Welcome to the Shurley English Blog! For the past thirty-four 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!
This 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.
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Summer Break is here, and our thoughts are revolving around words like vacation, relaxation, rest, getaway, and so on! Words like homework, project, and assignment instantly turn into bad-words the minute summer vacation begins, so I encourage you to avoid them at all costs! Instead, try to generate creative ways to keep your child/children actively involved in writing, reading, and processing information over the break. One way to keep all these language arts skills at the forefront in a covert way is to develop family storybooks.
Family storybooks are similar to reflective journaling yet different because they are created through group effort! Topic areas are limitless because the stories can be written on just about anything! (Examples include: Our Day at the Zoo, Cleaning Day!, The Cruise of a Lifetime, etc.) No storybook will ever be complete until every person submits their entry. It will be up to you to pick and choose the number of storybooks your family will create over the summer break! All you have to do is introduce the activity and provide the encouragement. Your participation will set an excellent example for your kids, and the final product will be a keepsake for everyone to enjoy now and forever!
Here are the steps involved:
1. Explain the concept of the family storybook prior to the activity.
2. Encourage children to pay close attention to details during the event so they will be able to describe them in writing later.
3. Take digital pictures before, during, and after the event (if possible), and allow each participant to choose pictures to include with their writing. Of course, pictures can also be drawn or painted; get creative!
4. Encourage each child to write as much as they can about the experience, including personal thoughts and feelings.
5. Set a deadline for the individual drafts to be completed and pictures to be selected.
6. Combine everyone’s story in a logical order (example: youngest to oldest) and place them in a notebook, report binder, or digital file.
7. Enjoy reading each family storybook individually and/or together.
8. Share your family storybooks with others!
It’s a fact that each person perceives their surroundings by seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling. Accordingly, everyone’s experience will be unique to them, and it will be fun to see and read varying accounts of the same event. After the first family storybook is completed, subsequent storybooks will usually become easier and more detailed! The best part about the activity will be that you and your family will be engaged in writing, reading, and information processing all summer long! Family storybooks will be a unique memento that will capture moments in time to enjoy a lifetime! This could become a new summer tradition! Whatever you do, have fun with it!
Have 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:
1. Pick a time which you set aside to conduct the weekly family meetings this summer. It can be some time on the weekend or whatever works with your family’s schedule. The point is to plan the time into your schedule so your children can look forward to having a special time to express themselves.
2. Work together to name the time set apart to meet. (Example: The Johnson Council) Create an official sign using the chosen name, and display it during family meetings!
3. Assign an office to each contributing family member. Making the meeting time more formal can be fun for your children and also introduce them to the structure of a public meeting forum. Here’s an example:
4. Create an agenda for your meeting time. Include a recap of the last meeting, a budget discussion by the treasurer, weekly stars, and weekly wishes that are ideas for the upcoming week. (A “star” would be something that is working well in your schedule; a “wish” would be something that will continually change.) Example:
Providing your children with an opportunity to participate in a weekly family meeting during the summer months can sharpen their communication skills. Meetings can coax reluctant speakers with a venue to express themselves as well as supply more vocal children with a vehicle to communicate in a safe, controlled environment. Everyone can have a chance to contribute, and you might be surprised by what you will learn during these discussions.
True Story: (If I may share a short story with you from my own childhood, it might help you think about your own communication habits within your family.)
While I was in grade school, my mother used to braid my tremendously long hair in two braids every single day. Unbeknownst to her, the other kids would tease me about my braids, which of course mortified me. I was embarrassed and would have preferred not wearing my hair that way, but in my shy obedience to my mom, I never said a word about it to her.
Imagine my surprise years later when I mentioned this period of my growing up years to her. I will never forget her saying, “All you had to do was tell me. You didn’t have to wear your hair that way.” …Wait! …All I had to do was tell her?! Ugh!
My mother’s words opened a window in my mind to the value of communication.
Is there a shy, obedient child in your family that might benefit from a weekly time to express what is on his or her mind? Do you have a more expressive child that needs structure and guidance to speak in an orderly way? Perhaps a weekly family meeting this summer could be just the tool your family needs to build communication skills.
Shurley 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.
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