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!
Get an outline for teaching all the reading and writing standards in your Middle School ELA class.
If you have been following our blog, you might have seen our post about our favorite teacher hack, earlier finisher packets! If you missed it, don’t worry, I will sum it up real quick for you. Essentially, despite teaching different grade, Emmy and I realized we were both having the same Issue. Kid
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, […]
Take a deep dive into the common 5 structure options for your ELA literacy block with benefits of each outlined in an informative & actionable manner.
Standards based reading responses do not have to be boring! The Best Ever Reading Responses for Secondary ELA cover many of the major Reading Literature and Reading Informational Text standards, but they're also tons of fun! You're students are going to LOVE these 5 engaging reading response projects! Projects include: The Paper Airplane Book Report: The most engaging book report EVER, students add protagonist passengers on one side and antagonist characters on the other. Students also analyze character development, the development of theme, and the impact of setting. Instead of presenting their book reports, students fly them! On the due date, students fly airplanes to a classmate. Classmates read each other's airplanes and share them with the class. Nothing But Numbers: Students share numerical facts from their novels and display them in a creative way. Students analyze the number's significance using text based evidence to support their analysis. We Are Different, but We Are the Same: Students make text to text, text to self, and text to world and history connections and display them in a creative way. Students support their ideas using text based evidence. Strange But True: Students share eight strange but true facts about their novels. Students share text based evidence to prove that although each fact is strange, it's actually true in their novel! Literary Fact or Fiction: Students choose to share an unbelievable fact from their novels OR create a fiction that seems to be true on the outside of this lift-the-flap activity and display. On the inside, students write the truth: is the tidbit really fact or is it fiction created by the student? Display these fun reading responses and ask classmates to read as many fact or fictions and make their guesses. This engaging responses is a great way to introduce students to lots of great YA titles!
If you have been following our blog, you might have seen our post about our favorite teacher hack, earlier finisher packets! If you missed it, don’t worry, I will sum it up real quick for you. Essentially, despite teaching different grade, Emmy and I realized we were both having the same Issue. Kid
Read about eleven different ways to meaningfully incorporate art in ELA class. Keep the focus on students' learning, not their artistic abilities.
Paragraph writing is a big challenge for many students. This post includes a step-by-step method to help your students write great paragraphs in no time.
Supercharge your morning work with I Heart Literacy! Each page features a fun theme so your students will not only be practicing reading and ELA skills, but will also be learning about a curriculum-based topic. A wide variety of Common Core skills are addressed. Try these five free pages for free! Happy Teaching! Rachel Lynette ... Read More about Morning Work ELA and Reading Freebie!
Each classroom brings students of multiple learning styles and backgrounds. It is our job to provide opportunities that reach all of the many different learning styles that come to us. For this reason, it is
Use these free Writing Folders and freebies to give your writers support during their independent writing time. Find all our FREE Writing Printables HERE. If you are a subscriber to my newsletter, you can download all the printables that go with it for FREE! Not a subscriber? Simply subscribe HERE! NOTE: If you are already a ... Read More about Writing Folders – for K-5 Learners
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!
When I think about student writing, one of the most difficult concepts to teach is sentence fluency. Much of excelling at fluent writing revolves around students’ background with literacy. Certainly,...
The beginning of the school year is an important time to assess the writing skill levels of new students in our English classes. One way to do this is to assign a diagnostic essay in order to "diagnose" each student's writing level. This creative approach to essay writing helps students t
Do you have elementary students in your homeschool? If so, you will find this FREE Elementary Reading & Writing Bundle so helpful! It’s full of useful homeschool printables for writing and reading assessment as well as reading comprehension. This limited time freebie will end on 4/26 so you will want to be sure to grab the...
I receive a lot of questions about how I run my literacy block. At my school, our schedule is blocked out, but I have freedom to arrange my own blocks (if that makes sense). So my literacy block is 9:40 – 11:15, and this is what I’ve decided to do with it: We start right ... Read More about My Literacy Block
Wondering how to sequence grammar instruction? You'll want this list that scaffolds grammar lessons so that one skill builds upon the next.
Trying to improve reading fluency in high school can be frustrating. Here are some effective approaches educators can use in the classroom.
Motivate students with independent reading by adding engaging reading sprints...turn the traditional reading log upside down!
Procedural writing or "How-to" is one of my favorite units! Read this post to discover some fantastic mentor texts to use in your classroom!
Do you use a yearly pacing guide? It is so handy to have a map of how you plan to fit the various standards into your academic year. Things WILL change, but it nice to have some idea of where you'd like to be with your instruction. I think that it makes lesson
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.
Looking for esl task cards to use with your english language learners? Try these picture cards that are perfect for quick and effective language practice!
