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

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, […]

I finally nailed teaching symbolism! Using candy was both engaging and efficient - a major win that students remembered all year long!

Try this free, fun, and interactive middle school ELA games in your classroom to teach grammar and literacy ELA skills!

Ten years ago, podcasts weren’t nearly as popular as they are today. Now, they’re a huge asset to our personal and professional lives—including in the classroom. That’s why today I’m walking you through how to use podcasts in Middle School ELA classrooms. If you’re not a big podcast listener, you might be wondering how on

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

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.

Effective strategies for teaching academic vocabulary in middle school ELA Middle school ELA curriculum for academic vocabulary development

Freaking out over how in the world can you actually use centers and stations in your classroom without being completely overwhelmed? Concerned that you don’t have enough time, don’t know how to enforce student accountability, don’t know what the stations should look like, or panicking that you simply can’t keep up? These are absolutely valid

Looking for games to play with a classroom? This list of English games in the classroom is exactly what you need to engage students!

ALDO becomes WALDO! Explore a lesson design outline with lots of resources for mixing and matching strategies, EduProtocols, and digital tools.

Looking for a way to get students to have fun learning new words AND remember them longer? Try these brain-based vocabulary activities.

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.

Note: Copy and paste images into a Word document, then make the images larger to be able to read all of the content.

The creativity and generosity of the online teaching community never ceases to amaze me. I have spent a couple of weeks collating resources for my department from my Twitter back catalogue, an…

Pronouns are a fundamental grammar concept for middle and high school students to grasp. But teaching grammar is often a challenge! Here are some quick tips and

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

Are you an English teacher who sees their bored students zoning out because your vocabulary activities are monotonous and stale. I found a way to reinforce vocabulary lessons. If you are into visual notebooks, you'll love using sketch notes. If you are looking for a hands-on component, for your kinesthetic earners then your students will love compiling the interactive fan. And, for paperless classrooms everywhere, it's easy to share the digital notebook version. Grades 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12, homeschool | Middle School ELA | High School English

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 […]

Conflict activities for literary analysis: add to any novel, short story, or piece of literature. These low-prep activities help students with literature.

In my book Blended Learning in Grades 4-12, I shared the following middle school writing rubrics with my readers. Unfortunately, the short links I provided in my book have timed out, so I wanted to share these on my blog so any middle school teachers interested in using them have access! Feel free to make […]

A middle school teacher's blog: English, History, PBL, GBL, mindfulness, and student engagement.

So I've been doing a lot of reading this summer! Namely--- the FANTASTICALLY STUPENDOUS-- Ron Clark. I read his books and feel like a LOUSY teacher-- but he ignites in me a desire to do SO MUCH BETTER than I ever thought I could before! These two are my favorites of his! He does SUCH a great job of offering encouragement and purpose! When you read his essential rules, he adds purpose, and he talks about the importance of the rules coming from a desire to see students be the best version of themselves. For my classroom I decided to go a slightly different route in terms of number-- but kept the spirit of several of his rules! Take Ten! Our Classroom Rules! 1. If someone does something well or wins, we will congratulate that person! If you win or do well at something do NOT brag. If you lose do not show anger. Instead say something like “I really enjoyed the competition and I look forward to playing you again”. To show anger or sarcasm such as “I wasn’t really trying anyway” shows weakness. (Ron Clark Rule!) 2. Do not smack your lips, tsk, roll you eyes or show disrespect with gestures. (Ron Clark Rule!) 3. Occasionally we may grade each other’s paper as a group. When we grade papers as a group you are not to comment on another person’s grade. The only marks you should make on their paper is an “X” and the number they got incorrect. (INSPIRED by a Ron Clark Rule!) 4. Homework will be turned in EVERY Thursday for this subject with NO EXCEPTIONS. You have two nights to complete your homework and online access to homework. If you do not have a copy of your homework on Thursday you will fill out a “Taking a Zero” form. If you have your homework and it is incomplete you will be required to take 1/5 of the grade. (I take ONE combined homework grade a six weeks-- each HW is worth between twenty and twenty-five points) (INSPIRED by a Ron Clark Rule!) This is the "Taking a Zero" form for my students to fill out! 5. NO matter WHAT the situation: Be Honest. Even if you have done something wrong it is best to admit it to me because I will respect that and oftentimes I will forgo any disciplinary measures because of your honesty (Ron Clark Rule!) 6. Do NOT cheat. Cheating shows weakness and will make any other true victories in the class hollow to others. NO ONE likes a cheater. It disappoints me GREATLY and will cause me to lose trust in you. (My Rule-- Cheating "irks" me a lot) 7. Not studying is NOT a virtue; therefore do not act like it is such. To say you “didn’t study” if you get a good grade is hurtful to those who did study and struggled or is cheapening to those who studied and did well. To say you “didn’t study” and you failed makes you look ignorant and lazy. People can understand if when you study you do poorly, we have ALL been there. (My Rule-- Favorite of this year) 8. Accept that you will make mistakes. Learn from them. And MOVE ON. (Ron Clark Rule!) 9. Your grade is NO ONE’S business but your own. You do not need to shout out your grades when you get it. If you do poorly do NOT just wad up your paper and throw it away. You will not be able to learn from your mistakes OR know what you did wrong if you just throw it away. (My Rule-- I hate the kids shouting out their bad scores "Haha-- I got a 35" and it is a chorus of bad grades and it makes the kids feel like getting bad grades is cool! It KILLED me to watch that happen this year!) 10. Be aware of our daily classroom expectations and live them out daily. (My Rule-- Expectations and Rules are different. Expectations are a part of routine-- rules to me outline a limit on actions) This is the sign that will go up in my room as a short reminder of the rules! This typed up version of the rules will go on the front cover of my student's Interactive Student Notebook! A lot of these rules come from things I've seen over the past two years that have irked me about kids. I love being able to love my students. Sometimes they do things though that make it harder to love them-- these rules I'm hoping will outline expectations with purpose and help them be the great kids I know they are!

