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The Productive Teacher
I help teachers and parents build knowledgeable, skilled readers based on research findings within the Science of Reading.
Explore the Parts of Literacy
Decoding Words
phonological awareness, phonics, syllables, orthographic mapping,
Vocabulary
morphology (Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, suffixes), word meanings and relationships, connotation, academic vocabulary
Grammar
parts of speech, sentence structure, syntax, punctuation, usage
Writing
sentence construction, paragraphs, organization, composition, written expression
Background Knowledge
science, history, geography, culture
Elementary Math
Explore Topics
Elementary Science
Middle School Science
Elementary Social Studies
U.S. History
World History
Elementary Culture
About Me
Hi, I’m Cate, a teacher, literacy researcher, writer, and mom of four. I have taught elementary and middle school since 2012 and am currently a Ph.D. student in Literacy, Language, and Culture at Texas Woman’s University.
As the mother of two children with dyslexia, I am passionate about making learning to read accessible to as many children as possible by empowering teachers and parents with knowledge and practical resources grounded in literacy research.
You can reach me anytime at Cate@TheProductiveTeacher.org!
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The Productive Teacher
Explore my Teachers Pay Teachers store, where more than 8,600 teacher reviews have earned The Productive Teacher a 4.9 out of 5 rating. With 700+ resources and more than 3,000 followers, you'll find practical, engaging materials designed to help students build knowledge and strengthen their reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, and more.
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A Brief Overview of the Phanerozoic Eon for Middle School Science Classes
Earth history is a fascinating topic! It is also a massive topic! The reading passage below will teach you all about the Phanerozoic eon. If you want to learn more (and why wouldn't you?!), you can check out my Earth History page. I also have all of my passages available at Teachers Pay Teachers. They come with so many extras to get your students thinking about the content! I also recommend scrolling to the bottom of the page to check out my digital picture book on the Phaner
4 min read
A Brief Overview of the Proterozoic Eon for Middle School Science Classes
Earth history is a fascinating topic! It is also a massive topic! The reading passage below will teach you all about the Hadean Eon. If you want to learn more (and why wouldn't you?!), you can check out my Earth History page. I also have all of my passages available at Teachers Pay Teachers. They come with so many extras to get your students thinking about the content! I also recommend scrolling to the bottom of the page to check out my digital picture book on the Proterozoic
6 min read
A Brief Overview of the Paleozoic Era for Middle School Science Classes
Earth history is a fascinating topic! It is also a massive topic! The reading passage below will teach you all about the Paleozoic Era. If you want to learn more (and why wouldn't you?!), you can check out my Earth History page. I also have all of my passages available at Teachers Pay Teachers. They come with so many extras to get your students thinking about the content! I also recommend scrolling to the bottom of the page to check out my digital picture book on the Paleozoi
4 min read
A Brief Overview of the Archean Eon for Middle School Science Classes
Earth history is a fascinating topic! It is also a massive topic! The reading passage below will teach you all about the Archean Eon. If you want to learn more (and why wouldn't you?!) you can check out my Earth History page. I also have all of my passages available at Teachers Pay Teachers. They come with so many extras to get your students thinking about the content! I also recommend scrolling to the bottom of the page to check out my digital picture book on the Archean Eon
3 min read
A Brief Overview of the Hadean Eon for Middle School Science Classes
Earth history is a fascinating topic! It is also a massive topic! The reading passage below will teach you all about the Hadean Eon. If you want to learn more (and why wouldn't you?!), you can check out my Earth History page. I also have all of my passages available at Teachers Pay Teachers. They come with so many extras to get your students thinking about the content! I also recommend scrolling to the bottom of the page to check out my digital picture book on the Hadean Eon!
3 min read
Learning About Mechanical Energy Conservation
Energy is the ability to do work. In science, work means using a force to move an object. So, bouncing a ball is a type of work because the ball moves, but pushing on a wall is not work because the wall doesn’t move. Mechanical energy allows an object, or person, do to work. Like other types of energy, mechanical energy cannot be created or destroyed. This is the conservation of mechanical energy. Potential and Kinetic Energy Unlike other types of energy, mechanical energy is
3 min read
Ecosystem Food Chains, Food Webs, and Energy Pyramids
Every organism on Earth needs energy to live. Except for newly discovered species living in the deepest parts of the ocean, every species on Earth gets the energy they need to live from the sun. Ecosystem food chains and food webs can both be used to show how energy moves from the sun to different animals. Food Chains An ecosystem food chain shows the path of energy through a chain of different organisms. The first link on a food chain is a producer. Producers include plants,
4 min read
What is the Difference Between the Asthenosphere and the Lithosphere?
The lithosphere and asthenosphere are both mechanical layers of the Earth. The layers of the Earth can be organized by composition (what they are made of) or mechanical properties (how they move). The lithosphere is made up of the crust and the top of the mantle. The asthenosphere is the layer within the mantle below the lithosphere. elenabsl/Shutterstock.com What is the Lithosphere? The lithosphere makes up all of the hard, solid rock on Earth. While solid rock exists in th
5 min read
What are Landslides?
