Use Mentor Sentences in your ELA middle school classroom to improve student writing! Find practical ideas to teach writing skills.
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.
Get an outline for teaching all the reading and writing standards in your Middle School ELA class.
Teaching theme will be engaging for your students with videos! Find the 5 Best Videos for Teaching Theme in your ELA classroom.
Try this free, fun, and interactive middle school ELA games in your classroom to teach grammar and literacy ELA skills!
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.
Peak into Room 213's lesson plans: her kids are learning about prewriting & are brainstorming with candy. They are also working on speaking & listening.
How to facilitate successful Socratic Seminars in the secondary ELA
Here are 15 engaging and creative TV episodes to use in ELA to teach genre, narrative techniques, characterization, and more. (Blog post)
Find strategies for teaching ELA academic vocabulary with graphic organizers for students, a word wall, and engaging games from mixed-upfiles.com
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
As a teacher, I am always on the hunt for the perfect tools at the cheapest prices for my ELA classroom. Taking care of our students and keeping our learning
Get an outline for teaching all the reading and writing standards in your Middle School ELA class.
I began elementary school in the era of phonics. Looking back, I can honestly say that it seemed to work okay. Matching pictures with their word families in plaid workbooks... I learned to read, but
This collection of mentor text recommendations as lesson plan ideas make teaching theme a breeze, and makes learning theme meaningful!
As a teacher, I am always on the hunt for the perfect tools at the cheapest prices for my ELA classroom. Taking care of our students and keeping our learning
This post explains how teachers can use an academic version of the highly engaging Spoons game to review concepts. Free games included!
Engage your students in great lessons using these videos for teaching figurative language! Check out the Top 5 here and save time searching!
Top 10 Pixar Short Films for teaching middles school literary elements: theme, plot, inference, setting, dialogue, conflict, and more.
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!
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, […]
Unlock the power of rhetoric with this dynamic SPACECAT Rhetorical Analysis Graphic Organizer, meticulously designed to pair with any text, empowering students to explore and dissect the nuanced elements that shape persuasive communication. Crafted using Google Slides, this resource offers the flexibility of being both printable and digitally assignable. Key Features: Comprehensive Framework: The SPACECAT acronym serves as the framework for analysis, delving into the key components that drive the effectiveness of a message: SPEAKER: Students investigate the source's creator, their background, and point of view, enabling them to uncover potential biases and how they impact the source. PURPOSE: Uncover the purpose and goal behind the source's creation, illuminating the intentions and objectives of the message. AUDIENCE: Explore the target audience, shedding light on how their characteristics and expectations influence the source's meaning. CONTEXT: Dive into the historical and situational context of the source's creation, revealing how external factors shape its significance. EXIGENCE: Analyze the urgency and necessity of the message, understanding what prompted its creation and its lasting impact. CHOICES: Investigate the specific communication choices employed by the creator, from diction to organization, to reveal their influence on the message's effectiveness. APPEALS: Unearth the intended appeal to the audience, whether through emotion, logic, or credibility, and how these elements contribute to the message's persuasiveness. TONE: Identify the message's general tone and its impact on audience perception, providing insight into the speaker's attitude and intentions. Why Choose Our Rhetorical Analysis Graphic Organizer: Comprehensive Analysis: The SPACECAT framework ensures that students conduct in-depth, multi-faceted analyses, enhancing their understanding of persuasive communication. Digital and Printable: Crafted in Google Slides, this resource is adaptable to both traditional and digital learning environments, offering flexibility and convenience. Skill Development: This graphic organizer helps students build essential skills in rhetorical analysis, critical thinking, and textual interpretation. Empower your students to become astute analyzers of persuasive messages, unveiling the intricate layers that shape communication. Our Rhetorical Analysis Graphic Organizer, featuring the SPACECAT framework, is your key to fostering analytical thinking and rhetorical awareness. Elevate your teaching and inspire your students with a versatile resource designed to deepen their understanding of persuasive communication. Transform your classroom with the Rhetorical Analysis Graphic Organizer - SPACECAT for Text Analysis from History and Literacy for All! Welcome to History and Literacy for All, your go-to resource for engaging and educational materials designed to enrich the history classroom experience. Our store is dedicated to providing a wide range of resources, including graphic organizers, literacy tools, and history-focused content that empowers both teachers and students. Key Features of Our Shop: Graphic Organizers: Explore our collection of meticulously crafted graphic organizers that are tailored to support students in visualizing and comprehending historical concepts. These visual aids enhance learning and critical thinking in the history classroom. Literacy Enrichment: We understand the importance of literacy in the history classroom. Our materials integrate effective reading and writing strategies, designed to boost students' literacy skills while engaging with historical content. Digital and Printable Resources: Whether you prefer digital teaching tools for a tech-savvy classroom or traditional printables for a hands-on approach, our products are available in both formats. Our Google Slides-compatible materials make online teaching a breeze. Why Choose History and Literacy for All: Our products are created by an experienced educator with a passion for history and literacy in the classroom. We offer an array of resources suitable for various grade levels and teaching styles. Every item in our shop is designed to foster a deep understanding of historical events and inspire a love for learning. Discover how our graphic organizers, literacy tools, and history materials can transform your history classroom. Explore our shop today and equip yourself with the tools you need to engage, educate, and empower your students. Thank you for choosing History and Literacy for All as your trusted resource for history and literacy education. We're committed to helping you make a lasting impact in your classroom.
