It’s every middle school ELA teachers dream: strong student essays. But getting students to write effective essays is hardly a walk in the park. You might have tried making comments on students paper, spoon-feeding essay ideas, and breathing deeply in a corner to keep from going insane. (I’ve been there, too.) But the answer to ... Read more The post Improve Student Writing with Quick Writes appeared first on The Hungry Teacher ..read more

You’re not imagining it: teaching literary analysis is hard. Your students essays barely scratch the surface, and you’re not sure how to get students to go deeper. Not to mention, you’re trying to fit an in-depth literary analysis unit into your already overflowing curriculum. One of the best ways to improve students analytical skills is ... Read more The post Using Writing Conferences for Effective Literary Analysis appeared first on The Hungry Teacher ..read more

Let’s face it: research papers are hard enough as is, let alone writing one that Includes proper research and flows well. Research websites for students can be hard to find. Especially when the internet feels like an endless hole of articles written by anyone and everyone. Middle schoolers often struggle with finding relevant sources. Even ... Read more The post Teach Students How to Effectively Conduct Research appeared first on The Hungry Teacher ..read more

After you’ve wrapped up a novel or a short story, there is a lot to cover: main idea, theme, plot, and so on. But you don’t always have days to spend dissecting it all. With these middle school ELA stations, you can dig deep into any story – and cover a lot of ground in ... Read more The post 4 Station Ideas for Middle School ELA Skills appeared first on The Hungry Teacher ..read more

Your narrative writing unit is approaching. *gulp* You want students to walk away with a successful narrative essay in the end, but your last narrative writing unit left a lot to be desired. You had to hover over students to get them to write. And you were disappointed with the essays you received. Let’s talk ... Read more The post How to Plan Your Narrative Writing Unit appeared first on The Hungry Teacher ..read more

Is there a bigger stress than planning the first week of school? You don’t know your students. It’s hard to judge how long activities will take. And you need to cover procedures, without putting students to sleep. To help take the pressure off, I am sharing my first week of school lesson plans for free. Planning the First Week of School For a couple of years, the first week of school was a game of Goldilocks for me. One year, I spent too much time hammering in procedures – while half the class dozed off. Another year, I jumped too quickly into content without laying the groundwork of classroom ..read more

As a middle school ELA teacher, you have a jam-packed daily schedule. From making time for independent reading to getting students to actually write, it seems impossible to squeeze in one more thing. And therefore, grammar once again falls to the wayside… Teaching grammar is necessary, but you don’t know how to fit it in or how to teach it (without putting the class to sleep). Luckily, there is a solution: mentor sentences.  The Current Problem with Grammar in Middle School Do you remember how you learned grammar? I remember lugging home grammar worksheets in middle school and working thr ..read more

Independent reading can be a struggle. You have a ton of ground to cover each school year, which means your class time is stuffed to the brim. You can’t imagine adding independent reading time, too. And even when you do attempt to make time for students to read on their own, the behavior is so bad – you regret the decision immediately. Luckily, there’s a way out of this chaos. With the right independent reading strategies for middle school, independent reading can be a part of your routine (without the headache). Independent Reading Strategies for Middle School You know how important it is for ..read more

When I ask teachers about their biggest struggle with narrative writing, they always say the narrative elements. And I totally understand why. Trying to get students to fully understand and be able to apply the narrative elements successfully in their own writing is a challenge. You’re usually left reading bland essays that leave a lot to be desired. But getting students to apply those elements is doable. It starts with explicitly teaching the elements of narrative writing to your middle school students! What is Explicit Instruction? I want to make sure we are on the same page with explicit in ..read more

If you’ve used student notebooks in your middle school classroom before, you know just how chaotic they can get. Students write things in random places. Papers are constantly falling out or getting glued in all over the place. It’s a mess. To combat this, I created a system for grammar and reading notebooks that keeps things organized, so students can always find what they need. I want to share four grammar and reading notebook tips that will take your student books from chaotic to useful. (PS. You can use these tips whether you use interactive notebooks or another notebook method.) #1 Use Se ..read more