In order to breathe some life into my inference lessons for my students who show an understanding of inference, I came up with three activities that require students to apply their knowledge of inference and text evidence.
If you have students who are bored and need something engaging and fun, check out these three ideas.
Read MoreAs teachers, we have been blessed with an amazing opportunity to connect and build relationships with young people who need someone in their corner cheering them on.
I know it’s not easy with the demands of high stakes testing, all the hats we have to wear, and trying to get through all of the standards. The good news is, though, there are little things we can implement that can help us start to build strong and lasting relationships with our students.
Here are five easy ideas to help get you going.
Does the first day of school make you a little nervous? Sure you have your fun bulletin boards up, assigned seats ready to go, and your classroom library all set up, but now what?
What do you do when 30 middle schoolers actually walk into your classroom, sit in the plastic blue seats, and stare expectantly at you?
Because I know it can be a little daunting to plan for the first day along with the hundreds of other things you have to think about, I’m going to share what I do on day one. Click for tips, ideas, and resources!
Over the years, my bell ringers have developed and grown to include meaningful and engaging tasks. I have found that if I do the same type of bell ringer every single day, students get bored. I don’t blame them. It would be like eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich everyday for lunch. I’m the type of person who likes to throw in a square retro pizza and some tater tots into the lunch rotation, so my bell ringers need some variety too.
I have four core bell ringer activities that I rotate through throughout the year. Each set takes a week to complete, so we do two of each type in one quarter. Click to read all about them!
The number one question I see on forums is, what books should I read with my middle school students? There are so many great choices out there because young adult literature is rocking. To help you get started, here are 12 of my favorite books that I have read with my students throughout the years.
Read MoreResearch proves that when you have intentional and explicit vocabulary instruction, reading ability and comprehension increases. So the question is, how do you make your vocabulary instruction intentional and explicit? This post explains the 5 steps I use each week to teach vocabulary to my middle school students.
Read MoreAfter years and years of holding seminars in my middle school ELA classroom, I have come up 6 tips you can implement to help you and your students get the most out of a seminar session! I believe these tips help my seminars run effectively in ALL of my classes (yes, even that class that can’t handle hardly anything) Click to see if there are any tips you can add to what you’re already doing!
Read MoreThis is your one stop spot for how to teach Chasing Lincoln’s Killer to your students! I have complied everything I have learned from the years of teaching with this novel, so you can save time and have access what works! This post details exactly how I approach each chapter and specifically outlines the strategies I use to engage students and encourage analytical thinking.
Read MoreIn order to teacher one of the most engaging novels I do all year, I have to front load and build tons of back ground knowledge. What better way than to use the countless primary sources from the assassination. This is the step by step guide to how I pump up their prior knowledge with primary sources.
Read MoreUp until this point, a lot of our students have just focused on plot, characters, POV, setting, etc. as independent concepts. This is how I got my students to go beyond thinking about story elements in isolation, and to start looking at how they work together and interact.
Read MoreThis one skill I have taught my students is something that is not only super useful for them right now, but it something that can be applied to all subjects throughout their academic career. This is WHAT I teach them and HOW I implement it on a consistent and daily basis!
Read MoreWow. Some days are just a struggle in the middle school ELA classroom. Trying to get 12-14 year olds to focus on reading for an extended amount of time takes some work and energy. After watching my students float off into la la land after 15 minutes of reading, I knew I had to come up with a way to keep them engaged during extended readings…
Read MoreKeeping students focused, motivated, and engaged during testing can be challenging. Not only is this little reward is super easy to implement and keep going, but it also provides encouragement and recognition for a job well done!
Read MoreI don’t know why today was they day, but it was. I mean, I’ve done it this way for years. But, for some reason, today was the day that where it became glaringly obvious: the way I was doing gallery walks to showcase student work was not meaningful or engaging. This is how I fixed the problem between class periods and instantly increased student engagement.
Read MoreIt look me years to find the perfect notebook set up for my ELA class. I went through sections, interactive, and unstructured styles, but could not find anything that worked for me until this…
Read MoreWhen my lessons started to turn my classroom into something you would find in a 1980s movie, I knew I needed to change. Reworking the standards into bite sized pieces was just what my students (and me) needed! Here is how I did it…
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