Projects are a great option to review and assess your students. Check out these tips for making sure projects go smoothly in your classroom!

My rule #1 in a series about bringing out the best behavior in middle school students, Helpful tips for managing adolescents effectively.

Looking for easy scientific method activities for your 2020 classroom? These activities are low prep and work great for distance learning!

Don’t get me wrong — I love candy. And, a jolly rancher, a tootsie roll, or a starburst can work wonders in the classroom for student motivation and enthusiasm. So can pizza parties, and cupcake days, and brunch, and…I’ve had so many types of food parties I can’t even keep track! Recently, however, I’ve been […]

I fell in love working in speech therapy for middle school! Don't let this awesome group intimidate you, but read about the pros and cons!

Use one of these systems to help get your middle school students engaged!

Create a classroom of writers with these fun writing activities for middle school students! There's something for everyone!

Looking to plan a comprehensive cells unit for your middle school class? Get all the worksheets, presentations, quizzes and tests you need in PDF format!

Start your social studies class off with a daily Bell Ringer. Each day your students will research and learn about a different country, territory, or special collective. This bell ringer includes 40 weeks, which means that your entire year or entry task are done!

The biggest challenge with teaching middle school is the race against the clock! Ideas for how to structure a 60 minute class period.

I’ve rounded up some of the best science movies for middle school here on my site Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus.

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,...

Tired of constantly writing restroom passes when your students are supposed to be learning?Here's a successful remedy. How to Stop Writing Restroom Passes

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Interested in using anchor charts with older students? Read about benefits, best practices, and materials to make the experience a success.

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

These 5 geometry projects for middle or high school are a great alternative assessment for your student. Project-based learning is so important to...

This model and template will help college, high school, and middle school teachers put together a syllabus that sets you and your students up for a great year.

Looking for high school rewards or middle school rewards to motivate students? Tired of finding reward ideas that are more applicable to elementary kids than your 8th, 9th, or 10th graders? No need to look any further. As a language teacher, I'm always searching for high school incentives to get my trickier classes to speak

In 6th grade, we talked about how colors can evoke emotions. For example, red can mean love or anger. The students took self portraits with ...

Before beginning any writing unit with my middle school students, I always begin with vocabulary but not with boring old dictionary work!

Hollywood has pushed out some impressive historical dramas. Here are some great quality historical movies for junior high and high school, under R.

Starting a new semester— whether at the beginning of the school year or calendar year— is a time of tough transition as we begin to restart our minds and work habits. Here are SEVEN engaging activities for the first week back to school in middle school and high school English Language Arts.

What is blackout poetry? Poetry writing that all students can feel successful with. Here's how to teach it. Freebie included!

Don't let your literature anthology dictate the short stories you read with your middle school and high school students. There are so many wonderful short stories out there, many of which can be used to teach a variety of literary elements and paired with other texts. Read on for 13 of my favorites, which literary terms and skills they lend themselves to teaching, plus suggested text pairings and activities.

Research says that the middle school years are critical to developing a student's interest in science. Come see what middle school science should look like.

Speech therapy for older children with articulation disorders can be challenging. Here are some tips for assessment, treatment, and carryover.

I know many of you have told me that you struggle with finding age-appropriate materials for your middle school students. I know, because I struggle with this too! You can check out some great

This post covers tips to designing a successful middle school art curriculum. It's all about scaffolding, building confidence, and having fun

