Sane and Simple Tools to Help You Teach Middle School ELA
Looking for fresh ideas for lesson planning? Here are suggestions for what to teach in March. Here are some important events this month that you’ll want to be sure to add to your calendar: March is Women’s History Month The first week of the month is “Write a Letter of Appreciation” week Read Across America […] Read more…
Ready to teach expository writing? Before your students jump into expository writing, make sure they understand what it is. What is expository writing? Whether you refer to it as expository or informative writing, expository texts explain. They inform the reader about something — the writing can be structure as: how to do something cause/effect comparison/contrast […] Read more…
Looking for ideas of what to teach in February? Here are some ideas to get you started! This article contains affiliate links. You can read more about that here. There are tons of quirky, funny, and interesting holidays this month. You can find a whole list here. Here are some of the important ones that […] Read more…
Plan for a substitute by creating emergency sub plans for your middle school ELA classroom. What’s worse than missing school? Planning for a sub! Even if you have the luxury of planning ahead, preparing for a sub is often more painful than just being at school! Here are some ideas to get you ready! 👉 […] Read more…
Ready to teach your students how to write a memoir essay? Here are steps to help you teach effectively and your students to produce a meaningful piece of writing. What is a memoir essay? A memoir is a personal essay that explores an event that a person has experienced. It’s different from a personal narrative […] Read more…
Use memoir mentor texts to help you teach this genre to your students. Here is a list of mentor texts to help you get started. This article contains affiliate links. You can read more about that here. When you start teaching memoir writing or personal narratives, you’ll want to provide students with mentor texts that […] Read more…
Not sure what to teach in January? Here is a list of ideas to get you started! Here are some important events for this month that you’ll want to be sure to include on your calendar: January is International Creativity Month January 17 is Kid Inventor’s Day January 18 is Thesaurus Day (Peter Mark Roget’s […] Read more…
Not sure what to teach in December? Here’s a list of 10 fun activities for one of the most challenging teaching months of the year. (Number 9 is my favorite!!) Journal Prompts 1.Holiday memoir Use journal prompts to help students dive into their memories! This is a great prewriting activity if you plan to have […] Read more…
Video and narrative writing go hand in hand. As you prepare your students to begin writing narratives, you’ll want to teach them the elements of the genre. But before they even put pen to paper, you can use videos to teach narrative writing. Why? We are surrounded by stories. Commercials, TV shows, movies, video games, […] Read more…
When it’s time to teach narrative writing, you’re faced with lots of choices, requirements…and grading. Looking for help with where to start and how to organize this writing task? Here are some tips for teaching successful narrative writing. What is narrative writing? Narrative writing tells a story. It may or may not be true. It […] Read more…