Tools to Help You Teach Middle School ELA
Looking for writing workshop tips? Ways to make it easier? I’ve got you covered! Teaching writing is challenging! But this post will help you! I’ve written several articles about it – and collected them here to help you find the answers you need. Let’s get started! Let’s start at the beginning If you’re not sure […] 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…
Research should be fun! Yet it often involves restricted topics, rules, and requirements that can limit a student’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm. Encourage students to follow their questions by implementing simple, small research activities about topics they are curious about. Create a Research Notebook I loved making upcycled notebooks, and I decided to use […] Read more…
Looking for ideas of what to teach in February? Here are some ideas to get you started! 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 you’ll want to mark on your calendar: February is Library Lover’s Month […] 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: This is International Creativity Month January 17 is Kid Inventor’s Day Celebrate Thesaurus Day (Peter Mark Roget’s birthday) on […] Read more…
Wondering how to teach narrative writing? Whether you’re using writing workshop or whole-class instruction, this post has you covered. Read on to find step-by-step help in teaching your students what narrative writing is and how to write them. Let’s get started! 1. What is narrative writing? You want to make sure that your students understand […] Read more…
Wondering what to teach in November? Here are 12 ideas to help you get started. Let’s check them out! In the U.S., November means cooler temperatures, settling into school routines, voting, and Thanksgiving. Journal Prompts 1. Teaching gratitude. Fall seems to be a natural time to think about gratitude here in the States. I love this gratitude journal. The digital […] Read more…
I recently received a message from a teacher asking for help with her struggling middle school writers. She knew that all of her plans, units, and writing prompts were not going to be effective teaching tools if her students didn’t grasp the writing fundamentals they needed. Perhaps you spent an entire in-service day planning your […] Read more…
Looking for October lesson plan ideas — or have the have the crazies of October already hit? ? Either way, here are 12 ideas to help you keep students working and engaged for the month (numbers 5 & 6 are my favorites!). Writing Adjust journal prompts. One of my students’ favorites is to write about […] Read more…
Do your students write their own works cited page? It’s just so easy to use an online tool, but what wouldn’t your rather that your students understand how to create their own? I teach my students how to create a works cited page from scratch — or the old, fashioned way as they like to […] Read more…