We all want our students to be able to identify, understand, and use figurative language. Lucky for us, YouTube offers an array of videos for teaching figurative language that students will appreciate! I love incorporating video clips into mini-lessons, especially when I can pause the videos to have discussion. A teaching video with fun visuals can work well to reinforce terms and definitions. Music videos and movie shorts always…
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How to Give a Riveting Book Talk
Don’t you just love seeing students get excited when choosing books to read independently? One way you can spark that enthusiasm . . . give a book talk! Sure, students can browse your class or school library looking at book covers and reading the blurbs. But what if you could entice them with book talks so awesome that students would be begging for more? Read on to discover how to…
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Secrets to Managing Station Work in Middle School
When I first considered implementing stations with my students, I was excited! I knew they would love the variety of activities and the movement. I wanted my students to practice standards-based skills through discussion and teamwork. But I was also a little worried. After all, managing station work in middle school definitely offers some challenges. Do the Benefits of Station Work Outweigh the Challenges? These days, teachers are expected…
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10 Favorite Short Stories Found Online – Middle School
Teachers love using short stories for so many reasons, and short stories found online offer added convenience and motivation! A great short story can get our students thinking and making connections. Short stories are perfect for teaching literary terms and vocabulary. Plus, students enjoy discussion around the conflicts and themes in short stories. And because these gems can be taught in a few class periods, students gain some solid literary…
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10 End-of-the-Year Survival Tips for English Teachers
The end of the year can be an exciting time for both teachers and students! Who doesn’t look forward to summer break, right? But with that anticipation sometimes comes the question How can I keep my students focused on learning? In class, it takes a little more to hold their attention. Have you noticed grades have a tendency to drop off for students late in the year? And besides keeping…
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10 Ideas to Make Teaching RESEARCH Easier
I enjoy diving into research units with my students because they get to learn new things, and I do, too! But teaching research skills is a gigantic task! And one thing’s for certain: I’ll have to break the research process into steps to keep my middle school students from feeling overwhelmed. I want them to have that “I’ve got this” attitude from the moment I introduce the project. Of…
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Test Prep Ideas for Writing – That Work!
Most teachers are familiar with multiple choice test-taking strategies, but when it comes to writing, it feels like we’re kind of on our own. Some schools use acronyms such as RACE or PIE, but those formulas aren’t always an exact fit for the state rubric. So how do we offer students a winning method when considering test prep ideas for writing? In Part One of this blog post, I presented…
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How to Make Test Prep Simple, Quick, and Effective
Sometimes I hear teachers say, “I don’t do much test prep with my kids because we practice those skills all year long.” Well, that would be fantastic except for the fact that oftentimes our middle school students don’t retain the information we teach. On top of that, the state assessments, without a doubt, have a history of containing confusing and sometimes tricky content. So even though we’re embedding our standards…
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