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!!
free following directions worksheets – kinchen from following directions worksheet middle school , image source: kinchen.co
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, […]
Okay... I've mentioned before that I'm super uncomfortable writing a blog post that is all about one of my TpT products. But, with that said, welcome to a blog post all about one of my TpT products! And, I'm okay with it. Because, for real, this product ROCKS! If I do say so myself :) So, argument writing is hard stuff. I love teaching it. And eventually, I think the kids like knowing how to do it. But, it's hard. SO.HARD. Especially in the beginning. I was looking for a cool way to ease us into it. A way to slide in so that it didn't seem so intimidating. An approach that made it seem exciting, even a little bit FUN! But, I couldn't find anything! And so, like anytime Google lets me down, I got creating and this little gem is the fruit of my labor! The Debating Game is fun. My kids LOVED it! So much so that they asked to play it every day for almost a week during free write time. And while playing, they are practicing supporting claims with reasoning and evidence... exactly the skill necessary for opinion/persuasive/argument writing! It's a total win-win. Fun and learning! You should know, this product does take some time to put together, so please don't buy it if you need to use it exactly five minutes later. There is laminating and cutting and organizing involved in putting these together. I made six total games for my classroom (I stored each complete game in a pencil case). I also went to the dollar store and bought one-minute sand timers and golf pencils to put in the case along with the game pieces for easy playing (though they are totally not necessary!). And you'll see I used a standard die, but there is a template for making your own dice to use when playing, so it is not necessary to have your own. It took me about an hour to print, laminate, cut, and organize all 6 games. But, now that they are together they are ready-to-go anytime we need them. I definitely see myself putting these in a writing center, using them for an anchor activity for early finishers, and leaving them in my sub plans. The kids enjoyed playing far too much to put them into storage until next year! So, if you teach opinion/persuasion/argument writing and you are looking for a fun way to practice the skills necessary for this, The Debating Game might be for you! My own students loved it and if you try it out, please let me know what yours think about it! Happy Teaching!!
[Infographic provided by Grammar.net ] https://www.kaplaninternational.com/blog/english-idioms-love
Looking for games to play with a classroom? This list of English games in the classroom is exactly what you need to engage students!
I recently just finished my first set of Middle School Mentor Sentences to teach grammar. As I’ve started talking about and posting about Mentor Sentences, I’ve realized that most teachers fall into the following categories when it comes to implementing mentor sentences: I have no idea what mentor sentences are, but I am intrigued now. I ... Read more
Back in the fall of 1991 I was a brand new middle school teacher. I had left a two year gig as a high school English teacher which I loved, but felt called to work with middle schoolers. In any case, my mentor teacher ( they didn't have such a program then, but she graciously took me under her wing) shared with me a beginning of the year writing activity she did with her 8th grade language arts students called The Perfect Gift. Now, I have no idea where she got this; as creative as my dear friend Deanna was, she probably came up with this herself. In any case, I used this idea all 14 years I taught middle school and have even used it with the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade reading/language arts students I have taught- all with success! This activity has been tweaked to death and I recently gave it a massive face lift! Click on the picture below to see the listing for this packet in my TPT store. Write to Inform Prompt from the packet I absolutely love using this activity as the beginning of the year. The Perfect Gift is a beginning of the year writing activity that promotes self-reflection, goal setting, and can be used as an assessment of writing skills. In fact, I used it as a beginning of the year writing assessment before we were required to administer a specific, county-wide one. Students are asked to write what a perfect gift would be for them to have a successful year. The gift is to be an abstract noun such as bravery, patience, kindness, responsibility, joy, honesty, creativity, self-control, self-confidence, humor etc. Since I am now teaching in a Christian school, prayer and faithfulness also appear on the list. The first day I bring in a huge gift-wrapped box that always gets the students' attention and is used as my "hook". Students get so excited when I tell them that I have a gift for them and they start guessing what it could be. Imagine their shock when I throw the present on the floor! This is my intro into abstract nouns... I pass the box around so they can shake it, just to make sure it is empty! We discuss concrete and abstract nouns and the way I teach these is to tell them that if they can place the item in the box, then it is most likely a concrete noun. Mini-poster/anchor chart This activity involves the whole writing process and gives me a glimpse not only of students' writing strengths and needs, but also tells me about who they are: their personality, fears, learning styles, and needs. Students write about the gift, what it is, why they want/need it, and how it will help them. At the end they design a cover page or can use the gift box template to decorate and use as a topper for their published piece. By the end of the first week of school, I always feel like I have learned so much about my students from a social, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual perspective. And usually I learn something new about myself too! I keep the gift box visible in the classroom the entire year. Students revisit this writing at the end of each marking period and reflect on whether they have "received" their gift yet. This is how I introduce them to goal setting during the first marking period. Check it out and let me know what you think and whether you and your students would benefit! Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 Have a blessed week!
