I love teaching poetry and can't wait to share these fun ideas with you! This post is full of ways you can make poetry fun in your middle school classroom.
Motivate students with independent reading by adding engaging reading sprints...turn the traditional reading log upside down!
A multiple choice quiz after reading is a quick and easy way to check student comprehension, but it doesn't allow you to assess deeper understanding and it certainly isn't fun or creative. If you are looking for more meaningful and engaging activities to use with students during literature circles or a novel unit, here's twelve ideas that are favorites in my classroom and the Common Core standards they align with.
What is the purpose of literature circles? How do you structure a literature circle? How long should Literature Circles last? What is the teacher's role in
Unsure of how to teach inference? These fun and engaging inferencing activities for middle school will excite your students!
Reading comprehension skills like making inferences, finding the main idea, and recognizing cause and effect are critical curriculum elements in any ELA classroom. As our students build their reading skills, they need to develop their understanding of 12 different reading comprehension skills. One of my favorite ways to teach students about the reading skills is with doodle notes. Don't worry...I've put together a 20+ page set of doodle notes that you can download for FREE! (Sign up at the bottom of this post!) Have you tried doodle notes in your classroom? If so, you know that... ⭐ Doodle notes are a great way to introduce students to important information. These doodle notes include definitions for 12 different reading skills. In addition, there are tips provided for each reading skill to help students use each in their reading. The definitions are simple enough for students to understand, but specific enough to help students recognize the differences in each. ⭐ Doodle notes tap into multiple learning styles. Doodle notes are obviously great for visual learners. They also create a connection between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. This leads to an increase in learning, focus, and retention. The doodles on the note pages also help a variety of learners connect images with information. The free set of reading doodle notes also includes 4 versions for easy differentiation. There are doodle pages for lower grades, upper grades, as well as notes that are filled-in or in a guided notes format. ⭐ Doodle notes expose students to skills they can use in the classroom. Doodle notes are a fun and engaging spin on traditional notes. The free set of doodle notes focus on reading comprehension skills. Therefore, they work perfectly as a review of skills before students show off their learning while reading passages. Of course, I think reading passages should be engaging, too. So, some of my favorites to combine with the doodle notes are these... --- Reading Passages and Text-Based Evidence - R.E.A.D. Strategy --- Social Emotional Learning Passages - Read, Doodle and Do --- Nonfiction Reading Passages - Doodle and Do ⭐ Doodle notes are extremely motivating and therefore work as awesome introductions to units. The free set of reading comprehension skills doodle notes are such an awesome way to introduce students to more in-depth reading units. You could easily have students complete the packet of doodle notes before diving deeper into each reading skill. Or, you could have students complete one section of the doodle notes as they learn about different skills. The good news is that I've already created 12 reading mini-units for each reading skill. Find them here. ⭐ Doodle notes help students review and reinforce information naturally. When students complete doodle notes, first, they do the work of adding the notes to their pages. However, their learning doesn't end there. Students are super motivated to doodle, color, and embellish their note pages. As they get creative, they naturally read over and review their learning. It's the perfect way to mix creativity and learning! If you'd like to add this FREE set of reading comprehension doodle notes to your classroom, just add your email and name below. Then, check you inbox for your exclusive freebie!
How I implement and run guided reading and small group in my middle school and upper elementary ELA classrooms
For most of us as English teachers, reading was a love-at-first-sight kind of experience, and while some of our students have that same natural love for reading, others simply have cold feet. Thankfully, it only takes a little creativity and the right reading activity for a love of reading to bloom. To foster this love
Looking for Wordle classroom ideas? Incorporate Wordle into your classroom with this activities, ideas, and templates.
Don't let your literature anthology dictate the short stories you read with your middle school and high school students. There are so many wonderful short stories out there, many of which can be used to teach a variety of literary elements and paired with other texts. Read on for 13 of my favorites, which literary terms and skills they lend themselves to teaching, plus suggested text pairings and activities.
Finding resources to support middle school special education students is difficult, here are the best reading resources that I have found.
Are your middle grade students reading? Discover 12 ways to moivate your middle grade students to read-- either again for for the first time.
Reading can be a hard sell for students. Introducing middle school literature circles can be the game changer your classroom needs to foster reading.
Looking for a fun vocabulary activity? This extension is perfect for middle and high school to help encourage critical thinking and associations.
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Looking for unique post-reading activities to inspire students and provide a sample of their analytical skills? Find high-interest strategies for secondary.
Asking questions before, during, and after reading comes very naturally to skilled readers, but for struggling readers, this skill can be just the opposite. Asking questions of varying depths is arguably the most important reading
Students can respond to literature creatively while still covering important standards. Read about five engaging and relevant reading response possibilities in this post.
This free reading response choice board for fiction texts is
Whenever I teach freshmen or sophomores, I always begin the school year with a short story unit. I use this unit to introduce literary elements to my
After part one of guided reading and small groups in middle school ELA, this post outlines what the other students are doing during this time
Looking for games to play with a classroom? This list of English games in the classroom is exactly what you need to engage students!