Here is a collection of eight class discussion techniques to structure classroom discussion and ensure all students' equal participation.

Learn some ideas for supporting IEP and ESL students in the middle school classroom.

Are your students having trouble identifying theme within a story? This step-by-step process scaffolds through several reading comprehension skills to help students get a thorough understanding of theme. Students will be able to determine the theme of a story, poem, or drama from details in the text by first

Article of the week resources for middle school classrooms. Use this list of free and paid resources to help plan for your lessons.

Do you hate to teach poetry? Do you want your students to learn and enjoy poetry? Try these simple ways to learn how to teach poetry...

What are language functions? LFs are the "reasons" we use language; it's our purpose, or goal, when we express ourselves. Perhaps we want to express our needs or wants, explain a process, describe an experience, or persuade someone to do something. Whatever the purpose, we use language to perform these functions. Examples of Language Functions: -express wants/needs -sequence -compare/contrast -opinion -persuade -inform -describe -analyze -cause/effect -summarize -ask questions Students use language functions in every grade level and across all content areas, so what better way to set English learners up for success than by explicitly teaching the academic language needed to successfully use language functions. Here is how this looks in my ESOL classroom. Planning I like to plan certain LF units during specific times of year. For example, Compare/Contrast is fun in the fall due to apples and pumpkins. Cause/Effect is great in the winter because I like to use the topic of seasonal changes on plants and animals. Opinion/Persuade is great in the spring because I use the topic of plastic pollution, which ties into Earth Day. I sprinkle other LF units throughout the year, but those three I pretty much keep at the same time each year. You could teach any LF at any time of the year; it's very flexible. Each unit, in my classroom, lasts about 3-4 weeks, but again, it's flexible. Which language functions will my students need in order to be successful with the grade level content? When I sit down to plan a unit, I brainstorm science and social studies topics that my students will be learning about during year, then I pick the LF and topic I want to focus on. When we connect LF units with the content our students are, or will be, learning in their general education classrooms, it gives students the language tools and confidence they need to participate and succeed. Language Functions Planning Process This is the tool I use to plan out my language function units. It helps me map out the BIG picture first, then hone in on the details. The main components of my planning are: 1- identify the language function 2- identify content areas topics 3- create learning targets 4- locate activities to support the four language domains 5- determine the scaffolds needed Learning Targets I like to backwards plan by first identifying what I want my students to be able to do by the end of each LF unit. This becomes the learning target(s) for the unit. I have targets for both expressive (speaking and writing) and interpretive (listening and reading) language. A focus on the verb is important because it's what we want students to do, for example: identify, use, label, illustrate, explain, etc. The learning targets are then posted and referenced throughout each unit. Activities Once I've identified the learning targets, I start collecting activities and resources at various proficiency levels to practice viewing, listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. I also think about how I'll build background knowledge for the topic. I love to incorporate videos, so YouTube, BrainPOP Jr. and EPIC Books are places I typically go to first for engaging video resources. Building background knowledge using a short video is highly effective, IMO. It's an engaging way to get students talking about what they already know or think about a topic. This planning phase is all about finding materials that will help facilitate the language function. Since I work with a wide variety of proficiency and grade levels, I need a variety of resources. Here are some of my favorites for the 4 language domains. Listening I primarily use videos for this domain. I tell my students what to listen for and will stop the video in designated places to give them time to process and respond. Again, my top 3 places to find videos in order of preference are YouTube, BrainPOP Jr (paid subscription) and EPIC Books. EPIC has some really great videos, and it's a free resource! ReadWorks.org is another great site. The reading passages there have an audio component, so it's not a video, but it's an article read aloud. You could create your own questions for the article, but comprehension question are already provided for each passage. Nice! Reading For reading materials I look through my school's bookroom first. Then I check out Reading A-Z (a subscription my school pays for), Readworks.org, EPIC books (both are free), another online subscription resource from Benchmark Education, and lastly my own collection of books. Reading Materials for Cause and Effect The picture above shows some of the reading materials I gathered for my cause and effect unit. I searched for resources that demonstrated how changes in climate or weather impact plants and animals. Reading Materials for Opinion/Persuade As you can see, I'm a "spreader outer." By spreading out all of my resources during this planning phase, I can quickly see what I have and what I still need. Speaking I want my students talking everyday, so we do a variety of speaking activities in my ELD groups. This is probably the number one reason why I love the pull-out model of instruction, but that's a blog post for