Love podcasts? Check out this post in the form of a podcast episode on The Classroom Commute

Read about eleven different ways to meaningfully incorporate art in ELA class. Keep the focus on students' learning, not their artistic abilities.

Fables are an important part of English Language Arts instruction. The genre, which often includes animals that act like humans and moral lessons, is perfect for targeted lessons in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and analyzing. Classic and modern fables are both entertaining and approachable. Fables also shed light on other cultures, characterization, and moral lessons. Most importantly, they're just plain fun to teach! Here are 6 easy ways to teach fables in your classroom... I LOVE giving students a chance to write their very own fable. I recommend starting with mentor texts so that students can become experts on the genre. Then, through targeted writing instruction, students can write their own story that includes a moral, animal characters, story elements, and illustrations. As students develop their stories, you can even have them "pitch" their stories to their peers acting as storybook editors. Once students have written a strong fable, take these lessons to the next level and let students create a children's book filled with illustrations. You could even have them share their fables with younger students. Check out this ready-to-teach Fable Writing Unit! Don't you just love lessons that meet a ton of instructional standards at once? Well, this fable unit does just that! It’s a 7-day unit designed around Aesop’s fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” and in it students read three different versions of the fable. After building background on each form, they have the opportunity to critically read and respond to the fable in prose, verse, and drama form. Through small group work, independent studies, and class discussions students will not only understand and appreciate the elements of a fable and each form of literature, but they’ll also develop a deep understanding of each text. Learn more about this unit here. Of course, fables are wonderful to read in the classroom. But, why just read a fable when you can also connect, investigate, write, and draw? I created this Foldable Fables resource with Art with Jenny K. to combine reading, writing, and illustrating. This resource is super engaging because students create an accordion-style booklet filled with their learning and creativity. It's fun and educational! The seven learning activities help students connect deeply to their reading. Check out the super engaging Foldable Fable here! I've found that fables are wonderful to add to learning stations focused on reading comprehension skills. For instance, in this sequencing centers resource, students investigate "Fox and the Goat" at one of the learning stations. At the station, they're tasked to read the fable and then put the fable in the correct sequence with an interactive shape. Since fables are often short and focused they're the perfect addition to reading comprehension learning stations! Fables lend themselves perfectly to plays. I've found that students respond really well to opportunities to perform short skits and plays in the classroom. In this theme mini-unit, students get to act out "The Four Oxen and a Lion." As a small group, they practice reading out loud, acting, and investigating theme. It's fun for students to get into different characters as they act out a fable! I'm a big fan of reading out loud to students. Often, I would read stories to students as they completed their daily warm-ups. My read alouds included novels, poems, short stories, and of course, fables. You might mix-up your own read alouds with fables from around the world or modern fables. Here are a few collections of fables that you might want to add to your classroom library... --- Aesop's Fables: The Classic Edition --- Buddhist Stories for Kids --- Filipino Children's Favorite Stories ------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you've found some simple ways to teach fables in your classroom! Fables really are wonderful literature treasures for teaching reading, writing, investigating, performing, and more! Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth P.S. My friend, Art with Jenny K., has another idea for adding fables to the classroom. Check out her post here. *This post contains affiliate links.

Are you looking for a stress-free first week of ELA activities for high school classroom? Look no further! Keep reading for ideas, tips, and lesson plans for the first week (and beyond)! #backtoschoolactivities #elateacher #highschoolela

Need Wonder activities for your classroom or home school Wonder teaching resources? We have Wonder lesson plans, Wonder worksheets, and more ideas for book projects, kindness activities for middle school, and diversity lessons to make a great study unit for students using both the novel by RJ Palacio and teaching with movies (including the popular precepts project!).

Filler Activities for ELA (blog post) What can you do with five extra minutes in secondary ELA? Here are a few ideas to engage students until the bell.

It's time to go back to school! With the back-to-school season upon us, it is time to start planning back-to-school activities for the first week of school.

Get an outline for teaching all the reading and writing standards in your Middle School ELA class.

Are you one of the many teachers who is struggling to teach summarizing? Summarizing can be a difficult skill for students to master. It requires strong reading comprehension since students need to be able to

Now that the 2017-2018 school year has come to a close, I am spending some time reflecting on my practice as an educator. While there were some lows of the

Grab your copy of FREE ELA Curriculum Maps grades 6th-8th and save yourself a year's worth of planning! Digital maps with a planner, calendar, and more!

