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Category: Writing all the Time
Classroom Management in Middle School: Tips and Tricks for a Successful Year
If you’re a middle school teacher, classroom management is key to having a successful year. It can be difficult to keep middle schoolers on track, but with the right tips and tricks, it can be done (without stress, begging, or selling your soul)! The tips, tricks, and timeliness of this
Creating Your Classroom Management Plan: The Teacher’s How-to Guide
Really? A “classroom management plan” for a Middle School ELA Teacher?” Yes, absolutely! Thinking ahead, being proactive, and knowing what you’ll do or say in certain classroom situations is how you’ll stay in control, remain calm, and feel confident during all those pop-up classroom management issues that your school doesn’t
Social Emotional Learning: Promoting Connection with Students and Parents
With neverending to-do lists, it’s overwhelming to think about how to incorporate social-emotional learning (SEL) into our classrooms. With so many mounting responsibilities, how can we possibly begin to tackle the countless needs of our students? We realize this is a big job. Like, a really big job. However, we
Mini-Lessons for The First Week of Class
When we think about what to teach during that very first week of school, it’s not as much about the academics as it is about teaching the routines, procedures, and expectations that are crucial for a smooth-running classroom. Mini-lessons that first week are really just the tools through which I
Reading and Writing for the First Week of Middle School ELA Class
What to Teach Your First Week of Class Planning your first week of class–whether you’re a seasoned teacher looking for a change or a teacher new to the middle school ELA classroom–is laid out right here, day by day for you! Whether you have a 45 minute class or a
Second Day of School Lesson Plan for Middle School ELA
What to Teach After Your First Day of Class If you’re here with me, then you probably already have a pretty good handle on what you want your very first day of Middle School English Language Arts class to look like. You’ve probably already read the article where I describe
First Day Lesson Plans for Middle School ELA
What to Teach Your First Day of Class Planning your first day of class–whether you’re a seasoned teacher looking for a change or a teacher new to the middle school ELA classroom–is laid out right here for you! Whether you have a 45 minute class or a 90 minute block
Syllabus + Meet the Teacher Ideas for Your First Week of Class
Middle School ELA students are going to have sooo much information thrown at them during the first week of school, not to mention during the first day of all their classes. Imagine (or remember?) your time as a student and every 45 minutes or every 60+ minutes you’re changing classes:
How to Flip Your Middle School Grammar Instruction: 3 Simple Strategies to Use Right Now!
You know you need (and want!) to engage your middle school ELA/R students grammar instruction, but you’re stuck at: >> How to teach grammar consistently (there’s just no time!) >> Whether to teach grammar in isolation or not (forget religion and politics—this is what really divides people!) >> What to
Elements of Fiction and Short Stories Mini-Lessons for Middle School English Language Arts
Where to even begin (or end, or support, or extend) your elements of fiction / short story unit in Middle School English Language Arts & Reading . . . I’ll share my favorite mini-lesson topics with you here so you can think about what concepts you might want to include
No-Prep Ways to Teach Grammar in Middle School English Language Arts Class
We say “grammar” but really, that’s an umbrella under which we have things like usage, mechanics, parts of speech, sentence structure, etc. The word grammar covers all of it (that may seem obvious, but if you’ve been teaching math for 10 years and you just got “voluntold” to teach English
Elements of Argument & Persuasion Mini-Lessons for Middle School English Language Arts
Locating or creating resources to support elements of argument and persuasion is time-consuming and frustrating, especially when you’ve already taught the concepts and need more materials! I’ve created a collection of my top 10 mini-lessons and learning experiences (I’ll share them with you in a sec) so you can teach,
How to Flip Your Classroom One Piece at a Time: Middle School English Language Arts
Flipping your instruction (in case you’re new to the concept) is where students are introduced to material through videos or other digital content on their own time, usually outside of class (but I’ll show you other methods, too). The idea is that instead of the teacher teaching a concept in
Non-Fiction / Expository Paired Passages for Middle School English Language Arts
Finding on-level paired passages ready to go for Middle School ELA that are Accessible for your struggling readers Challenging enough for your high fliers Engaging so no one is bored Designed to promote discussion with built-in teachable moments . . . And that don’t take a whole week to teach
How to Help Struggling Readers in the Middle School ELA Classroom
I love connecting with teachers and coaching teachers through the issues and pain points that come with serving students in middle school English / Language Arts. I’ve had a couple of questions recently about what to do with students reading below grade level in middle school. It’s an issue that