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.
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
Learn 3 tips to help you teach your students how to use context clues. You'll learn the 5 types of context clues and how you can teach them to your students.
This so actually do creative and cute✨🥰🎥Credit : mrs mcgrady_1stgrade 🍎✏️ Like our page Be Happy Teachers for more teaching ideas and methods. A team of teachers sharing the highs, lows and honest...
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
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!
If you are looking for some high-interest activities, try using animated shorts to teach inference. Free handouts focus on student learning.
Wondering how to structure your middle school language arts daily schedule? Here's the planning template I developed to find my ideal stride!
Annotation can be a powerful way to improve comprehension and increase engagement, but its effectiveness can vary depending on how it's taught.
Looking for a way to get students to have fun learning new words AND remember them longer? Try these brain-based vocabulary activities.
Back when I was a student, there is only one vocabulary activity I can ever remember doing in class or for homework. It was looking up the word in the dictionary, writing the definition, and using the word in a sentence. I can recall this assignment itself (probably because of the sheer number of times I had to do it), but ask me how many of those actual words I am able to remember. Couldn’t tell you a single one, to be honest!
Writing instruction often fits into a small corner of the day. This makes it so challenging to find time to teach grammar, spelling, punctuation, and all the other foundational skills students need to be more effective writers. While working through the writing process is an important piece of writing instruction, many
Teaching theme is not an easy task! Not only do students need to have a strong comprehension of the story's elements (like plot, setting, and characters), but they also have to be able to make inferences to find the author's message, since most themes are not overtly stated by the author. So, what are some of my favorite activities for helping kids understand theme? I'll list a number of them here. 1. Make an Anchor Chart Anchor charts are a great way to make learning visual and to have a record that kids can refer to when they need a bit of extra support. Theme may be defined in a number of ways. To me, the theme is the author's message or what he/she wants the reader to take away/learn from the story. It is a BIG idea, with a real-world or universal concern and can be applied to anyone. Besides talking about what a theme is, you'll also want to go over what it isn't. For example, some kids confuse the main idea of the story with its theme. To help students understand the difference, it's helpful to use stories that everyone in the class knows, like previous read alouds or classic stories like The Three Little Pigs. You can take each story and discuss the main idea (what the story was mostly about - specific to the story) vs. the theme (the lesson the author wants the reader to know - not specific to the story), to contrast the two ideas. The second area of confusion for some kids is that the theme is not specific to the characters in the story. In the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, for example. The theme would not be that...A little mouse named Chrysanthemum learned to accept the uniqueness of her name. The theme would be larger than the book and would be something like...It's important to accept oneself. Also, you'll want to explain to your students that often times, a book has multiple themes and there are several answers which work equally well to describe a book's theme. Since theme is very subjective, I tell students that I will accept any answer, as long as they have the text evidence to prove it. For example, in the book, Wonder, by R.J. Palacio, one might argue that the theme is about friendship, another might say family, or even courage, or kindness. Any one of these themes would be right, and counted as such, since they each fit the story and could be supported by text evidence. 2. Use Pixar Shorts to Practice Theme Besides the sheer enjoyment which comes from watching these mini-films, your students can learn a lot about reading concepts from these. They're great for ELL students or for struggling readers, and for all readers really since the text complexity piece is removed. You can find these clips on YouTube, but you'll want to make sure to preview them first, so you're more familiar with the plot and are able to focus on theme questions. Here are some of my favorite Pixar Shorts for teaching theme: Piper Partly Cloudy Lava Boundin' 3. Use Mentor Texts Mentor texts are one of my go-to teaching tools as picture books are able to portray examples of just about any reading concept you need to teach. One thing I like to do when using mentor texts for theme, is to vary the types of questions I ask. Rather than always saying What is the theme?, I might ask... What is the deeper meaning of this story? After reading this book, what do you think matters to this author? Which idea from the story do you think might stay with you? What did the author want people to learn from this story?... Once kids answer, you might say, Ah...so that's the theme! Some of my current mentor text favorites for theme include the following: Ish by Peter H. Reynolds I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe Journey by Aaron Becker (a wordless book) Beautiful Oops by Barry Saltzberg The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed If you're looking for more titles, I have a FREE Mentor Text List for Literature which includes a page on theme which you can download from my TpT store. 