Build student confidence and reading endurance with these resources. Teaching short stories has never been more exciting or engaging! (blog post)

Get organized with a daily and weekly ELA plan so that you feel confident and prepared. Planning the structure of a class period varies by unit. Start here!

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Have you been wanting to try stations in your Secondary ELA classroom but aren't sure where to start? Read through this quick post where we share 8 station ideas and how to use them with your ELA students.

Ready to "cook up" a great first day of school? It's easy with this recipe for a successful start to the school year! PREP: ➤ Think about how you will set the tone for your classroom on the first day of school. ➤ Plan to keep students engaged and active. ➤ Prepare to build a positive rapport with students from the first instant that they become a part of the classroom community. INGREDIENTS: ➤ Warm-Up Activity ➤ Get-to-Know-You Activity ➤ Game that gets students out of their seats ➤ Get-to-Know-the-Teacher Activity ➤ Writing Prompt ➤ Extension Activity Once you've gathered your ingredients, you can get "cooking!" (CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE RECIPE!) PROCEDURE: STEP 1: Begin with a warm-up activity. Place an activity on students' desks that they can complete independently. You might try a simple survey or poster. An All About Me poster is a quick way to learn about students. You can even gather them together for an awesome classroom display. Or, a survey is a wonderful way to collect information about students. You might include questions about where students like to sit, their favorite way to learn, and activities that they enjoy so that you can start connecting with students. Another awesome warm-up activity is an "All About You" name tag. Students answer questions about themselves while coloring in a name tag based on their responses. Then, students can place the name tag on their desks to help you learn your students' names. This activity is particularly awesome if you have multiple sets of students. You can collect the name tags and re-distribute them each day during each class while you learn names. Oh, and as a bonus, you can gather them together and leave them with substitute teachers throughout the year! If you'd like to check out ready-made Back to School Warm-Ups, just click here for the poster, here for the survey, and here for the name tags. STEP 2: Mix in a get-to-know-you activity. Give students a chance to share about themselves and learn about their classmates with an engaging get-to-know-you activity. One of my favorites is a doodle-inspired mini-book. Students transform a single sheet of paper into a doodley mini-book all about themselves. After students make the mini-book it's fun to hang them on a clothesline. Then, as students finish their work during the first days of school, you can encourage fast-finishers to grab a classmate's mini-book and learn about him or her. Check out the doodle mini-book HERE. Or, you could have students create this 3-D About Me Activity. Students create an infographic-style book about themselves. After answering some simple questions, they do a little cutting and gluing to create a 3-D "About Me" display. These are especially fun because students can set them on their desks and then everyone can tour around the classroom and learn about their peers. (These are awesome for Open House too!) Learn more HERE. STEP 3: Scatter in an activity that gets students moving. Since students crave opportunities to get up and out of their seats, plan to get your class moving on the first day of school. You might have students complete a scavenger hunt or even play a learning game that requires students to move around. I'm a huge fan of this simple get-to-know-you activity that gets students moving (and you can download it for FREE here.) First, students make paper airplanes. They write their name and 3 interview questions on the wings. Then, students line up shoulder-to-shoulder and launch the planes. Next, they pick up a classmate's plane, find him or her, and ask the interview questions. You can repeat the airplane launch as often as you'd like! Find everything you need to do this activity in this FREEBIE. If you'd like to combine movement and learning on the first day of school, then you and your students will love this