Morphology study involves examining word parts (morphemes) and the relationships between words. By learning to examine bases, roots, and affixes, students can develop a deep understanding of our language and enhance their vocabulary development, reading, writing, spelling, and more! Talk about big impact... morphology study pays huge dividends! This document was designed to help you create an interactive morphology wall to display that exploration of words! Use the cards to document your work with different types of morphemes, or use them to build word matrices with your students! Included in this document is a list of additional resources you can reference to learn more about morphology and how to build it into your cross-curricular instruction. This interactive morphology wall is designed to be program-agnostic; use it along with any core program! As terminology is used differently in different curriculums and resources, I have provided 2 versions of the terminology cards so you can align this document with the resources you are using. Contents 3 display posters: Directions, vertical alignment of CCSS language standards, and “Did You Know” poster 24 terminology cards with definitions and visuals 26 of the most frequently used prefixes 26 of the most frequently used suffixes 20 free base words to use with beginners 47 common Latin roots 32 common Greek roots List of web, video, and text resources to learn more! Morphemes Included: Prefixes: un-, re-, in-, dis-, en-, non-, in-, over-, mis-, sub-, pre-, inter-, fore-, de-, trans-, super-, semi-, anti-, mid-, under-, con-, ad-, ex-, ob-, a-, contra- Suffixes: -s, -ed, -ing, -ly, -or, -ion, -able, -al, -ful, -ic, -ty, -ive, -less, -ment, -ness, -ous, -ship, -ure, -y, -en, -er, -est, -ish, -ize, -ate, -ian Free Bases: build, care, friend, fright, help, grow, heat, hope, joy, know, pack, play, please, read, sign, start, stop, thank, use, watch Latin Bases: aud, cap, contra, cred, duct, equ, fact, fer, form, frac(t), grat, ject, lev, man, mem, mis, mote, ped, pen(se), port, pos, rupt, scrib, sta(t), stru(ct), vac, vis, voc, volv Greek Bases: amphi, astro, auto, biblio, bio, chron, gener, geo, graph, hemi, hydr, hyper, ist, logo, macro, mech, meter, micro, mono, ology, opt, para, phil, phon, photo, pod, psych, scope, sphere, syn, tele, therm ***** Please note that this is a large file. You will download a compressed .zip folder that contains multiple PDF documents. You will need software to open a PDF file such as Adobe Acrobat. Printing suggestions are listed within the document. You may print as many copies of cards as you want for use with your own students. Additional licenses for both documents must be purchased for use by other teachers. ***** See more of this product in action in my blog post! Looking for more?! Check out: Morphology Notebook and Word Matrix Mat Morpheme Word Lists Morphology Card Game Morphology Bundle! Follow me on Instagram for more Science of Reading content!
Independent reading is a great way to help students build a love of reading! These 5 strategies help hold students accountable!
Are you looking for an effective way to organize your students' interactive writing notebooks and folders? I've used writing notebooks for several years and have made changes along the way to find the best possible way to use them. In this post, I will show you how to set
I have so much to share with you about writing interventions, but first things first: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW BLOG DESIGN?!?!? Please share your thoughts! Every year, I meet lots of middle schoolers who struggle with writing. And every year, I play around with lots of different interventions to meet their needs. Last year, I made establishing sound writing interventions one of my big goals. I spent lots of time (and money!!) on resources that I could use, and by about March, I had something that I thought I was pretty happy with. This year, I'm starting off with those interventions that worked so well last year and I couldn't be happier with the results! In fact, I'm so pleased with how they are working, I feel confident enough to share my practice with my blog readers. I can say that these are definitely KID TESTED, TEACHER APPROVED!! Creating a Time and Space for Intervention within your Classroom I teach by myself. There are no aides, special ed teachers, BSI teachers... just little, ol' me! So, when I want to create and manage small groups, I'm on my own. This is hard. It would be so much easier if there was another adult in the room to help, but there is not, so I just have to deal! It's work, but it absolutely can be done! A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Power of Bell-Ringers. Establishing a quiet and smooth transition into writing class is a great way to get started, but it also provides me with a window of time where I can pull a small group! By mid-October, my bell-ringer time gets extended to 15 minutes. The kids get started immediately and are clear on the expectations during this time. Now the environment for working with small groups is set: the room is quiet and engaged, allowing me to focus my time on the handful of kids in my group. I pull my kids to a table that I have set up in front of our classroom library. I have a "teacher station" at one end where I do my instruction. I usually stream some jazz or piano music during this time so my group doesn't distract the rest of the class. Establishing Interventions In my district, by middle school, there are no longer district-mandated interventions in place. There are no clear resources for teachers to use or personnel to help. So, when we have a struggling reader or writer in 7th or 8th grade, it's the job of the classroom teacher to meet their needs. In my tenure of working with middle schoolers, I've found that there are two types of students who need more support than my writing curriculum provides (and please remember... I am not a researcher/specialist/writer of books/etc. I'm just a teacher, like you, who loves my job, tries to do the best by my kids, and is compulsively reflective about what I see happening... to me, teachers are the best EXPERTS, but I know that we are hesitant these days to trust a "lowly" teacher and rather find ourselves relying on big publishers and educational researchers to show us best practices... I don't have lots of "data" to support what I'm sharing with you... just my actual observations I've made while working with real, live kids in an average classroom setting!!). Type One: Students Who Struggle with Structure The first type of students who need intervention are those who struggle with structure. These are the kids that can't organize