Landslides change the surface of the Earth. They happen when rocks, soil, and anything else on the ground falls down a slope after becoming too weak or unstable to resist gravity. A slope includes mountains, hills, and cliffs. They happen on every continent on Earth, but they are most common in mountainous regions, such as the Andes Mountains of South America. 3 Causes of Landslides There are three causes of landslides. First, the morphology of the land. Morphology is the str
2 min read
Learning About How Volcanoes Form
Volcanoes are mountains formed around vents or fissures in the Earth’s crust that release lava, ash, rock, and gases. When volcanoes erupt, they release heat from the Earth’s interior. The Earth’s core contains decaying radioactive elements that release heat when they break down. This heat drives the convection currents in the mantle that move the tectonic plates of the crust. It also melts rock. Melted rock, called magma, collects deep underground in magma chambers. Volcanoe
4 min read
Learning About Pangaea the Supercontinent
Designua/Shutterstock.com For most of human history, people believed that the continents didn’t move. However, as technology improved, scientists could see the ways the land on Earth was constantly changing. This led to the discovery of Pangaea the supercontinent. Millions of years ago, all of the land on Earth joined together to form one massive continent. Eventually, scientists realized Pangaea, the supercontinent, was just one of many supercontinents that have formed thro
2 min read
How did Scientists Discover Seafloor Spreading?
Seafloor spreading happens at divergent plate boundaries under the ocean. As hot rocks rise in convection currents within the asthenosphere, they push the tectonic plates above them apart. The top of the convection current heats the crust above it and melts some of the rock, so it becomes magma. As the tectonic plates pull away from each other at the divergent plate boundary, the magma fills in the space between them. When the magma cools, it becomes basalt and forms new ocea
3 min read
Everything You Need to Know About Minerals
What are Minerals? Minerals are naturally occurring, inorganic, solids with definite chemical compositions and ordered internal structures. Naturally occurring means that they form in nature. People do not create them. For example, steel is not a mineral, but gold is. Inorganic means they are not made by an organism. For example, pearls are not minerals because oysters make them. Solid means that they are not liquids or gases at standard temperature and pressure. A definite c
6 min read
What is the Evidence for the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
The theory of plate tectonics is new, but some of the evidence for the theory of plate tectonics dates back millions if not billions of years. In the 1960s, geologists installed seismometers to monitor nuclear testing in the United States. The seismometers also recorded geologic activity, including earthquakes and volcanoes around the world. Geologists noticed that most of Earth’s geologic activity took place along distinct lines. They hypothesized that these lines represente
2 min read
What is the Difference Between Genetics and Heredity?
Science is all about precision. Two things may seem the same at first glance, but we see that nuance makes them different when we dive deeper. This is the case with the difference between genetics and heredity. We often see genetics and heredity used almost interchangeably. For example, one teacher may teach a genetics unit, while another will teach a heredity unit. However, the material covered in each unit is virtually the same. fizkes/Shutterstock.com The Difference Betwe
3 min read
Learning about the Theory of Continental Drift
An Overview of the Theory of Continental Drift The theory of continental drift argues that Earth’s continents are moving. It claims that the continents were once joined together in a massive supercontinent called Pangaea. The supercontinent broke apart as the continents drifted away from each other. MuratCG/Shutterstock Alfred Wegener Alfred Wegener proposed his continental drift theory in 1912 based on four observations he made about the continents. First, he saw fossils of
2 min read
What are the Three Parts of an Atom?
Don’t you love the alliteration of learning all about atoms? If you are teaching middle school science, then your students need to know all about atoms. After all, atoms are the building blocks of matter. There is a lot to know about atoms, but let’s start with what are the three parts of an atom? What is Matter? Everything around us is matter. All liquids, solids, and gases are matter. Matter is made up of tiny particles called atoms. The dog, the grass, and even the air in
4 min read
What are the Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter?
Lukas Kovarik/Shutterstock.com Everything around you is matter. Matter is all of the stuff in the universe. It has mass and takes up space. The sloth and trees in this picture are matter. The air around the sloth is matter too. There are many different physical and chemical properties of matter. Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter All matter has both physical and chemical properties. Physical properties are how something looks, feels, smells, sounds or tastes. udaix/
2 min read
Learning About the Law of Conservation of Mass
The law of conservation of mass describes the phenomenon that scientists have observed that mass stays constant throughout a chemical reaction. When the law of conservation of mass was discovered by Antoine Lavoisier in 1789, it was revolutionary because it didn’t match what people observed. Mass appeared to disappear during a chemical reaction. It wasn’t until Lavoisier was able to create a closed system for his experiments that he realized the disappearing mass was actually
3 min read
What are the Four States of Matter?
What is Matter? Everything around us is made up of matter. Matter is made up of atoms and molecules. How the atoms or molecules move determines if matter is a solid, liquid, gas, or plasma. These are the four phases of matter, also known as the four states of matter. The atoms or molecules in a solid are stuck in one place. They vibrate, but they cannot escape their position. The atoms or molecules in a liquid move freely, but they are stuck together. It is difficult for an
3 min read
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