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-Year Memory Book for Elementary Students (Grades 1–5)

An end-of-year memory book gives students something they’ll keep long after the last day of school. Students look back at their favorite subjects, friendships, goals, and memories from the year…

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Early Reading

Do Kids Learn to Read in Kindergarten? One Teacher-Mom’s Honest Answer

Do kids learn to read in kindergarten? Most do—but not all —and my son was one of them. I am an elementary teacher who taught K–2 for years and has…

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Reading Comprehension | Differentiation | English Learners

Graphic Organizers with Language Support

When students struggle to explain what they’ve read, the gap is usually not about understanding. They understood the text. What’s hard is organizing their thinking and putting it into academic…

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Early Reading

Stop Sounds vs. Continuous Sounds: What Every Reading Teacher Should Know

Understanding the difference between stop sounds vs. continuous sounds is one of the most practical things you can know as a reading teacher. How you model each sound directly affects…

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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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