When you drive up to the repair shop with car trouble, a skilled mechanic must assess the situation and then pull out the exact tools required to fix the problem so you can get your car back on the road, running smoothly. It’s not enough to lean on a handbook. Mechanics turn to a full collection of gadgets to get the job done.
And just like a single tool can’t fix a flat tire and an overheated engine and a dented bumper, a single lesson plan can’t address the needs of an entire class of students. In order to maximize flexibility and responsiveness, teachers can benefit from a toolkit filled with the tips, tricks, and resources they can use to support the diverse needs of their students. Our teacher toolkits are designed to help you do just that–respond to the challenges your students might face by providing some of the resources and instruction each child might need to accelerate their progress across a particular unit, and across the school year.
Monthly Toolkits with Grade-Specific Resources
Each month, staff developers from The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower work together to curate a collection of reading and writing resources that can help you address predictable challenges that students may face as they move across a unit of study or as they climb up the ladder to read and write more complex texts. While some tools are designed to complement specific reading and writing units, most of the provided strategies and resources are ones you can incorporate into your classroom regardless of the program your school currently uses. In fact, most of these ideas are ones that you will find yourself using again and again across small groups and conferences.
These tools are designed to be easily printed and copied to use with students, including mini charts and bookmarks that students can access as they work independently. You’ll also find checklists and strategy cards that you can use to assess what students are doing well and what they may be ready for next. Teachers often use this information to form flexible, small groups and quickly set kids up to practice a particular skill and strategy. Then, at the end of the small group lesson, teachers can provide a copy of the tool as a visual reminder to encourage ongoing independent practice.
Here’s a sneak peek at a tool from the September 2024 toolkit, filled with resources for immediate use in your classroom.
Organizing Your Teacher Toolkit
It helps to organize these tools in a binder or tabbed folder. We especially love to place tools in sheet protectors so they can be marked up with dry-erase markers and used again and again. You’ll probably choose to create a separate reading and writing toolkit. Some teachers organize their toolkits by unit of study or genre focus. Others organize their toolkits by skill. For example, in a reading toolkit, you might establish separate sections for decoding, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. You might even add a zipper pouch to keep your go-to tools including post-it notes, popsicle sticks, highlighter tape, and markers. You can organize your writing toolkits in a similar way, creating sections for planning and structure, development and craft, spelling and conventions, and grammar.
However you choose to assemble your toolkit, the most important thing is that it works for you so that you are able to easily carry it with you as you move from conference to conference and that you can quickly locate and use the tools you need to support kids on the run. Do you have a toolkit system that works really well? We’d love to see it! Tag us on Instagram @thereadingandwritingproject. We always love to learn from teachers and see our toolkits in action!
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