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.

Summer

Summer Bucket List Craft – Writing Project & Bulletin Board

A fun project that I have my students complete during the last week of school is a Summer Bucket List. Most of the students in our classrooms don’t necessarily get to “plan”…

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End-of-the-Year | Summer

End-of-the-Year Memory Book & Activities

As the year winds down and classrooms finish with most of the “have to” curriculum, it’s time to do some end-of-the-year activities just for the fun of it. I like…

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Early Reading

When Your Child Doesn’t Learn to Read in Kindergarten

My son is in Kindergarten this year. It’s now May and I have watched him struggle with learning to read. If you’ve been reading my blog posts this past year,…

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Reading Comprehension | Differentiation

Graphic Organizers with Language Support

Reading Comprehension can be difficult for students, even those with great reading skills. When we ask students to explain their thinking or write about what they read, it’s almost like…

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Early Reading

Stop Sounds vs. Continuous Sounds – Why must I know the difference?

Do you know the difference between continuous and stop sounds? What about those tricky sounds that you hear pronounced in two or three different ways? Blending sounds is hard for…

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Early Reading

Blending and Segmenting Tips for Student Success

If you teach early reading, consider how you are teaching your students to read. Do you teach students to memorize words? Or, do you teach them to sound out a word and…

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Math

Number Puzzles for Second Grade Math Stations

One of my favorite math stations has been Number Puzzles for Second Grade. I love seeing my second graders spread out over our carpet, analyzing math puzzle pieces and figuring out how…

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Social Studies | Writing

How to Teach a Biography Unit in Elementary School

Teaching a biography unit in elementary school is often the first time students research a real person and turn that information into a report or project. When thinking about how…

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Goal Setting | Spring

Look How I Have Grown – Open House Spring Writing Craft

The Look How I Have Grown Spring Craftivity is the perfect Open House craft for the classroom. In this engaging writing activity, students can reflect on all that they have learned throughout the year….

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Early Reading

What is the Difference Between Decodable Text and Predictable or Patterned Text?

When you sit down to plan what you’re teaching for your small group reading instruction, how do you decide the kind of text you are putting in front of your…

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Early Reading

How to Teach Phonics with Your Grade-Level Team

Working with other teachers is hard. No doubt about it. You all have different teaching styles and viewpoints on what is important and how to teach it. When teaching phonics,…

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Early Reading

Why do we teach nonsense words? It doesn’t make sense.

Do you teach and assess nonsense words? Do you know why you do it? There’s a reason why we teach these types of non-words in schools. In fact, teaching…

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