I fell in love with short constructed responses the moment I was introduced to them. Sounds weird, but when you’ve spent a hundred years scoring essays, these writings are a welcome relief because they can be quickly scored and written (a bonus for you and your students). And that’s not
If you think you don’t have time to teach grammar, then grammar warm-ups are your solution! The minute students walk into class, warm-ups set a productive tone for the period. Plus, they sharpen students’ language while hitting ELA standards. Keep reading to discover nine helpful hints to make teaching grammar
If you’re looking for a way to engage your students and get their minds warmed up for the day, these ELA warm-ups are the perfect solution! With seven quick and easy choices, you can vary your warm-ups and get your students thinking and ready to tackle their reading and writing
To write this advice-for-a-teacher blog post, I asked my amazing teacher friends for suggestions via Facebook, and they did not disappoint! Advice for teachers came from educators from AVID to social studies, from elementary to high school (although mostly middle), and from educators who have been teaching a few years
If you’re ready to help your students take their writing to the next level, then look no further than this be verbs lesson plan! By learning how to reduce these humdrum verbs, students can make their writing more dynamic and engaging! Teach the Be Verbs To reduce be verbs in
Bid farewell to boring summer reading assignments! This post offers practical activities for making reading assignments fun and engaging for all students, even middle schoolers! Allow Students Choice Whether students are choosing a topic to write about or a book to read, you’ll notice that choice fosters buy-in, ownership, and
It’s about time to hand out those summer reading lists for teens, and what better way to get them excited about this assignment than to introduce titles with book trailers? After all, kids do like their videos! Plus, if you’ve read the title, you can add your own book-talk commentary.
Your grades are in, your students are super excited, and you’re looking for some end-of-year English activities to keep them academically engaged for those last few days of school. I got you! I’ve been where you are, surfing the Internet, reviewing old lesson plans, remembering what worked and didn’t, and
Teaching grammar can seem challenging, but reading English teacher books can make it easy and fun for you and your students! A district ELA specialist (my unofficial, self-assigned mentor) blessed me with this knowledge by assigning department coordinators, including me, dozens of books to read (usually one a month, but
Imagine teaching lessons on apostrophes and scanning your classroom to see every student on task and engaged. I can’t promise this will happen when you’re covering the rules, but you will notice this when you gather students around you for a picture book reading, when students write sentences about family