Archive
Tag: Mark Pennington
How to Teach Greek and Latin Word Parts Vocabulary
Earlier in my teaching career I taught SAT/ACT preparation courses on the side. No, not the math. In checking out all of the SAT prep books I…
Grammar | Teaching in the Social Context
Literacy centers provide an ideal social context for cooperative learning about grammar: parts of speech, syntax and sentence structure, standard and non-standard usage, word choice, dialect,…
Vowel Sounds
Wow, it's rare for me to disagree with Grammar Girl. However, when Grammar Girl goes after the w in suggesting that it may not serve as…
The Serial (Oxford) Comma
The author presents both humorous and scholarly consequences of failing to use the serial (Oxford) comma: lack of clarity, consistency, and conformity.
Literacy Center Rotations
Literacy center (or stations) rotations can be challenging to plan. Here are seven rotation options with colorful visuals for 4-10 literacy centers.
Which High Frequency Words?
First, let's dispel a few notions about how we learn to read. It's not a which came first, the chicken or the egg? question some still…
Interactive Notebooks Assessment-based Individualized Instruction
A number of years ago I decided to experiment with teaching interactive grammar notebooks to my seventh grade ELA students. Like many secondary ELA teachers, I,…
Reading Fluency Assessment
Wouldn't it be great if you found a two-minute, numbered reading fluency that was leveled, at say first through seventh grade reading levels, did not require…