POEMS? That 5-letter word will send shivers down the spines of middle school students. Add in the suggestion of "poetry analysis," and the moans and groans can be heard throughout the hallways! If all this sounds familiar, I have a few teacher tips to help you boost engagement with poems that middle schoolers actually enjoy!
The classroom posters in this post have helped my students throughout our quadratic functions unit from the vocabulary they see to solving word problems to working with the graphing calculator and using the quadratic formula. I wanted to share them for free in this post in case you have any algebra or algebra 2 students who need extra support through their graphing quadratics unit.
My favorite teaching units are my research and rhetorical analysis unit. I love teaching rhetorical analysis and assigning students a rhetorical analysis PAPA square. Read on to learn more about the rhetorical analysis PAPA square activity and to sign up to receive your own free copy! I love providing my students with the knowledge and resources they need to critically read and analyze text, know why it is powerful, and understand how the author crafted it. I feel that truly understanding the language and the text, primarily through rhetorical analysis, is something that makes all of my students critical thinkers.
One of my favorite units to teach is rhetorical analysis because I love incorporating robust, relevant, and timely texts into my classroom, especially when timely speeches perfectly coincide with classical literature we are reading. When teaching rhetorical analysis, one of the most important things to keep in mind is not what the author or speaker says, but how the author or speaker says it and why it is so effective. Once you get beyond the main ideas and supporting details and really ask your students to look at, consider, analyze, and evaluate the effectiveness of what the author or speaker does, then you are genuinely analyzing a text for its rhetorical merit. Join my email list! Subscribe to receive updates from The Daring English Teacher. Thank you for subscribing! You will soon receive updates, freebies, and teaching ideas. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. Email Address Please sign me up Subscribe You will not receive spam, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit When I first teach rhetorical analysis to my students, I use direct instruction strategies. I provide my students with rhetorical analysis terms and examples. Then we begin analyzing and annotating text together. Usually, we will analyze a couple of texts together as a class, and then I release them to work in a small group or with partners. Before I have my students work entirely on their own, I first have them analyze and annotate a text individually for about ten minutes, and then share their findings with a partner. This helps students build their confidence. If you are teaching rhetorical analysis, here are 15 questions you should ask your students about the text they are reading. These 15 questions are some of the questions included in my Rhetorical Analysis Task Cards. 15 Rhetorical Analysis Questions to Ask Your Students What is the main idea or assertion of the text? Explain two different ways in which the author/speaker supports the main idea. How does the author/speaker establish ethos in the text? How does the author/speaker appeal to reason (logos)? How does the author/speaker appeal to emotion (pathos)? Is the evidence used to support the argument reliable? Explain. How does the tone affect the author/speaker’s credibility? What is the tone at the beginning, middle, and end of the text? What is one rhetorical device used in the text? Explain it’s effectiveness. Identify one example of figurative language used in the text. Explain it’s effectiveness. Does the author/speaker reveal any prejudices against people who might disagree? Explain. Was the author/speaker effective in achieving the purpose? Explain. In your opinion, what is the strongest element/part of the text/argument? Explain and provide evidence and reasoning. In your opinion, what is the weakest element/part of the text/argument? Explain and provide evidence and reasoning. Do you believe the author/speaker achieved the purpose? Explain your answer and provide evidence and reasoning in your response. Be sure to also read my blog post about my favorite speeches for rhetorical analysis. Here are some rhetorical analysis teaching resources you may like: Sticky Note Rhetorical Analysis Rhetorical Analysis Mini Flip Book Rhetorical Analysis Task Cards FREE SOAPStone Organizer
Wondering how to sequence grammar instruction? You'll want this list that scaffolds grammar lessons so that one skill builds upon the next.
