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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10 Ways to Make Essay Writing Less Stressful (and more successful)
There’s something about the word “essay” that instantly turns the smiles of middle school students into expressions of dread. Of course, we can’t avoid it when the time comes for teaching the essay. But there are some strategies we can use to show our students it’s not as difficult or taxing as they might think. Struggling writers can gain confidence and produce successful writing in a supportive environment with lots…
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15 Strategies to Ramp up Your Vocabulary Instruction
If you’re an English teacher, vocabulary instruction goes with the territory. We teach so much literature, right? And there are LOTS of challenging words to bring to our students’ attention and have them work with before and as they read. But do you ever feel like the words your students study drift right out of their minds as soon as you move on to the next unit? And then there…
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