What better way to expand young readers’ hunger for literature than hosting a book tasting? Students will be eager to eat! (I mean read.)
Enhance reading comprehension with before reading activities for older students. Discover effective reading activities for high school.
Are you looking for ELA extension activities? Here are 25 ideas for classroom activities for teaching literature.
Book reports and summaries are a thing of the past. Engage your middle and high school students with five book report alternatives that will leave them asking for more and, most importantly, building vital reading and analysis skills along the way. 1. Assign one pagers at the end of a novel. One pagers are engaging, allow for creativity, and lead to higher level thinking and analysis. Assigning a one pager is easy and works for any novel. Follow these simple guidelines: • Make it standards base
Read about how, when, and why to use one pagers in the ELA classroom as a response to reading. Templates, examples, and scaffolding help!
Looking for games to play with a classroom? This list of English games in the classroom is exactly what you need to engage students!
This post may contain affiliate links. That means that if you click the links and make a purchase I may receive compensation at no additional cost to you. I do not recommend any companies that I do not persoanlly use and love. Please read our disclaimer for more info. Teaching reading to middle school students can be difficult. There aren’t as many resources for teaching middle school reading intervention. Check out 4 Resources for Middle School Reading Intervention. It can also be difficult to find age-appropriate activities to work with students on pre-reading. K-W-L Chart This is one technique for pre-reading that does translate to older students. A K-W-L Chart is where you have the students start by listing what they know about a topic (this is the “K”). Then, you have them make a list of everything that they want to know about the topic (the “W”). And then post-reading you add the third column of everything that they learned about the topic (the “L”). With older students, I tend to also use this as a technique to help them practice with research and for the L column, they have to state evidence from the text to support it. Preview the Text If the text is non-fiction: Have the students look ahead and read any headings. Have them read any subheadings. Your students should preview any pictures in the text and read the caption with it. If the text is fiction: Have the students read the title. If there is a summary, have them read it first. Have students preview any pictures and make predictions about what the story will be about. Previewing Vocabulary This can be very important when dealing with ELL students as well as students with a reading disability. Before you begin reading the text work through the vocabulary. Discuss the different words that they are going to come into contact with that may be difficult for them. Students who are reading texts where they don’t understand the words are going to get frustrated and give up. Also if they are not understanding some of the important vocabulary words, they are not going to fully comprehend the text. Review Background If you are going to read a story with your class, take time to think about what background information they would need to comprehend the text. As teachers, we often assume students know things about the past that they may not. I was shocked this year when before a unit on the Holocaust I asked kids what they knew about it. The answer was that they knew very little, and some students knew nothing at all. So, to be careful, don’t assume your students know anything about the text. Create a lesson or a webquest where they discover the information that they will need! More Resources: Also, Check Out: Using Editing Stations in ELA Accommodations to Support Students who Struggle with Executive Functioning Get your free IEP summary page! Subscribe to get our latest content by email. Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. First Name Email Address We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. Get your download! We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit
Hello Friends!! Happy Memorial Day weekend, the official start to the summer season here at the Jersey shore!!As excited as I am, we still have about three and half weeks left in this school year
Learn why one-pagers are one of my go-to activities for breaking down complex topics and texts. Understand what they are, why you and your students will love them, and how to implement them in your ELA classroom. I even have the advice to help you tackle the biggest obstacle you’ll encounter with this activity.
Are you looking to make poetry exciting in your middle school classroom? Check out these ideas and tips to help you engage your students!
Use these Six Minutes podcast lessons and follow up activities to plan engaging and fun lesson plans for your middle school ELA students.
Reading Response activities will likely form a major part of your reading programme, whether you are running guided reading groups, a daily 5 system,
This past school year was a great one. With every school year that passes, I like to take a moment and reflect on activities that were successful in the
Try this free, fun, and interactive middle school ELA games in your classroom to teach grammar and literacy ELA skills!
Create a classroom of writers with these fun writing activities for middle school students! There's something for everyone!
With so many of my BIG KIDS struggling with fluency, I worked to make it a part of my daily work with students, a Tier 1 intervention that the majority of the class could benefit from. Reading fluency incorporates three main components: speed, accuracy, and prosody, which directly impact comprehension. While I have shared a great deal about incorporating 6-Minute Solutions, here are a few other ways I worked to make fluency fun for my 6th graders.
10 ideas for planning engaging novel units: creative, engaging lesson ideas for your next whole-class novel unit
When attention spans are short, these do the trick!
For any teacher or parent that is looking, here is my list of best books for middle school readers. Each of these books has been read or recommended by my students or I during the course of our time together:
15 exit ticket ideas for any subject or grade level!
Full year lesson plans provide huge time savings to busy teachers. It is important to have lesson structures and assignments in your classroom that can be used all year.
This post explains how teachers can use an academic version of the highly engaging Spoons game to review concepts. Free games included!
Middle school novel study favorites - top novel study picks for grade 5-9 to engage and encourage young readers.
Looking for a way to get students to have fun learning new words AND remember them longer? Try these brain-based vocabulary activities.