their thoughts in a way a reader could follow. They simply write whatever their brain thinks at the time. They can generally stick with a broad topic, but because they are just writing whatever pops into their head at the time, there are lots of places where their writing veers off track and becomes confusing. Here is an example written by a former student struggling with structure: My dog Henry is my most special treasure. He is always there for me whenever I need him in sad times and happy. In many ways, he's my best friend. He has brown fur and a white chest. He is such a good dog to have around when you are sad because he always knows just how to cheer you up. His eyes are brown, like a Hersey bar. His favorite toy is a yellow tennis ball. Once he almost got hit by a car chasing the ball down the street. I have loved him ever since he was a puppy and we first got him. I was only 4-years old when that little ball of fluff was brought home by my parents to be best friends. His soft fur is always so smooth and warm when you pet him while watching TV on a cold night. He is my best friend and that is why he is my special treasure [sic]. This student is clear about his topic - his dog, Henry - but he cannot organize his thoughts. He is thinking about his dog and writes down everything he knows about his buddy exactly as it comes to his mind. Clearly, he has mechanical and conventional skills, and you can see evidence of where he is practicing what we learned in our mini-lessons and from studying our mentor pieces. But, because there is no organization, it is too difficult to follow and all of the skills he has are lost to the untrained, teacher-eye. Kids who write like this need an intervention that focuses on structure and organization. Typically, I LOATHE teaching step-by-step process writing, but in cases like this, I'm left with little choice. The lessons that I put together for kids in need of this intervention consist of learning how to write a well-organized paragraph. Together, we will work on writing topic sentences, creating strong and clear supporting sentences, and finish up with writing a closing that sticks with our reader. My favorite plans for this type of writing come from Michael Friermood. His Fact-Based Opinion Writing products are geared toward teaching elementary students (grades 3-5) how to write a good opinion paragraph, and they are PERFECT for my struggling 7th graders. They also lack a lot of the "cutesy" images that you find with products for this age group, so my big kids don't feel like I'm making them do "baby stuff." (I do not use the stationary he provides for the final writing piece... it's adorable, but it would be pushing in with my kids! So, we just do our paragraph writing in our intervention notebooks!) My plan is to pull the intervention group for one week (at 15 minutes a pop, this comes to 1 1/4 hours of learning). Long before I ever pull a group, I work hard to make sure that my lesson is broken down into five succinct 15-minute increments. Since time is so precious, you need to make sure not one minute is wasted! I can say that it takes me much longer to plan for a small-group lesson than a 50-minute whole-class lesson because efficiency is so crucial. The first few times you plan a small-group lesson, don't be surprised if your timing is mess. It definitely takes practice to be an effective small-group instructor! After their week is up, then I send them back to completing the bell-ringer at the start of class. I will watch them closely and conference with them lots to make sure that I am seeing a transfer of skills. If I don't, then it is likely that I will put them back in an intervention group in a few weeks to practice again. This intervention model will continue all year. Right now, I have 8 intervention students in one writing class, and 6 in another. By the end of the year, those number should reduce to 3-4 and 2-3. Never in all my years of working with small groups, have I had 100% of my intervention students "graduate" from small group. Don't be frustrated if this is the case! If you can improve 50-60% of those kids, then consider that a huge success!! Type Two: Students Who Struggle with Motivation The next group of kids that I work with are those who struggle with motivation. These are the students who complain a lot about not having anything to write about, spend more time doodling or coloring in their notebook than writing, and who will write the absolute bare minimum for any writing assignment. Many times, these kids produce too little for me to gauge whether or not they also need help with structure. But typically, once I can get them writing, they will likely find themselves in a small group for structure work :) Come October, after we've spent lots of lots of time list writing, the kids who are still struggling to get their pencils moving find themselves using a very special Interactive Writer's Notebook called "Musings from a Middle Schooler." This product contains loads of interactive writing pages that will motivate even the most reluctant writers. The pages can be printed out and glued into a marble notebook. (Most often, I'll have the kids create their own... I don't always have them use all the pages, rather I let them pick and choose the ones they like!). Cover Table of Contents page Table of Contents cont. and an "All About Me" page "My Life Story in Two Pages" My Favorite Thing Comics I created this project just last school year and it's been an absolute smash! The kids (especially my boys!) LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! In absolutely no time, they are writing like crazy. And once I can get their pencils moving it doesn't take me long to get them producing some actual pieces. I don't necessarily pull these kids and work with them in a small group. The first few days, we will assemble our books all together at the back table, but then they go right back to the big group. Rather than do the bell-ringer with the rest of the class at the start of the period, they will work in their "Musings" notebooks. Fifteen minutes of that is usually enough to get them into writing mode for the rest of class. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * So, that's how I make writing intervention work in my classroom. Phew!! That was long, folks!! I apologize for my wordiness and I am grateful if you stuck it out until the end! Also, I'm sure that I've left out some crucial details of my practice, so please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you still have! Do you have any good intervention tips or strategies that work for you? I'd love to hear about them. Drop me a comment and share! Happy Teaching!!