Back to School Doodle Infographic. First students fill in the infographic with facts about school. There are 21 facts and you can hide them around the room to get students moving. Then, they put together the infographic to make a fun and doodle-y poster! Check it out HERE. STEP 4: Sprinkle in a chance for students to get-to-know-you (their teacher). On the first day of school, students are very curious about you. They want to learn about you, so you'll want to be sure to share about yourself. You can give a simple biography of yourself, or you might try these easy and engaging activities: Create a teacher interview question along with 4 or 5 prize cards for each student in your class. Then, tape the questions and the prize cards under students' seats before class begins. During class, explain to students that they all have something under their chairs. It might be a question and it might be a prize. If they get a prize card, have students keep it quiet. Then, call on students. They can either read a question for you to answer or reveal that they won a prize. If they won, you might give them a pencil, piece of candy, or a homework pass. You can find all my favorite questions HERE. Or, you might have students complete a "Teacher Guess" about you. First, they predict the answers to questions about you. Then, as you reveal the answers, they earn points for every correct prediction. It's a fun activity that students truly enjoy! You can check it out HERE. STEP 5: Add a fun writing prompt to your back to school activities. A writing prompt is a great way to gather a baseline for students' writing on the first day of school. You might give students a simple prompt about their summer or goals for the new school year. However, I love to add a fun creative writing prompt into the mix. For example, with this writing prompt students select a setting, character, problem, and 3 random objects. Then, they need to work them all into a story. It's fun, engaging, and a great way to see where your students are starting the school year. Find this writing prompt HERE or check out this collection of 10 creative writing activities. STEP 6: Top it off with a review of tomorrow's warm-up. Set students up for success during your next day of school by quickly reviewing what they will need to do when they arrive to class. If you're planning to have students work through warm-ups like these This or That ELA warm-ups where students choose to do the "this" or the "that" activity, then you might quickly review what will be waiting on their desks when they arrive. Taking the time to preview tomorrow's warm-up is a great way to set expectations for students! If you're looking for some daily warm-ups, you might want to check out these This or That ELA warm-ups or these This or That Writing warm-ups! STEP 7: Don't forget to have an extension activity just in case your lesson ends early. I love playing games like "Move If You..." which you can find for FREE HERE. While you may never get to the extension activity, it's a lifesaver if you need it! TIPS: When you're following this recipe for a great first day of school, you might want to: ➤ Greet students at the door and answer these questions for students right away: ➨ Where do I sit? ➨ Am I in the right classroom? ➨ What should I be doing right now? ➤ Also, be prepared to manage students' behavior on the first day of school. Ensure that you have a positive classroom management system in place and ready to use if you need it! Well, there you have it, my recipe for a great first day of school. Be sure to download all the ideas with links AND the FREE airplane activity HERE! CHECK THIS OUT! I've put together a 100+ page guide for back to school for teachers. It includes tips, tools, and printables for classroom décor, classroom organization, lesson planning, community building, and planning the first day of school. It's absolutely FREE! Just click here to sign up. When you sign up, you'll get access to 6 mini-courses that cover everything Back to School including classroom design, organization, curriculum planning, and ways to build a positive classroom community. There's also a TON of exclusive freebies, bonuses, and videos! If you'd like to learn more and sign up, just click HERE. Thanks so much for stopping by, Mary Beth P.S. If you'd like MORE free resources for your classroom, be sure to join the Brain Waves Instruction club!

