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
NO PREP NEEDED! REVIEW ANY 6TH GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS UNIT USING YOUR SCHOOL LIBRARY! 1) GENRE REVIEW This is a no-brainer since you’re in the library, but it’s how you implement the review to make in interactive and memorable. Here’s what to do for this “scavenger hunt”
How to fill that extra 5-15 minutes at the end of class We’ve all been there: “That lesson didn’t take as long as I thought!” “I ran out of time last class but now I have 12 more minutes in this class! What the heck??!!” It’s Thursday afternoon and
I know what I’m doing the last two days of school! It’s gonna be crazy those last two days of 6th grade Language Arts! Two classes are DONE because of awards ceremonies. Two classes are NORMAL because, well, it’s just normal class time. One class is DONE because of yearbook
“2 for 1” Assignments Creative & Challenging Assignments WITHOUT ALL THE GRADING When you think of a “2 for 1” special, you think of getting a good deal— two things for the price of one a half-off special a 50% discount buy-one-get-one free They seem like a no-brainer, and they
Bell Ringers are Still Relevant in a 6th Grade Language Arts Classroom! Let’s Use Them to Their Full Potential! Why I am such a huge fan of bellringers… You’ve gotta have a quick, easy way to start class each day. …Something that’s not going to take up any time to
An Easy Way to Help Kids Talk to Each Other Academically Download the whole Tents for Talking packet FREE >> right here << If you need a way to help all students talk at a higher level about what they’re reading or working on—from ESL to pre-AP students and everyone
Text Features Concrete to Abstract How do we get students to not only understand what a text feature is, but to know why it’s important and why it matters? Wait a sec–do our students even know what the word “feature” means,
Text Structures Concrete to Abstract How do we get students to not only understand what a text structure is, but to know why it’s important and why it matters? Back up– do our students even know what the word “structure” means, much less what “text” and “structure” mean together? If
Close Reading Skills & Annotating Stop the excessive underlining and highlighting! Close reading skills don’t happen by accident— it’s a skill set that, when implemented effectively, helps to engage readers and keep kids mentally focused as well as physically engaged. When done correctly, it can put an end to reading
Project Based Learning (PBL) Helping Students Take Ownership of Their Learning Ok, let’s be real here: Anytime you give 12 year-olds a project and then release them to go work on it, there’s going to be some chaos. Here’s what PBL is supposed to look like in my 6th
NOW what are they wanting me to do? Ok, so it’s easy to get caught off-guard when someone asks or tells you to help with yet another after-school or evening activity . It’s easy to get cornered and swept into the whole “help us with XYZ after school because it’s
Hint: Holistic Grading is the best thing since sliced bread. The cross that we bear as Language Arts teachers is all the freakin’ writing we have to grade for our students. (But, yeah, they NEED to be writing!!) Let’s give our students lots of writing opportunities without us actually having
I don’t know if you can really do this every day… It definitely depends on how much class time you have. It’s more important to just do it consistently, whatever that means for you and your classes. So maybe twice a week, give your students a free-writing topic. To make it