Making Worksheets Fun & Functional

I am often trying to demonstrate to my students (and my colleagues/administrators as well for that matter) how the skills we learn in speech can be used in the classroom.  It helps show the relevance and ensure carryover.

How do I do this?  I like to get worksheets from resources that are designed around skills I am working with.  Below you will see some of my favorite books to use:



I introduce the skills using TpT activities such as the following:

Main Idea Games

Predicting Pirates

Inferencing Detectives Fun

Cause & Effect Pictures

Once my students have shown improvement and even mastery, I show them how to use these skills during comprehension tasks that would be seen in the classroom using the worksheets.  Can they identify question is asking the targeted skill?  Some examples of this are shown below:

I used my Main Idea & Supporting Details Wonderland with this worksheet!  It was a great way to introduce main ideas vs. details and then used that knowledge to complete the graphic organizer included with the worksheet.

I have used my Cause & Effect Pictures to introduce the concept of cause and effect.  Once mastered, we read a story from one of my books.  The questions all elicited cause and effect answers.  We used our cause and effect vocabulary from the visual in all of our answers!

I got these comprehension folder activities from Lakeshore Learning.  They come with motivating nonfiction and fiction stories, reproducible graphic organizers for note-taking and suggested activities.  I love using them and my students enjoy learning with them!

I love showing my students "Hey!  You can do this!"  The seem so proud when they seem to comprehend the stories and are able to respond.