Get an outline for teaching all the reading and writing standards in your Middle School ELA class.

The burning question that most new, and even experienced, teachers have is what types of writing to teach and how to structure it all within a school year. Most of us are beholden to meet state standards and this can leave us feeling like we are teaching to the test rather than helping students produce […]

Hey there, fellow English teacher! I want to share what my secondary English curriculum for the first six weeks of school looks like.

Looking for Wordle classroom ideas? Incorporate Wordle into your classroom with this activities, ideas, and templates.

Are your students disinterested and tired of the traditional ways of learning characterization? Have you been searching for a really fun, student-centered, interactive way to eliminate their boredom? Well, look no further! I present to you a wonderful student-collaboration activity that will get your students involved and excited for a character analysis for any novel, […]

There's a lot of ground to cover when you teach creative narrative writing. Here are 5 creative narrative mini-lessons you should be sure to use!

Movement in the classroom is beneficial for many reasons. First and foremost, getting up to move in the classroom might help anxious students relieve stress.

We are twin elementary school teachers that are passionate about teaching and share our resources and teacher tips with other eager and passionate educators.

Wondering how to sequence grammar instruction? You'll want this list that scaffolds grammar lessons so that one skill builds upon the next.

Help your students master identifying the author's purpose with these fun and interactive Author's Purpose Activities for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-grade students. Students will determine if the author is trying to Persuade, Inform or Entertain by reading the short passage on the task card. These Author's Purpose task cards are perfect for a whole class game of Scoot, a small group activity, a partner or an independent center activity. Also included in this resource is a cut and paste author's purpose worksheet for review or reinforcement. Engage students with these interactive activities instead of another reading passage or just more author's purpose worksheets. Your students will love working on identifying the author's purpose with these fun and engaging author's purpose activities. Get the Author's Purpose Bundle here>>> AUTHOR'S PURPOSE BUNDLE Author's Purpose Task Card Activities includes: 12 Author's Purpose Task Cards Student Response Sheet Answer Key Cut and Paste Author's Purpose Worksheet See What Teachers Are Saying: This was a fun hands-on visual activity that allowed students to think about the author's purpose. It was also a great and quick way to assess student understanding of the author's purpose. My students were struggling with Author's Purpose and this resource made it so easy for them to understand the concept. Students were engaged and loved the activities. This helped students determine the author's purpose. I always prefer interactive activities and this was so helpful! More Fun and Engaging Author's Purpose Activities: AUTHOR'S PURPOSE AUTHOR'S PURPOSE (THANKSGIVING) AUTHOR'S PURPOSE (CHRISTMAS) AUTHOR'S PURPOSE (WINTER) AUTHOR'S PURPOSE (FEBRUARY) ⭐ LET’S GET CONNECTED! ⭐ TEACHING SECOND GRADE BLOG TEACHING SECOND GRADE FACEBOOK TEACHING SECOND GRADE PINTEREST TEACHING SECOND GRADE INSTAGRAM HOW TO GET CREDIT TOWARDS FUTURE PURCHASES! Go to your My Purchases page. Next to each purchase, you will see a "Provide Feedback" button. Click on that button and it will take you to a page where you can leave a rating and a comment about the product. Every time you provide feedback, you will earn TPT credits. These can be applied to future purchases to save you money! Yay! FOLLOW MY TPT STORE Click the green star beside my name at the top of this page or Click Here. By doing this, you will see when I add a new product or have upcoming sales! >>> TERMS OF USE <<< All rights reserved. Purchase of this item entitles only the purchaser the right to reproduce the pages for classroom use only. Duplication for an entire school (system) or commercial purposes is strictly forbidden without written permission from the author. Copying any part of this product and placing it on the internet, in any form (not even on a personal / classroom website) is strictly forbidden. This is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright ACT or DMCA. These items can and will be traced back to the publishing site.

Engaging, fun ways to teach your students summarizing skills. Strengthen their reading skills and provide practice with this challenging concept.

Are you looking for ways to make learning more meaningful in your Secondary ELA Classroom? Check out these twenty five creative project ideas that I have found to be meaningful and successful while also motivating for learners.

Analyzing writing curriculums, planning writing workshop and teaching writing lessons can be overwhelming. You might think, how am I going to fit everything in and produce successful writers? Where do I start? What skills do they need? This post will share the 7 BASIC WRITING LESSONS that every teacher should teach! With this basic knowledge, students will be able to perform other writing assignments more effectively. The following skills are not only effective in upper elementary, they are often needed at the middle school level for review or the primary level for differentiation. So yes, every teacher should teach them! If you start with these 7 fundamental skills, it will set the expectations for your writing lessons and assignments throughout the year! Frequently Asked Questions What are the basic skills and what order should I teach them? Sentence Structure 1. Complete Sentences Lesson for complete sentences 2. Fragments Lesson for fragments 3. Run-ons Lesson for run-ons Paragraph Writing 4. Topic Sentences Lesson for topic sentences 5. Relevant Details Lesson for relevant details 6. Transition Words Lesson for transition words 7. Closing Sentences Lesson for closing sentences How much time should I dedicate to teaching these fundamental skills? I recommend one day for each skill. If you spend a whole writing block for each skill, students will benefit from the practice. How do I teach each skill? First: Start with an anchor chart explaining the skill. (See each lesson link above for effective anchor charts.) Second: Provide examples. Students can share examples too! Next: Students should take notes. I love using Interactive Writing Notebooks to take notes. Research supports the use of interactive notebooks through studies on multiple intelligences, the brain and note taking. Here are a few videos to Set Up Interactive Writing Notebooks. Click photo for the Upper Elementary Version. A Primary Version is also available. Then: Identify the skill. Provide practice sheets and task cards for students to practice identifying the skill in sentences and paragraphs. Last: Apply the skill. Students should have the opportunity to write their own sentence or paragraph to apply the particular skill. What if I can't fit the lesson in one writing block? If you can't extend the days to complete them, there are other ways to get the whole lesson in. You can put practice sheets or task cards in a center, or you can have students apply the skill for homework or morning work the next day. What if my students, some of my students, or absent students can't do interactive notebooks? Make a small anchor chart to put in their notebooks with the same information! If you don't have a printable poster, take a picture of the anchor chart you used in class and print them off! I hope you found this post helpful and your students become successful writers this year! Connect With Me! TPT Store Facebook Pinterest My Blog

Okay so my planning day was not too bad. I did manage to get a few things done, but of course there is always more. I can't complain too muc...