Ring in the new year with these January Writing Prompts! Fun, educational, and imagination building ideas for Opinion, Narrative, and Informative writing.
Learn why one-pagers are one of my go-to activities for breaking down complex topics and texts. Understand what they are, why you and your students will love them, and how to implement them in your ELA classroom. I even have the advice to help you tackle the biggest obstacle you’ll encounter with this activity.
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.
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 […]
10 significant reasons to read aloud to students on a
Make constructed response simple and easy with the structure of RACES. This predictable writing strategy transformed the my students' ability to respond to literature. Incorporating these posters into my lessons is one of the most valuable changes I've made in my ELA block. One small change has created lasting change in students' level of ability to respond to reading with confidence. R - Restate the question A - Answer all parts C - Cite evidence E - Explain your thinking S - Sum it up Included in this resource: 5 posters (R, A, C, E, S), each in their own 8.5 x 11 poster 5 color palettes as well as black and white posters Printable RACE(S) response sheets ( editable) Digital RACE(S) response sheets ( editable) Desk plates for easy access Editable slides - edit the text, font and color of each level RACES encourages students to answer constructed response questions completely and with details from the text. Watch your students' responses improved dramatically as constructed responses become something they no longer dread. __________________________________________________________ MORE RESOURCES YOU’LL LOVE: READING ANCHOR CHARTS BEST-SELLING STUDENT DATA NOTEBOOK LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING LEVELS OF EFFORT __________________________________________________________ Copyright © Cooties and Cuties All rights reserved by the author. Permission to copy for single classroom use only. ********************************************************************************************
If you are looking for some high-interest activities, try using animated shorts to teach inference. Free handouts focus on student learning.
Hey Friends!! It's been a minute!Let me just start by saying that I've had such a great summer. I had intended to do a lot of work, but I just couldn't. I needed a little
Make literary point of view and perspective relevant and engaging for your secondary ELA students with What's the Tea? A Lesson on Point of View and Perspective. Four worksheets help your students to explore and reflect on the differences between literary point of view and perspective. Students start by analyzing the differences between literary point of view (first and third person) and perspective (the viewpoint or opinion of an individual). Next, students apply their learning to an analysis of two different literary excerpts. Students identify how first and third person point of view enhance a story. Then, they look at the differing points of view (perspective) between two characters. After examining point of view and perspective, students reflect on their learning. Grading is easy with a full answer key and provided rubric. This 100% editable activity can easily be printed or shared through Google Classroom. Includes: Four page editable worksheet and reflection page Rubric Answer key Are your students struggling to understand the development of mood in literature? Check out my "It's a Whole Mood" worksheet to help your students master standard RL3. Do your students need help identifying theme and analyzing its development? Check out my"I'm Shook: Powerful Themes in Literature" worksheets to engage your students in mastering standard RL 2.
Generally, when we think of book reports, we think of fiction reading response. However, nonfiction book report templates serve equally as important of a purpose for digging deep into nonfiction texts. Book reports are such
So, are you itching for winter break to get here or what?!? I am drowning here, people! Between report cards, conferences (for my students and my own kids!), shopping, baking, parties, wrapping... DROWNING!Don't get me
Independent reading is a great way to help students build a love of reading! These 5 strategies help hold students accountable!
Ok, I get these Q’s frequently from teachers who reach out to me regarding setting up and running stations or centers (same thing, basically) in their middle school English / Language Arts / Reading / Writing classes: How do I make stations work so I can . . . >> teach my students while also
