Picture this: You’re teaching a writing unit to middle school students and students have completed prewriting, selected a topic, and have a completed draft. It’s
I’ve been reflecting on what I would consider the non-negotiables of writing instruction at the middle school level. Over the years, I’ve shifted how I
I have been a classroom teacher teaching 6-8 ELA for 15 years, but something I don’t write a whole lot about on this space is
Notice I didn’t say, “Help! my students can’t write in complete sentences.” Most middle school students have the ability to write in complete sentences, so
When we teach the same reading standards and content year after year after year, it’s easy to get stuck in a pattern. In this blog
Book clubs are one way to get students together in small groups to discuss a common book that they’re reading. In the past, I’ve avoided
I hear a version of this line from ELA teachers a lot: “I know I should teach using more nonfiction text, but…” This statement is
In his influential book, Visible Learning, John Hattie shook the world of education by revealing the effect various instructional practices and factors had on student
When I was going to school to become an English teacher, I don’t think teaching nonfiction reading ever crossed my mind. Not once. I wanted
The reading skill of being able to summarize a chapter of text is often overlooked. I recently asked a student to tell me what happened
