will be “predictable” answers and which answers might be “unique”. It’s a great differentiation tool!

“Tell a Tale” sheets that ask students to take the first few dramatic sentences of a story and then create the rest. Students love being able to dig into fiction writing when they are given just a little nudge–and the sky is the limit!

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These activities are great for upper elementary and middle school students—and are a GREAT staff development activity to remind even the adults how important it is to think outside the box!

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Want to check out Set 1? Click Here!

Want to check out Set 2? Click Here!

Here’s the bundle of BOTH! Click Here!

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Improving Speaking and Listening | Speaking Task Cards

Laine Sutherland — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 04:25:52 +0000

What in the world is this resource about speaking and listening–and why is “Accountable Talk” such a buzzword these days? With the increased need for students to learn to have quality academic discussions and to be comfortable speaking in front of others, I wanted to create a fun way for students to gain confidence when speaking about different topics.

Want to have students practice in a morning meeting? In small groups? With partners? As a formal public speaking exercise? As a prewriting experience? You can use this resource for all of these!

I wanted to design a resource that could be used in countless ways…I will give you some suggestions, but I am CONFIDENT that you will be able to come up many other uses as well! Use all year long in different ways to build student confidence and skills.

What is included?

140 Discussion prompt cards in three categories

Personal narratives (to build the idea of telling stories with characters, a logical sequence, and feelings) 32 cards
Opinions (to help students state an opinion and defend it clearly with examples) 32 cards
Just a word (or 2) (to let students speak in ANY genre on a topic) Also included is “Just a word (or 2)” CHALLENGE (these topics are more challenging and may be more appropriate for older students) 24 cards

A variety of reproducibles, posters, and checklists to help you teach key concepts to guide your students as they speak–and even translate to writing!
Suggestions for use in your classroom

I hope you and your students enjoy this resource!

The post Improving Speaking and Listening | Speaking Task Cards appeared first on The Teacher Studio.

On Demand Writing Assessments – Easy Grade Primary Writing Prompt Bundle

Laine Sutherland — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 04:25:48 +0000

“By far one of the biggest “difference makers” for me as a “teacher of writers” has been my use of demand prompts to guide instruction. In our class, we have a balance of free writing, process writing, and demand writing—but for me, the most effective way to ASSESS students is to do a regular demand prompt to see how students are doing on the targets we have worked on all year.

I have been asked by my primary friends to tailor this product originally made for intermediate students–and here it is! My primary friends have given it the “thumbs up” and it’s ready to roll. This is also perfect for special education students in upper grades–there is more room to write and the assessment checklist may be more appropriate for their needs.

The method is simple: Each prompt is graded using the exact same checklist at the top. If you use prompts from multiple sets (descriptive, opinion, narrative), you will see that the top portion of the checklist remains the same, allowing you to measure student growth ALL year. The bottom few lines of the checklist are more specific to the genre of writing.

Each set contains 8 different reproducible prompts complete with checklist, class recording sheet, individual student recording sheet, and directions and suggestions for use. I have also included two different types of paper formatting–with dotted mid-lines and without. I hope you find these as useful as I do!

This bundled set has 24 grade-appropriate OPINION ,NARRATIVE, and DESCRIPTIVE writing prompts which are available separately or in this bundle at a reduced price. Download the preview to get a feel for this resource–I don’t think you will be disappointed!

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Want to check out the other sets?

PRIMARY EDITION Opinion Writing Demand Prompts

PRIMARY EDITION Narrative Writing Demand Prompts

PRIMARY EDITION Descriptive Writing Demand Prompts

PRIMARY EDITION Demand Prompt BUNDLE

What about our intermediate friends? Here you go!

Narrative Demand Writing Prompts!

Opinion Demand Writing Prompts!

Descriptive Demand Writing Prompts!

A BUNDLE of all three!

Something different–CLIFFHANGER Demand Prompts!
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The post On Demand Writing Assessments – Easy Grade Primary Writing Prompt Bundle appeared first on The Teacher Studio.

Writing Lessons – Choosing a Topic – Launching Writer’s Workshop

Laine Sutherland — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 04:25:41 +0000

How many times have you heard students say, “But I don’t know what to write about!” This writing lesson is a great way for 2nd through 5th grade students to kick of the school year understanding WHY we write, what good writing can be, and all the great topics out there to write about. It’s perfect to start the year–but I use it midyear as well to keep adding new ideas to their topic lists. Get ready to launch writer’s workshop with ease!

Check out the preview for more details! Includes student materials, all directions, photographs of the activity in action, and more.

I have had many requests for lessons featured on my blog, and after thinking about how to do it, my “SCOOP” resources were born!

Each of these resources is meant to be a 1, 2, or 3 day lesson (single scoop, double scoop, or triple scoop) that is ready to immediately implement in your classroom. Consider using yourself or having as sub plans—everything you need is included for easy copying or can be commonly found in your classroom (ex. chart paper, lined paper, office supplies, etc.)

I have included the actual blog posts and/or full directions with photos to show you the lessons in action, suggestions for anchor charts or classroom displays, and any forms or sheets you would need to do it yourself! This “single scoop” is a one-two day lesson to help you introduce your writer’s workshop–and to avoid the “I don’t know what to write about!” issue! Included is the full lesson with photos, 4 interactive notebook-style “pockets” to keep student topic lists, anchor chart suggestions and nifty premade “headers” for those anchor charts, and 4 student anchor charts to use as brainstorming tools or to create handy desk-side resources.

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Looking for more writing lessons?

Writing Complete Sentences: 4 Sets of Task Cards/Lesson Ideas

“Easy Grade” Demand Writing Assessments

Narrative Writing Skills Bundle

And many more!

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Adages: Teaching Figurative Language Task Cards

Laine Sutherland — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 04:25:36 +0000

Need to teach about adages and figurative language as a part of your ELA curriculum? Struggling to find a fun yet effective way to do it? Check out these task cards–all geared toward helping students recognize and understand adages.

What is an adage? An adage is a form of figurative language that consists of a short phrase or proverb that teaches a life lesson or speaks a general “truth”. It is a saying that has been passed down over time and is generally recognizable in meaning.

Students who have not been exposed to this type of language at home or school may not understand when they come across adages in their daily lives or in their reading. This resource is a fun way to expose them to 32 of these common sayings.

Students can sort, discuss, and write about adages as they learn them…and the materials to create a bulletin board are even included! Full directions and suggestions are included so your lesson plans are essentially ready for you! The adage “sorting cards” come in full color AND black and white and the suggestions for use include full-color photos to help you see the resource in action.

This product is tied to the CCSS and other sets of rigorous literacy standards. Make sure to check out the preview to see what you get and how you can use this with your students!

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Interested in some other literacy task cards? Here are a few!

Context Clues Task Cards

Sentence Strategies Task Cards

Improving and Combining Sentences Task Cards

Fluency and Inferring Task Cards

Making Inferences and Sequencing Task Cards

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