4. Use Posters with Themes to Chart Book Themes I like to choose 8 - 10 common themes and place posters of them in the classroom. These are included in my Theme unit but you could easily make them yourself if you'd like. After we finish a class novel, a read aloud, or a mentor text as part of a mini-lesson, I like to have the kids discuss the theme of the book. Once we decide on the theme, I place a miniaturized copy of the book's cover (about 3 x 3 inches or so) under the correct theme poster. You can also make the posters more interactive by allowing kids to write titles of books they have recently read on sticky notes, under the posters as well. 5. Use Songs to Practice Finding the Theme I love to add music to the classroom whenever possible. Not only does it add instant motivation for some kids, but it is also just good for them in so many ways. There are lots of songs you can use to teach theme, from current pop songs to oldies, rap songs, and country songs. While all of these work well, I especially enjoy using Disney songs. Disney songs are easily recognized for some kids, have catchy, fun tunes, and have lyrics that need no censoring (yay!). You can easily find the lyrics online to project on a smartboard or document projector, and the song clips may be found on YouTube, Here are some of my favorite Disney songs which work well for theme: Hakuna Matata from Lion King Just Keep Swimming from Finding Dory Reflection from Mulan Let it Go from Frozen Something There from Beauty and the Beast A Whole New World from Aladdin 6. Introduce Short Texts Using Task Cards Using task cards for theme gives your students a great deal of practice in a short period of time, which makes them a perfect way to begin to practice finding the theme using text. I love the fact that students can read multiple task card stories and practice finding the theme 20 - 30 times, in the time it might take to read a story and find the theme once. You can do task cards as a center activity, to play Scoot, or as a whole class scavenger hunt. One thing I like to do for the scavenger hunt is to make sure everyone has a partner and to pair stronger readers with struggling readers. 7. Add Some Writing After students have worked on theme for a week or two, I like to have students create their own short stories which show a strong theme, without directly stating it. This changes each student's role from a theme finder, to a theme creator and gives students insight into how authors create a situation that allows a theme to unfold. When I introduce this project, we refer back to the task cards we just completed, as an example of story length and rich content. In a matter of 2 - 3 paragraphs, students learn that they can include enough information to let our readers know our message. After students are finished creating these short stories, it's fun to share them in some way, to give more theme practice. Sometimes I have students meet in small groups to share out, with group members guessing the theme. Other years, I leave a stack on my desk and grab several if we have a few minutes. Either the students or I read the short story out loud, and the class discusses the theme. 8. Move to Passages, Short Stories, and Novels. Once we have scaffolded a great foundation for the understanding of theme, there comes a point where kids have to move on to text which is more challenging. I like to use page-long passages which I have created, before using short stories, and ultimately novels. If you're looking for some ready made materials to help you teach theme, here's a packet I love to use which works well for 4th and 5th Graders. Click here to read more about the Theme unit. Want some more teaching ideas and activities to teach theme? Click here to read Teaching Themes in Literature. If you like this post, make sure to share it with a teacher friend! Thanks so much for stopping by! For more ideas and strategies focused on upper elementary, be sure to sign up for The Teacher Next Door's free email newsletter! Bonus, you'll also gain access to my FREE Resource Library which contains exclusive upper elementary freebies that you won't find anywhere else! I'd love to connect with you! The Teacher Next Door's Website Pinterest Facebook Instagram TpT Store
Do you teach your first and second-grade students to learn how to write a paragraph? In this post, I share ideas, lessons, and activities for students to learn how to write their own paragraphs in a structured way. Before I dive in, I wanted to let you know you can watch or listen to all […]
For this interactive lesson, students will use the board in order to interact with each other. It also provides a means for assessment during a class period. Students can collaborate and use the board to brainstorm new ideas, share information, or reflect upon the lesson/ activity/ project from th
These engaging strategies to incorporate movement in the classroom are perfect for the fidgety students & kinesthetic learners in your class!
Let's dive into some new options to teach vocabulary, for those who have the time and energy to pursue them. In this post and podcast, I'm sharing ten ideas for making the study of vocabulary something students might even look forward to.
Teaching students how to annotate text can be an intimidating task. Likewise, for our students, annotating text can be equally as daunting, especially if they don’t have a process of their own that works or steps to follow. However, teaching text annotation can be a simple and straightforward task if you follow these five steps.
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