We've handpicked a collection of 31 fun writing prompts for middle school that will spark your imagination and transform your journaling experience!
I recently just finished my first set of Middle School Mentor Sentences to teach grammar. As I’ve started talking about and posting about Mentor Sentences, I’ve realized that most teachers fall into the following categories when it comes to implementing mentor sentences: I have no idea what mentor sentences are, but I am intrigued now. I ... Read more
Create a Syllabus That Your Students Will Actually Want to Read. Free Resource to download to help you create an Art Syllabus for your art students. Want to try your hand at a visual syllabus? We'll give you three helpful hints. This article will take 8 minutes to read.
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
After part one of guided reading and small groups in middle school ELA, this post outlines what the other students are doing during this time
Hi friends, I have had multiple ideas of posts I have wanted to share with you all about preparing for teaching in middle school, so I decided to combine them all in to one HUGE post :). This post really came to be because, in my true nature, I am not a middle school teacher ... Read more
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…
I recently assigned a one pager final project to my sophomores for their culminating Night project. I wanted to combine as many rigorous ELA content ideas as possible, while also designing a fun project for students that provided them with a bit of choice. This Night one pager project was the perfect way to finish the memoir!
4 Games to Help Kids Think Critically about Vocabulary Guest Post by Rachael Parlett from Classroom Game Nook Blog.
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When attention spans are short, these do the trick!
I was recently sitting in one of my sixth grade guided reading groups when one of the students in it asked, "What are those line thingys called that the author keeps using?" I hesitated before replying because the words "hyphen" and "dash" kept coming to my mind, but to be completely honest, I had no idea which was which. So we stopped and decided to look it up. This is what we discovered: The reason that I like teaching within a flexible framework of teaching, like Literacy Collaborative, is because learning becomes authentic. Instead of drilling into my whole group of students what a dash and a hyphen are, something that I've never known my whole life but probably have been taught at some point, I was able to ask students questions like: *What do you notice about when an author uses a dash? *What do you notice about when an author uses a hyphen? *What is the author's purpose in using a dash/hyphen? *How does understanding this punctuation make the book easier to understand? *How could you use what you now know about the dash and the hyphen in your own writing? This particular guided reading group and I had an awesome conversation about this, and it is amazing what students notice and how they categorize information within their brains. I am confident to say that they now not only know what a dash and a hyphen are and the author's purpose in using these particular types of punctuation, but they also are noticing and analyzing the author's purpose in using other types of punctuation such as commas, parentheses, italics, and end-of-the-sentence punctuation. As teachers, we have to make possibly hundreds of mini teaching decisions every day of where to take the whole class next, where to take a small group of students such as my guided reading group, and where to take individual students. The more I continue to teach using the Literacy Collaborative framework, the more I realize that it's not necessarily about having all the answers or being the expert teacher. It's about how you allow students to interact with one another, how you talk to students, and the atmosphere for learning you have set up.
Reading can be a hard sell for students. Introducing middle school literature circles can be the game changer your classroom needs to foster reading.
Learn some ideas for supporting IEP and ESL students in the middle school classroom.
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
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Your budding poet can practice rhythm in this worksheet. They'll read two poems by Robert Louis Stevenson and determine their rhythm.
Reading can be a hard sell for students. Introducing middle school literature circles can be the game changer your classroom needs to foster reading.
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
