Tools to Help You Teach Middle School ELA
Help your students create a resource book that is more than just a place to record notes or homework. Teach your students how to make their notebooks a true resource. At the end of the school year, do your students drop their notebooks into the recycling bin as they leave the classroom? A year’s worth […] Read more…
Do you use daily writing warm ups at the beginning of your writing class? How can you make the most of them? Here are a suggestions to make them work for your students: Writing warm ups + timer Here’s the scene: Your students come into the classroom. As they do every day, they work on […] Read more…
Formative? Summative? What does it all mean to you, your students, and teaching? You need assessments — but how you get them? What kind of assessment is it? And what you do with them? Here is how you can make sense of formative and summative assessments — without the overwhelm! Let’s get started! Wouldn’t it […] Read more…
Rubrics will save you time, help your students improve their skills, and provide fair, balanced assessments. You can use an online rubric maker — or you can create your own that are balanced and fair. Here is the secret “recipe” for creating and using your own. What’s a rubric, anyway? Here’s your etymological lesson for […] Read more…
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…