another day. Some activities I use are talking mats, games, class discussions, partner talks and simply sharing our thinking. Oral language is the foundation of language and literacy so I'm intentional about providing structured (and unstructured) opportunities for students to use oral language each time we meet. Talking Mat Activity for Cause and Effect Students chose the cards they wanted to talk about, then used the sentence frame as needed. One of my favorite speaking activities is having students record a Flipgrid video. They always moan about it at first, but then they get into it and enjoy watching and responding to their classmates' videos. It's also a great way to measure progress. You have recorded examples of your students speaking throughout the year! I like to jot down notes while I listen (and re-listen) to their recordings. This helps me target certain areas that my students need additional practice with, then I create or find mini-lessons for those skills. Writing Writing is integrated with listening and reading activities. Students generally have something to respond to each time we meet. (They usually write inside their ELD notebooks.) Similar to speaking, I'll have students writing at each meeting, even if it's a short task. I frequently use graphic organizers for writing responses. I like to reduce the size of the graphic organizer to about 75% and trim the edges, then I'll have students glue it into their notebooks. Opinion Writing At the end of each LF unit, there is a written or oral language component, sometimes both. It's an assessment to demonstrate their ability of applying the language function. Usually it's a prompt written in their ELD notebooks, but it could also be a digital activity. This past spring, at the end of our Opinion/Persuade unit, students had the choice to either create and present a PowerPoint presentation, record a Flipgrid video, or create and present a poster. Google Jamboard is another platform I frequently use for their end of unit writing task. Scaffolds Let's talk scaffolding for a moment. This is where we consider the specific language needs of our students and the appropriate supports for them. Scaffolds will vary from group to group. Some groups/students will need sentence frames, while others may only need sentence stems. Some groups will need more modeling than others. Some will need more visuals. Some will need extra opportunities to practice. Some might need L1 support. All will need explicit vocabulary instruction. We want to challenge our students without frustrating them, so picking appropriate scaffolding is key. Language Function Unit in Action For each unit, I display a "language board." It's a jumping off point and a reference tool that provides what the language function is, gives an example, along with key words. Next, I build some background knowledge so that students can connect to the reason we use the LF. It could be as simple as asking, "What do you already know about..." Then we dive into the plans and activities for listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. They spend the next 10-15 days practicing and using the language for the language function. Language Function Board for Opinion & Persuade Introductory Lesson for Opinion/Persuade Model OREO Opinion Writing Opinion Lesson - real life example to connect students' experiences with learning target Reading Activity- Will students' opinions about plastic bags change? Intermediate ELD group- students gave their opinion about plastic bags prior to reading. In Closing The best part about incorporating language function units into my ESL classroom is that ALL of my ELD groups are learning the same language function. This makes planning so much more manageable. Instead of planning 10 different lessons for ten different groups, all of my groups are learning the language of persuade at their language level. I love it! And more importantly, my students love it too! These units are fun, engaging, flexible and highly effective at building academic language. Do you teach language functions? If so, do you have a favorite? If not, do you want to? Here are links to some of my Language Function resources. Happy LF Teaching,

I LOVE Four Corners! It is seriously one of the easiest strategies to boost engagement that I know of and it's a cinch to put together!Basically, all it requires is four signs for your classroom:Hang

in 2021, what should a middle school health curriculum look like? How can we teach health in a way that’s relevant, up-to-date, AND engaging for students?

One of my favorite lessons to teach in my short story unit is the Hero’s Journey. I enjoy teaching the hero's journey because I love seeing my students’ aha! moments - the moment when they get it, and they start making the connections between the content I am teaching and their favorite books and movies. Their faces light up, and faint chatter about Harry Potter, various Disney movies, and other stories slowly fills the room.

Hello? Hello? Is this mic on? Anyone out there? Friends, it has been a MINUTE!! The end of the school year was, as always, bonkers. The first two weeks of summer was double bonkers!! And

A three-step process for teaching your students how to identify,

Finding engaging TED Talks for middle school students is important task in inspiring and motivating your students. Find them right here!

Whenever I teach freshmen or sophomores, I always begin the school year with a short story unit. I use this unit to introduce literary elements to my

Student choice is a cornerstone of student engagement. When students can take charge of their learning and can pursue topics of interest, they will be more engaged and more inclined to do the work, and their work will become more meaningful. This blog post explores different ways to integrate studen

Teach the middle school reading, vocabulary, and writing ELA standards with novels and student discussion using the socratic seminar