Every year, I strive to understand where to focus my reading standards instruction, ensuring I meet the needs of my students and don't waste time 're-teaching' things they already know. Plus, I want to be able to monitor progress to track growth. Of course, my district eliminated iReady, one of my favorites for this type of purpose. I could not find anything else that was standards-based the way I needed it. So I made my own. I went through samples of standardized tests and made questions to match my own original text based on the first 8 reading standards: 1.  Ci ..read more

  Every year, at the beginning of the year, we ask our new students to write an essay.  We give them texts, a planning sheet, and time.  We do not provide any information so we can see where their writing skills lie. The trouble with this is that students are performing at so many different levels.  Some can write paragraphs, but others are still working on writing sentences.  And some can already write beautiful multi-paragraph essays.  You can imagine the frustration that abounded! So then what?  Well, in years gone by, we would try to provide models o ..read more

  After state testing is done, the age-old question is "What do we do now?" I have 3 tried and true ideas that have served me well with my middle schoolers year after year. 1.  Conduct a Novel Study This one is pretty easy to implement.  Choose an engaging novel, determine the focus (for example, theme), choose activities that will develop that focus and then read with audio. In my class, we have read The Outsiders.  Our focus was theme.  The activities revolved around charting character traits and events that contributed to the themes of the book.  We kept ..read more

  You know what I do when I have just two weeks left before the state writing test?   1.  Give An Essay Writing Checkup Although I have prior essays and other essay work, I need a snapshot of my classes so I can pinpoint some specific skills.  If I can determine the biggest challenges overall, then I can design reteaching activities to address them. Click here to learn more about the checkup! 2.  Use Centers Now that I know what's needed, I will focus on reteaching with centers.   The centers I made addressed 4 main areas: Focus Organiza ..read more

  Every year we take a state essay writing test.  Obviously, we will want to review but what are the best ways to prep for an essay test?  It's not necessarily all that easy -- or is it? Here are my Top 3 Essay Prep Ideas for Middle School: 1.  The Essay Challenge  Students are given a prompt, texts, and a checklist to write an essay. Each successfully completed step from the checklist earns a puzzle piece. On the appointed day, students are awarded whatever their puzzle shows that they earned! In my class, students earned a "mudpie" - a pudding cup with all sort ..read more

  My middle school students don't seem to care for writing.  They think it's an arduous task.  When I ask them why they think it's arduous, the most common responses are: "The texts are boring." "It takes a lot of time." "It's hard to remember the steps or how to use the steps." It makes sense then, that students are not motivated to write when they feel lost.  So while the first two complaints are not something I can always fix, however, the last one is something I can definitely help with and hopefully increase motivation as a result! 1.  Use mnemonics to aid in m ..read more

  These days it has been a challenge to motivate middle school students. They are so used to the instant gratification of games on their phones, that they struggle when life doesn't match that. Although we want our students to be intrinsically motivated, they are at the age where extrinsic motivation is the way to go.  I've tried many different things in my 30 years of teaching and these are the steps that have served me best: 1. Find out what is motivating to the students with a survey. I do this by using a very simple Google form that provides a list of free things students ca ..read more

  Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation can influence students differently, and their impact may vary based on individual preferences and situations. For middle school students, extrinsic motivation, such as rewards or recognition, might initially grab their attention and drive engagement. This could be because tangible rewards, like praise or grades, provide immediate and concrete feedback. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation, driven by internal factors like personal interest or the enjoyment of the learning process, may take time to develop but can lead to more sustained and meanin ..read more

  You're probably here because you've heard the dreaded statement "This is so boring!" with the obligatory eye-roll. If you're like me, you LOVE reading and writing and cannot understand how ANYONE would think this is boring. But, let's face it, some kids just aren't natural-born Language Arts people.  So what do we do?   3 Ways to Make Middle School ELA Content More Exciting 1.  Infuse Friendly Competition There are two easy ways to do this: - Create an individual competition by telling each person that they can earn points for answering questions in class, fo ..read more

  When I talk to others about teaching vocabulary, no one gets jazzed by it.  Everyone thinks it's boring and an ever so arduous task.  But I'm here to tell you it can be fun and when you use any of these activities to teach word parts like prefixes, suffixes, (and the like) you give your Middle School students a huge boost in reading comprehension opportunities! Here are 3 of my best vocabulary activities for middle school that don't stink! 1.  Vocabulary Tic-Tac-Toe This game is a class favorite and gets the entire group engaged and involved!  This is how ..read more