Tools to Help You Teach Middle School ELA
Do you plan writing projects and provide students with an assignment sheet? Doing so can help you focus instruction and improve student outcomes. Here are some quick steps help you plan your own projects: You are driving home from school, listening to the radio, and daydreaming…suddenly an amazing idea pops into your head for your […] Read more…
One of the most rewarding and impactful aspects of writing workshop is the writing conferences your students will have with you and their peers. How can you make the most of this time? Here are some ways to make your conferences more powerful: Start with the Ideas Ever collect a stack of completed essays, sit […] Read more…
Where do you find your assessments? Even when your writing workshop is humming along beautifully… Students are working, you are conferencing, and life is grand…until you look in your grade book. Gotta get those grades, right? But where are those assessments going to come from? Read on to find solutions to this problem… Here’s the […] Read more…
What are your writing workshop expectations? Writing workshop is a great way to teach writing, but you probably still have questions. Let’s get them answered! Here’s the big question: You’re ready to get started with writing workshop, but you have one nagging question looming in the back of your mind: What is the rest of […] Read more…
If you’re thinking about structuring your class to include writing workshop, you might be wondering what the writing workshop format looks like. Let’s take a look! What does writing workshop look like? The most important part of writing workshop is to make it YOURS. There isn’t a “one size fits all” method. Adapt and adopt […] Read more…
If you’ve decided to teach writing using the workshop method, you probably have some questions. Here are seven questions and answers to help you get started. 1. What exactly is writing workshop? Remember the story of the elves and the shoemaker? I think of that story when I think of a workshop class. The heart […] Read more…
Writing workshop can transform your classroom! Sounds magical, doesn’t it? I believe it’s true — and here is why: 1. Real Writers & Real Work Often students feel like they write something, it gets corrected, and…end of process. In a workshop, students grapple with the entire writing process: revision, determining what they really want to […] Read more…
If you assign homework, even if it’s just daily reading, you’ve probably encountered this excuse for incomplete work: “I didn’t have time…” Perhaps you’ve even had parents send notes or emails repeating the same thing — their child didn’t have time to complete homework. Kids are busy — that’s true, but are they managing their […] Read more…
Peer reviews are beneficial to the reviewer and reviewee alike. Students benefit most from peer reviews when a few things are set in place. When one of my teaching friends noticed I was using peer reviews in my classroom, she commented that she never used them. Why? “It’s like the blind leading the blind,” she […] Read more…
Ready to start using dystopia literature in your book clubs? Students LOVE it! From The Hunger Games and beyond…the genre is popular! That’s why it is a perfect match for your book clubs. What are the best ways to get started? Let’s dig in: Students can’t seem to get enough of them, and there are so many great […] Read more…