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!

September 19, 2023

Grammar Extension: The Empowering Acrostic Poem

September 19, 2023/ Contributing Blogger

The ideal scenario for the first couple months of a new school year would be a classroom running smoothly. You want to be comfortable with your daily schedule and know that you can meet the needs of all of your diverse students.

Realistically, some of you may already feel like the expectations and duties increase even more as the fall progresses. Before you become consumed with the busyness of the new school year, always remember this: “YOU are a TEACHER!” You are the one that works to mold the future. You make an incredible impression and impact in the lives of all the students who enter your classroom.

This year is a brand new one, and if you’re ready to level-up your teaching, you should consider this question: “What kind of teacher do you want to be this year?”

October 04, 2022

Grammar Extension: The Empowering Acrostic Poem

October 04, 2022/ Contributing Blogger

This year is a brand new one, and if you’re ready to level-up your teaching, you should consider this question: “What kind of teacher do you want to be this year?”

December 27, 2019

Language Arts Success: The BEST of 2019

December 27, 2019/ Kim Shurley

As the calendar year comes to a close, a teacher’s journey is still moving at full speed. (It’s true!) We are not quite to the half-way mark of our year, and we still have much to do! As 2019 comes to a close and before you begin the second semester, I would encourage you to take a moment, stop, and reflect. It is good for the mind and soul to take note of one’s progress. What successes are you seeing in the classroom? Are you on the track you had planned? Do you need to make adjustments? To help you do so, we've assembled

October 02, 2019

Grammar Extension: The Empowering Acrostic Poem

October 02, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

This year is a brand new one, and if you’re ready to level-up your teaching, you should consider this question: “What kind of teacher do you want to be this year?”

August 01, 2019

The goal of Shurley English

August 01, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

It’s that time of year again, and most teachers are trying their best to enjoy their final days of summer break. It’s hard to believe that some schools have already started professional development opportunities for their staff members. Before you know it, your own classroom will be filled with a new group of young learners.

Some teachers are looking forward to teaching a new curriculum this year. Even though that can be exciting and motivating, it can also cause feelings of nervousness. Some teachers have a curriculum in place with nothing new to add. For these teachers, feelings of confidence about the content are more likely to occur. Either way, it’s helpful to be reminded of curriculum goals and to be re-motivated to teach certain subjects.

If Shurley English training is not on your professional development schedule this year, I’m here to remind you of your goal when you teach the curriculum…

April 11, 2019

ELA Success: Patience is key!

April 11, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Most of my blog content comes from questions I’ve answered at one time or another from teachers and administrators who use Shurley English. I often hear the urgency in their voices, and they seem to be looking for a quick fix to the problems their students are experiencing. Sure, we all want quick results, but usually, by the time you manage to find just the right curriculum or just the right supplement to your teaching, the students have moved on. Then, you get a new batch of students with similar but unique struggles, and you’re back at it again, trying to find what works and what works fast.

Even though we, as a society, rely on instant gratification, immediate feedback, and quick results, the outcome of an exemplary education won’t happen that way. Honestly, we all know there are NO quick fixes that produce the quality results we’re seeking, not in life or in curriculum.

April 09, 2019

The Playbook of Literary Success: Composition

April 09, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

The Playbook of Literacy Success highlights the necessary knowledge, skills, and practice required to win the game of literacy development. Great players gain confidence when they own and use a broad vocabulary and a strong grammar foundation. These two core concepts serve to prepare all players for one of the greatest plays of all: composition! If you missed Part I and Part II of the Playbook of Literacy Success, you might want to go back to the starting line to catch up with some calisthenics we call Shurley English Jingles and then move into our version of the wishbone formation, which we call the Question and Answer Flow. Today, our focus is on composition and the writing process.

March 26, 2019

The Playbook of Literary Success: Grammar

March 26, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Let’s get back into the language arts huddle to go over some key plays that will help your students win the game! If you missed Part I of the Playbook of Literacy Success, you might want to go back to the starting line to capture the necessity of a strong vocabulary. As for today, we’re going to focus on Part II: Grammar. We’ll begin with some calisthenics we call Shurley English Jingles, and then we’ll move right into our version of the wishbone formation! We call this feature the Question and Answer Flow.

March 14, 2019

ELA Success: If it works, don't fix it!

March 14, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

I think you will agree that by and large, if something works, you don’t need to fix it. I suppose it is human nature, or maybe just my nature, but I never seem to be able to leave well enough alone. It seems like if you’re a teacher, you simply must change, revise, correct, improve, or add to—it’s in our DNA! Thank goodness for Shurley English because it is the kind of curriculum that works. It works for a lot of reasons, but right now, I want to talk about how the teaching scripts work for instructors to make teaching the curriculum easy.

December 27, 2018

Language Arts Success: The BEST of 2018

December 27, 2018/ Kim Shurley

As the calendar year comes to a close, a teacher’s journey is still moving at full speed. (It’s true!) We are not quite to the halfway mark of our year, and we still have much to do! As 2018 comes to a close and before you begin the second semester, I would encourage you to take a moment, stop, and reflect. It is good for the mind and soul to take note of one’s progress. What successes are you seeing in the classroom? Are you on the track you had planned? Do you need to make adjustments?

To help you do so, we've assembled a list of the 10 most significant language arts stories we discussed in 2018. From study skill tips to word analysis strategies to the grammar-writing connection, these articles examine ways to ignite learning while building a solid foundation for #ELAsuccess.