120 commonly used Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes

As a middle school science teacher, I always love teaching the scientific method to my students. There are so many routes you can take with teaching it, and I’ve tried many of them. If you’re gearing up to teach the scientific method, then you might benefit from reading this post. (See what I did there?) You probably have many questions. When should I teach the scientific method? What all should I include in my unit? What order should I teach the topics of the scientific method? How do I go about teaching the scientific method? In this post I’ll share what’s worked for me. Plus, you’ll find some links to FREE resources to help get you started. When Should I Teach the Scientific Method? I want my students to have a good handle on lab safety before getting started with the scientific method because it involves labs, tools, and sometimes harmful chemicals. The scientific method is important for studying science in general, so I teach it as early in the year as possible. It is my second unit (right after lab safety). I bring the scientific method up throughout the year, whenever we have labs. After winter break I have a week-long review to brush up on the more difficult aspects of the scientific method. What Should I Include in My Scientific Method Unit? In What Order Should I Teach the Topics? Obviously, all groups of students are different. My seventh graders always come in with very, very little experience with the scientific method. Knowing that, I start with the basics and go over everything I think they need to know to successfully use the scientific method. I recommend giving your students a preassessment before the unit to gauge what topics you can skip and which you need to hammer into your students’ skulls. Here are the topics I always include in my scientific method unit and the general order in which I teach them: The Steps of the Scientific Method Independent and Dependent Variables Scientific Questions Hypotheses Observations and Inferences Research and Procedures Constants/Controlled Variables Analyzing Data/Graphs Scientific Conclusions How Do I Go About Teaching the Scientific Method? In my class, each of the nine topics listed above starts with interactive notebook notes in combination with a PowerPoint. (See the video below of the interactive science notebook pages I use. They're all available in my store and you can get the INB pages in my Scientific Method Interactive Notebook Pages Bundle.) After introducing the topic via notes and a PowerPoint, the students get practice in the form of stations, activities, and/or worksheets. Lastly, I assess each topic with an exit ticket to determine if we need to keep working on the current topic or if we’re ready to move on to the next. The single most important scientific method resource I have is my Scientific Method Stations. I use them at least three times in the unit because they’re so versatile. They give students practice identifying variables, writing good hypotheses, designing procedures etc. I just post them around the room at the beginning of the unit and they stay there until the day of the unit test. I truly believe they are a great resource for the middle school science classroom. They are one of my most loved and best selling resources, so I decided to make a second set. I added my Scientific Method Stations V2 to my store in September 2023! But Really, What Do You Do for Each Topic? The Steps of the Scientific Method: I go over what the scientific method is, what it’s used for, the order of the steps, and what each step might look like. Independent and Dependent Variables: I go over the definitions of independent and dependent variables and how to identify them in an experiment. Then we practice. And practice. And practice some more. Eventually it clicks and then my students HAVE GOT IT DOWN. Scientific Questions: Students learn about what a good scientific question needs to have. We review variables again while examining good and bad scientific questions. Group work and games can be fun with this. Hypotheses: Students learn what a hypothesis is and how to write a good hypothesis. Even my best students need to learn the If/then version of writing a hypothesis because they have only been taught the “I think blah blah blah will happen” version. Hypotheses typically need a lot of practice. Here is a free coloring worksheet to help your students write good hypotheses and identify independent and dependent variables. Observations and Inferences: Students learn the definitions of qualitative and quantitative observations and how to use those to make inferences. Here is a free observation activity you can use in your class. Research and Procedures: Research is straightforward so we briefly discuss where to find accurate information. For procedure, we learn what it is, why it’s important, and what happens if a procedure is poorly written. Constants/Controlled Variables: This is hands down the hardest part of the scientific method for my students. We go over what constants are, why they are important, and how to identify them in experiments. Students need TONS of practice with this. Here is a free exit ticket to check if your students have mastered constants. Analyzing Data/Graphs: I go over where independent and dependent variables go on graphs, what good graphs include, and types of graphs. Then we practice interpreting graphs. I try to include as much data analysis throughout the year as possible because my students always need practice with this. Here is a free data analysis worksheet and a free data analysis Boom Deck. Scientific Conclusions: Students learn what should be included in a good conclusion and practice writing a good conclusion using a data table and graph from an experiment. I hope this post gives you a good starting point for planning your scientific method unit. I love teaching the scientific method and have created many resources for my students. You can find my scientific method resources here, including interactive notebook pages, activities, worksheets, and assessments. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to post a question below or message me. Thanks for reading and have a great school year! You can get another free scientific method resource just for signing up for my newsletter. Sign up for my newsletter here. I added an option in my store to get all of my scientific method resources in one discounted bundle: Scientific Method HUGE Bundle.

Using mentor sentences for grammar instruction is one way to help your middle school learners understand the correct way to speak and write. Mentor sentences or properly written, model sentences are the best tools for teaching parts of speech. Here are some ways to teach parts of speech with mentor sentences. Label the parts of ... Read more

Motivate students with independent reading by adding engaging reading sprints...turn the traditional reading log upside down!

The middle school years, 6th-8th grades, are an exciting time of change and increasing maturity. Kids still enjoy the fun and exploration of the elementary

Over the past few years, I’ve heard the same question come up over and over – “how do we help our middle and high school students self-regulate?” This blog helps to answer that question with several strategies.

Reading can be a hard sell for students. Introducing middle school literature circles can be the game changer your classroom needs to foster reading.