Jackie Elliott

Hello ya'll! My name is Jackie Elliott and I teach at Eminence Middle School in Henry County, Kentucky. I have taught at Eminence the whole of my career, all 3 years now, concentrating in 5th and 6th grade Language Arts. What is unique about our school is that middle school begins with 5th grade and continues on until the completion of 8th grade, and that we have an elementary school and high school with us in the same building.  Because the high school is just upstairs from my classroom, I have the opportunity to co-coach the high school girls Varsity basketball and will be starting my second season next year.

Favorite Reads

Now that it is coming closer to summer break, I will be reading one or two books a week again [so happy :)] .  During the school year, I participate in our faculty book club at school and meet once a month to discuss a different New York Times bestseller. Other than than the monthly book, time constraints limit my reading during the school year. Since December, I have picked up The Hunger Games trilogy and devoured those in three days. I choose to read them because of all the hype it received in the press. But, it was a choice well made, because I conducted a book talk to my 6th grade classes the first day we came back from Christmas break and successfully encouraged 15 or more students to read the book. Many couldn't help discussing it before, after, and even during class with me. Three months later, we were able to discuss and evaluate the movie that came out. The trilogy served as a great way to connect with my students and see their perspectives on the content, and I look forward to our 8th grade teacher using it as a summer reading requirement this year.  Currently, I am reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I love a good mystery story and I read reviews that it is a sort of self-discovery type novel, of which I am a big fan. The plot weaves through three different generations, giving clues to uncover the secret- about the identity of a character - along the way. Over spring break, I read The Secret Life of Bees. This reminded me a lot of what I read last spring break, which was The Help. The Civil Rights era is probably one of my favorite time periods to read about, and it has urged to me to include a civil rights unit in my 6th grade classes, centered around the novels Watson Go to Birmingham and The Cay.  I also try to read many books on my students reading levels and on my nightstand are the following: Loser by Jerri Spinelli, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordin, and Esperanza Rising. I hope to somehow include these somewhere in my lesson plans through excerpts. My favorite reads of all time would have to be The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, The Pillars of the Earth, The Host, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Sarah's Key, and Jane Eyre. 

About Me

I am a super fan of the Louisville Cardinals. I go to many football, basketball, and baseball games throughout the seasons and my classroom is decked out with fan gear. In the spring, summer, and fall months,  I enjoy hiking and camping at various state parks throughout Kentucky. I got married in November 2010 to my high school sweetheart, Brian, and we are the proud parents of two kittens- Boots and Spooks. 

Literacy in the Classroom

Being a language arts teacher, literacy is the core of my instruction. One new thing I tried this year was differentiating literature circle groups based on MAP scores and lexile ranges. We studied the Holocaust, and I was able to set up groups with different Holocaust themed novels that corresponded to each student's reading level. Towards the end of the year, a colleague introduced me to this awesome website called EDMODO (it is structured just like Facebook and allows students to have online discussions with their entire class or specific groups, as well as turn in assignments, take quizzes, and participate in polls directed by the teacher) and I plan on using it next year to facilitate our paperless literature circle project. This way, students can access the website from home and discuss their assigned reading in a flipped classroom style. My 5th grade students really loved EDMODO the last quarter of the year and many were sending me responses and logging on to the class page at home asking for more work and extension projects. I highly suggest anyone who hasn't checked it out to do so! 

One literacy strategy I would like to improve in my instruction is vocabulary knowledge, specifically teaching Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes. What is best practice? How do you assess most accurately? Also, I've heard of DR-TA for informational texts, but would like to know more about what it is and how it can be implemented.