Lesson ideas and activities for listening skills practice and monitoring with upper elementary and middle school students.

These nine main idea strategies will help your students successfully master this important reading skill. The Teacher Next Door shares her favorite main idea strategies for teachers of upper elementary students.

Book reports and summaries are a thing of the past. Engage your middle and high school students with five book report alternatives that will leave them asking for more and, most importantly, building vital reading and analysis skills along the way. 1. Assign one pagers at the end of a novel. One pagers are engaging, allow for creativity, and lead to higher level thinking and analysis. Assigning a one pager is easy and works for any novel. Follow these simple guidelines: • Make it standards base

At the end of each novel I teach, I like to have my students participate in some sort of culminating literary analysis project that allows me to assess their

Wondering how to structure your middle school language arts daily schedule? Here's the planning template I developed to find my ideal stride!

Flu season is upon us, so I wanted to compile some of my favorite free resources for last-minute sub plans. Everything I've chosen is 100% free and ready to print. These resources don't take a lot

Pokemon Go was all the rage in 2016. Fortnite in 2017. You get where we are going with this! Getting back into the swing of things of a new school year can be tricky, but we can help! An easy way to connect with your students is to make your back-to-school lessons relevant and relatable. How can you do this? We have compiled a list of several ways that you can easily incorporate teen trends into your back-to-school lessons for the first few weeks (or anytime!) of the year. Most teens love music and connect with it on a personal level. You can bridge that connection by incorporating music into your daily routines. For example, play an upbeat song between bell work and discussion time to motivate your students. If you struggle to know what's popular with your students, just ask them! The beginning of the year is the perfect time to find out more about them and their music preferences. You can give them a writing prompt asking what their favorite songs are or be even more specific; ask them: Which song makes you want to get up and dance? Which song could you listen to over and over again and never grow tired of? Once you have compiled a list of their favorite songs, search the lyrics of a few. You can often find the best examples of figurative language in song lyrics. If the lyrics are appropriate, print them off and play the song in class and ask students to find examples of figurative devices. This activity can be done anytime, but it's for great back-to-school to review figurative language and to gauge your students' learning levels. Another way to incorporate music directly into learning is to compare popular music artists with writers or subjects you are reading. During poetry and Shakespeare units, I love challenging students to see if they can guess whether the line or phrase is from a song or a poem. I created an entire series with various poets and musicians that you can download here. I'll start out with a presentation and a student handout so the as whole can engage in the activity. It's so much fun to see their reactions when they swear there's no way the line came from an old poet, but it actually did! The next day, I'll display the bulletin board (below) so students can continue to interact with the lines of poetry and songs. One way to grab the attention of your students is to explore books that may have been released since school has been out and/or sharing some titles of books that will be released in the coming months! Talk about anticipation! :) Here are a few YA books that came out recently: Girl Gone Viral by Arvin Ahmadi The Haunted by Danielle Vega We Walked the Sky by Lisa Fiedler Here are a few YA books that will be coming out soon: Frankly in Love by David Yoon The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh You can also see what your students are interested in by displaying these Genre Reading Cards around a few tables in your classroom (or in the library). Simply, set out the different genre cards, select a few books that fit within each genre, set a timer for 2-3 minutes and let your students explore the various titles. Follow-up with a brief discussion on their favorite books they may have already read (or discovered) through the stations. This is a quick and easy way to see what genres they are interested in or may be interested in exploring this school year. Whether it's the World Cup or the Super Bowl, chances are many of your students are fans of sports or are familiar with at least one sport. Using this FREE survey at the beginning of the year, ask your students which sports or teams are their favorite. (Click HERE to get an editable digital copy of the survey ready for distance learning!) Once you have an idea about their favorites, you can incorporate them into your lessons. For example, if you are writing a sample sentence for a grammar lesson, name-drop a player from one of their favorite teams. My students are usually divided between being either a Chicago Cubs or a St. Louis Cardinals baseball fan, so a sample sentence may be: "Anthony Rizzo and Dexter Fowler sat down together to have pizza after the Cubs defeated the Cardinals last night." Every two years, you can integrate the Olympics into your lessons. Re-word the titles of your activities or assignments by using Olympic-themed names. Instead of calling it a class discussion or a "think-pair-share," call it the "Opening Ceremony" or "Passing the torch of knowledge." A quiz can be called a bobsled competition or a vault competition for gymnastics. Award the top three scores with gold, silver and bronze medals. If you teach multiple sections of the same class, have your classes compete for the overall winner. Awards points for the class with the fewest tardies, the highest scores on quizzes or assignments, and/or the liveliest discussions. Better yet, have your students create the areas for competitions and what they'd like to call them. They can even pick which country they would like to represent (or create their own country). Some students may not like traditional sports, but love video and online gaming. The popularity of videos such as Minecraft and Fortnite paired with the rise of schools adopting eSports as official extracurricular activities indicate that our students still love gaming. Instead of fighting it, try to embrace it by giving students opportunities to utilize both the skills they learn through games with academic skills. For example, I asked my students to recreate a scene from Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. One group built Rome in Minecraft and reenacted one of the scenes live as the class watched. My head was swimming a bit, but it was pretty amazing to see what they created together and how they adapted it to the text. They learned more about the play from that one assignment and had so much fun doing it. This particular assignment may not work with other games, but if you allow your students the possibility of incorporating their favorite game into a project, you may be amazed at the ideas that they come up with. I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things as a student was when we were able to follow-up a book with a movie. As a visual person, I always appreciated when I saw a book come to life after reading it (even though most people prefer the book over the movie). Watching the movie after reading the book can lead to a lot of fun class discussions. Here are a few fun prompts that you can use to follow-up after your are done reading and watching! What did you like better, the book or the movie? Why was the book better than the movie? Why was the movie better than the book? What did the book have that the movie didn't? What did the movie have that the book didn't? A great way to grab the attention of your students would be to plan a unit around an upcoming movie release based on a book. This might be an older book or perhaps, a newer one. Regardless, your students will think it's pretty cool that they are going to be able to watch a movie. I realize it's not possible for all classes to be able to watch a movie in a theatre, but it's a fun and quick field trip if you can make it work! Movie theatres usually give a discount on larger groups and I usually try to work in a price that includes popcorn and a drink for everyone, too. If you think money may be an issue for some students, it does not hurt to ask your administraton for some assistance. They will, almost always, find a way to make sure everyone in your class is able to participate. You can also plan a unit around a particular theme of a movie coming out (or already in stores), if you're looking to take a break from reading for a few weeks. Once students gain a better understanding or appreciation about a particular theme, you can show them a movie where they can explore that theme even more. This way, if taking your students to a movie theatre isn't an option, then show a movie in your classroom instead! Note: You can ask your students which movies they may be interested in watching at the start of the year, then surprise them with the themed unit based around that film! One of the easiest ways to incorporate both social media and pop culture all at once is incorporating current events into your classroom. You can do this on a local, national or international level. You can simply ask your students to start talking about what's happening in your town, in the world, or even more specifically, with their favorite movie actors, singers, bands, etc. What's the gossip with their favorite celebrities? Once your ideas have been shared and topics have been listed, you can use this list as a means for an impromptu writing activity, as an essay topic, etc. The possibilities are endless. If you're interested in checking out more ways on how you can incorporate pop culture into the classroom, click HERE. You might also be interested in: Soundtrack of my Life/Playlist of my Summer

As students head back to school, ELA teachers everywhere are considering how they are going to begin the school year, so I wanted to walk you through one of my favorite lesson plans entitled, “Why do we read?” As an educator, there are few things as exciting and rewarding as introducing a young person to […]

Ring in the new year with these January Writing Prompts! Fun, educational, and imagination building ideas for Opinion, Narrative, and Informative writing.

I giggled to myself as I created the title to this blog post! If you are new to my blog, I'll have you know that this is the THIRD time I've written an "ELA in

In this engaging activity, students make inferences and draw conclusions by analyzing a variety of text message conversations. Students are required to cite evidence for each answer. Digital & Printable Options: This product now includes a Google Slides option as well as a printable PDF. This product also includes a page that has two blank […]

Use the jigsaw teaching strategy to engage your students and give them more ownership of their learning. Try it in your classroom.