Welcome to the Shurley English Blog! For the past thirty-five years, our mission at Shurley Instructional Materials has been simple. We do all we can to help teachers and students experience grammar and writing success. With that goal in mind, we wanted to create a space where our team of educators could share tips, tricks, and techniques to ignite learning. It’s all about educators helping educators on the Shurley English Blog. We invite you to join the conversation!
Here’s an idea to kick your kids’ spelling prowess into high gear. While it’s true that some kids are just naturally good spellers, my experience has been that most are not. They need a sure-fire way to lock in accurate spelling, especially when summertime rolls around and school is out.
Cyclical spelling might just be for you and your kids. Here’s how it works:
Read MoreHave you ever thought of scheduling a weekly family meeting during the summer months? It really is a great way to boost communication skills at home! Kids of all ages, when given the chance, can participate in structured discussions to recap the previous week and plan for the next one. Routine meetings can allow everyone to contribute personal thoughts, feelings, ideas, choices, etc., so that everyone has an opportunity to be heard. Topic possibilities are endless, yet providing this type of platform can build family connections and help children develop their personal communication skills.
Here’s how it works:
Read MoreThis summer, we encourage you to support your child’s academic progress and work language arts into your day! Shurley English helps you add fun, exciting, and effective ways to teach grammar, skills, and writing. Today, we are excited to share several FREE resources to help you embark on a summer of learning:
Read MoreDo you remember story time when you were little? I hope you have experienced story time at least at some point in your life. But even if you haven’t, it’s not too late to learn how to enrich the lives of children through this worthwhile process.
Yes…when you read aloud to a child, you change their aptitude for literacy for a lifetime. Do it with intention and purpose, and you almost guarantee it! Take a look at these quick steps to begin a read-aloud revolution at home or school:
Read MoreSummer vacation is coming soon! So, what are your plans? Have you included any activities that will help your child keep their language arts skills sharp over the break? (Haha! I’m almost positive that most of you just knitted your brows and sarcastically muttered the words: “Ugh, NO!”) Before you stop reading this post, I’d like for you to consider doing some “AND” thinking because there is a way for students to enjoy their time off from school AND continue applying language arts skills! They might just learn to appreciate the experience while they’re at it if we add an additional AND to the list! The key is to cop a good action plan in advance!
Read MoreIf you’re looking for a unique way to keep your child engaged in reading over the summer, you might want to consider doing some choral reading at home. In case you’ve never heard of it, choral reading is a literacy technique that helps students build their fluency, self-confidence, and motivation to read. It takes a minimum of two people to participate, but the entire family can join the fun!
Read MoreSummer vacation is supposed to be a break from the usual routine of school, but many parents worry their kid’s reading skills will digress without some sort of action plan. According to the "Kids and Family Reading Report," a survey done by Scholastic, an American publishing company, those fears might not be far from the truth for some.
Scholastic’s most recent report showed that among kids ages 9-11, 14% did not read any books during the summer of 2018, compared with 7% in 2016. Among kids ages 15-17, 32% did not read any books during the summer of 2018, compared with 22% in 2016.
Now, before you hit the panic button, it’s important to let you know that
Read MoreAs eager as your students are for the school year to end, it won’t be long until they are actually bored during their summer break. Yes, I said “bored.” Help your students stay focused and creative while they gear up for that day with this fun and creative classroom activity.
In this blog, I will share an activity that will teach students a valuable lesson as they create their own Summer Bucket List. The catch is that they will create it while working in small groups. As always, you can do as much or as little as you like with this idea. Here’s how to get started.
Read MoreIn some of my previous posts, I have touched upon the importance of keeping kids moving in the classroom. Physical movement wakes up their brains, gets their blood flowing, and it’s just plain fun. While many of us typically seek comfort and routine in our daily lives, students in a classroom don’t always need that kind of comfort. Yes, routines can help people stay focused and build self-discipline, but too much routine can also turn us into rigid creatures of habit. In my experience, students are more focused when classroom routines are followed, but there are also great benefits when they step away from the daily grind and get moving. This is the ideal way to help them avoid mental burnout.
Read MoreIf you’re ready to learn English definitions in a fun and easy way, Shurley English Jingles are for you! Using domain-specific language, our definitions for the parts of speech and many other important language arts concepts incorporate rhythm, rhyme, and movement. Jingles provide the tools for critical thinking during sentence analysis and writing.
Read MoreShurley English is the best English Language Arts curriculum available to public schools, private schools, and home educators.Shurley English is a rigorous curriculum that brings back student-teacher interaction, promotes higher-order thinking skills, and provides students with a successful base from which they can achieve mastery, retention, and enthusiasm for English.
Our mission is to inspire and empower ALL students to become competent, confident communicators by providing superior educational solutions and innovative teacher training tools. This will enable all students to positively impact their school, community, and future work environments.
www.shurley.com 800-566-2966
Copyright © 2017-2021 Shurley Instructional Materials, Inc.
All photos/images contained on this site are copyright protected by Shurley Instructional Materials, Inc. or Getty Images.
