Author: Jessica Boschen

Jessica shares her passion for teaching and education on What I Have Learned. Jessica has 16 years of elementary teaching experience and currently homeschools her two middle school boys. She enjoys scaffolding learning for students, focusing on helping our most challenging learners achieve success in all academic areas.

End-of-the-Year | Summer

Summer Bucket List Ideas for Kids

As the school year winds down and summer vacation is just around the corner, students dream about what they want to do and set goals for their upcoming summer break….

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Reading Comprehension

Books to Teach Compare and Contrast to Elementary Students

Literature and mentor texts are invaluable resources for teaching students to compare and contrast. They provide concrete examples for students to analyze and discuss, offering insights into characters, settings, themes,…

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Classroom Management

16 Classroom Reward Party Ideas for Elementary Students

Classroom reward parties are different from everyday classroom rewards. Instead of small incentives like extra recess or a homework pass, reward parties are bigger celebrations that students earn over time…

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Math

Expanded Form Multiplication: Step-by-Step for Grades 3-5

Expanded form multiplication, also called the expanded algorithm, gives students in grades 3 through 5 a way to work through multi-digit problems without getting lost in every step of the…

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Reading Comprehension

What are Text Features? Effective Strategies for Teaching Text Features

Elementary students learn about text features to help them read and understand informational text. The ability to navigate and comprehend informational texts is a skill that can be enhanced by…

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Instructional Strategies

Use Quiz, Quiz, Trade to Promote Collaboration and Develop Comprehension & Academic Language

Quiz, Quiz, Trade is a Kagan cooperative learning technique that fosters academic review and reinforcement and cultivates an atmosphere of collaboration. It’s a fun cooperative learning strategy that gets students…

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Life Science

Plant Growth Science Activities for 5th Grade

Are you looking for an engaging, interactive way to teach your fifth-grade students about plant growth? Designed to help students understand plant development, these NGSS Plant Growth Science Stations offer…

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Teacher Professional Practice

Student Strengths: 100+ Examples to Share With Parents

Teachers spend a lot of time describing where students need support, but it can be tricky to put a student’s strengths into clear words. Having ready-to-use examples of student strengths saves…

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Reading

Motivating Reluctant Readers: 16 Classroom Strategies

Motivating reluctant readers is one of those challenges that comes up in almost every elementary classroom. A student sits during independent reading time staring at the page, or picks the…

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Earth Science

Rock Cycle Diagram for Kids: Labeled, Simple & Easy to Draw

A rock cycle diagram shows how igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks change over time. In this guide, you’ll find a clear explanation of each step, a labeled rock cycle diagram,…

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Differentiation

Scaffolding and Differentiation in the Elementary Classroom

If you have sat through a professional development session on scaffolding and differentiation and walked out less clear than when you walked in, you are not alone. The two strategies…

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Instructional Strategies

15 Strategies to Improve Student Work Quality

One of the most important things we can do as teachers is instill a sense of pride and care in the quality of work our students do. In second and…

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