First, read a book!

Ultimately, to be the exceptional teacher I believed my children and my students deserved, I read some books! MANY books! And you know what? I was WOWed! Great stories are simply amazing!

I’m proud to report, I read alongside my children kindergarten through 12th grade.

I read on the beach in summer while my children made sand castles. I read at the park while they climbed up and down the slide. I read during swim lessons. I listened to a child read aloud here and there while I did dishes. And I enlisted Audible! You can do this!

What I decided, early on, was to become the teacher who is delighted to learn.

Blackbird & Company curriculum is designed to inspire children to read and to write and to think well. During the process of engaging with books, journalling their way through stories, and working through the process of writing original ideas, your students will gain skills and confidence.

So back to “Do I have to read the book? (Yes), ” and on to the the next step: Prepare to be a guide.

Next, pack a knapsack of tools!

The following “support materials” are NOT simply “extras” but, rather, tools designed to help YOU, the teacher, make the most of our ELA curriculum. You don’t need to be an expert or have all the answers tied up in a pretty bow. You need to be willing to teach, mentor, guide. Our support materials are not scripted. When it comes to the art of teaching, we left plenty of room for YOU—the teacher, to teach, to mentor, to guide. We have built into each student guide: pacing, a rhythm of routine, and simplicity that will allow YOU to actually teach.

Always begin at the beginning.

Get to know the student guides—begin with out CORE Literature and Writing units. Once you understand how these work, the APPLICATION materials will be a breaze to navigate. There is valuable information for YOU, the teacher, to implement alongside a mentor built into the scaffolding that will guide your students through the journaling, research, and writing.

Our TEACHING TOOLS are designed to give you space to confidently set learning into motion. Every element of our student materials is designed with purpose, our teaching tools are no exception. The following materials will help you create opportunities for your students to be curious, imaginative, and to develop the tenacity to bring shape to their ideas.

Teacher Helps: For our Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers we’ve created a Hatchling Teacher Helps that will support you through these crucial years. We’ve also created a slim handbook filled with strategies to support you, the teacher, with students utilizing CORE Levels 1, 2, & 3 (3rd grade through 8th grade). This said, every single student guide contains its own pacing, information, and strategies to support your students well.

Answer Keys: English Language Arts is just that, an art form. As such, the majority of what your student journals and writes about is subjective in nature. Our blog contains many articles to help you edit student writing. We have created answer keys for the small portion of each guide that is answerable, or objective in nature. These can be downloaded and printed for FREE! Or, you can save paper / printer ink and simply access online!

Reader’s Guides and Seven Tips: Leading young minds through literature can be intimidating—teachers are forced to ask the big questions, like, “What are the themes of this story?” and “How can we learn from these characters?” And that’s not even mentioning the pivoting we have to be prepared for when our students pull questions seemingly out of nowhere! Consider our Reader’s Guides are the helping hand we extend to, your, the teacher and parent-teacher as you read along your students.

Lesson Plans: Because each and every classroom is unique, be it a traditional seated classroom, a hybrid micro-classroom, or a homeschool setting, our lesson plans are a great place to get started. We have created lesson plans for curated Grade Level Collections and also for every single individual type of product for those who curate unique ELA collections.

Downloadable Materials: Print Shop is the place to discover some wonderful downloadable resources. From primary ABCeDarian projects to Writer’s Checklists to Cgaracter Trait cards to Reader’s Guides for teachers—the resources are rich.

Videos: We are constantly adding videos to support. From our Hatchling videos for Kindergarten and 1st Grade, to the Leonardo da Vinci instructional videos, to our most recent “How to Edit Student Writing” and more. Explore and check back often.

You don’t have to have all the answers. You simply have to be willing to be a guide, wandering with your students in the realm of wonder.

~Kimberly