Essay Grading Hacks Top 3 Ways to Get it Done FAST! Wow! Grading essays! Ugh… Holy cow. Middle School English / Language Arts teachers could drown in essays every weekend if it weren’t for a change in mindset on what grading essays can and should look like. First of all, it
4 Activities to Get Your Students Writing Insightful Commentary Teaching your students how to write insightful commentary once they’ve chosen their quotes or their text evidence can be tricky. This type of writing involves higher-level thinking and the ability to synthesize what they’ve learned and make new connections based on
Teach your English / Language Arts Students How to Use Embedded Quotes Middle School Grades 6-7-8 Whether I’m teaching expository reading and writing or literary reading and writing, teaching my students how and why to use embedded quotes at the middle school level can be tedious and daunting. Click
Extra Credit is a Major Time-Suck! How to say NO to students, parents, and administrators when they ask about extra credit in your middle school English Language Arts classroom. “Can I do anything for extra credit since my grade in 7th grade ELA is 88? I really have to have
The goal with implementing these four strategies for keeping students on task during group work is that each one serves to maintain student engagement. Each strategy is interesting for kids and allows for creative interactions between students to promote learning. 1) Use Music Strategically While playing soft, instrumental music in
Kids Reading Aloud: It Doesn’t Have to Be Painful! Easy, actionable steps to take to ensure your students can read aloud with real voice and tone: First of all, I just want to say that this particular blog post is focused on helping your Language Arts students learn to read
Teaching Flashback Activities for Your Middle School ELA Classroom Elements of Fiction: Flashback [Let’s say your students are reading a story and it begins like this:] Underneath the creaky, weathered deck of the front porch a pale, peeling hand was hurrying along the edge, coming up and over the top. It’s just
Teaching Tone Activities for Your Middle School ELA Classroom What is the TONE of the text? It’s not what you say… It’s how you say it. But how does that work when you’re reading and you can’t actually hear the person’s voice? The secret is in the words the writer uses.
Teaching Mood Activities for Your Middle School ELA Classroom MOOD Writers create it by using words, details, and descriptions to make a story seem gloomy, creepy, imaginary, pitiful, lighthearted, comical, or somber. Of course there are other mood words that a writer can use, but we can stick with these for now!
Theme vs. Topic Activities 6th Grade Language Arts Even though 6th graders have been learning how to identify the topic of their reading selections since pre-K, it gets all muddled when the teacher throws in theme and main idea, too. Theme? Topic? Main idea? They’re not all the same
Reviewing or Introducing Plot Analysis with Videos in Middle School English Language Arts Before analyzing plot, like really analyzing it, it may be helpful to review some basics. Regardless of where you are in the school year, you can count on kids in your class who just can’t remember
Teaching Characterization in 6th Grade ELA How Writers Show Characterization appearance inner thoughts & feelings outer actions & speaking what others say about that characters how others treat that character Terms to Know & Teach character traits character attributes protagonist / antagonist direct / indirect characterization static / dynamic characters conflict
Ideas for Teaching Setting in 6th Grade Language Arts Setting: How to teach it in quiz, easy ways. If you’ve ever been in my shoes, then you know what it’s like to teach a novel or to spend weeks on an amazing series of short stories at the beginning
Kid-friendly movie clips to help show, teach, and explain different types of conflict Conflict can be superfun and easy to teach! Start by using the image above, which I use as a bell ringer in one of my four-week units on teaching elements of fiction. I just throw that little PowerPoint
SUPERQUICK literature centers in the 6th grade ELA classroom Why I use literature centers in my 6th grade language arts classroom I need a way to reteach important concepts all through the year Students need a way to work on extension activities without much teacher input When I need to spend time working