Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan makes an excellent whole-class novel study for ELA teachers in grades 5-7. Your students will love reading about Esperanza’s adventure from a wealthy Mexican landowner to a poor immigrant worker. They’ll cheer her on every step of the way …
Now that the first weeks of school are in the books, principals will begin scheduling classroom observations. On a full-cycle evaluation year, I am observed three times throughout the school year. This includes two scheduled observations and one that is not scheduled in advance. Despite …
Are you looking for a new way to host parent-teacher conferences? Consider switching to student led conferences to boost parent participation and student engagement. The concept works best with smaller teams where everyone can buy into the idea, but if you gain alignment, the format …
Does your school have a reading buddies program? I know some teachers avoid the concept due to scheduling hurdles, but the benefits for both groups of students are substantial. Here are some reasons to implement reading buddies into your middle school ELA schedule. Benefit #1: …
Every classroom has a wide range of readers. Typically in my class, I’ve got my FAKE readers, my reluctant readers who need the right hook, and a few who’ll devour three novels before Thanksgiving. If this sounds familiar, an independent novel study with differentiated reading …
Between homework turn-ins, read-aloud chapters, lesson instruction, questions, and discussions, a middle school ELA block disappears FAST. That’s why it is important to build time-management structures into your classroom routines. Here are 5 ways I help my middle schoolers understand how much time they have …
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