Vocabulary instruction is one of those things we know students need, but it can quickly turn into a routine of copying definitions, filling in blanks, and completing worksheet after worksheet. While worksheets can have a place, they should not be the only way students interact with new words. Students learn vocabulary best when they hear …
Making inferences is one of those reading skills that sounds simple until students actually have to do it. We tell them, “Read between the lines,” but many students do not really know what that means. Some guess randomly. Some copy a sentence from the text and call it an inference. Others wait for the author …
Differentiating reading instruction sounds wonderful in theory, but in real life, it can feel overwhelming. You have students reading above grade level, students who struggle to decode, students who can read the words but miss the meaning, students who need language support, and students who would rather do almost anything besides read. And somehow, they …
Introduction One of the biggest challenges in middle school ELA is getting students to use text evidence well. Many students can find a quote from the text, but they struggle to choose the best evidence, introduce it smoothly, or explain how it supports their answer. As teachers, we often see responses like this: The character …
Teaching tone and mood can get tricky fast. Students often hear both words and think, “Aren’t they basically the same thing?” And honestly, it makes sense. Both tone and mood deal with feelings. Both are connected to word choice. Both can shift throughout a text. But once students understand the difference, tone and mood become …
Exit tickets are one of the easiest ways to check for student understanding without adding a lot of extra work to your day. When used well, they give you quick insight into what students understood, what they are still confused about, and what you may need to reteach the next day. The key is to …
One of the most common writing struggles in middle school ELA is getting students to write more. You ask for a paragraph, and you get three sentences. You ask students to explain their thinking, and they write, “This shows the character is nice.” You ask for evidence, and they drop in a quote with no …
Figurative language can be one of the most fun ELA skills to teach—until students start calling every sentence a metaphor. Middle school students often understand figurative language when they hear it in songs, movies, jokes, and everyday conversations, but they may struggle to identify it in text or explain how it affects meaning. The key …
Teaching ELA with Limited Time Can Feel Impossible Teaching middle school ELA often feels like trying to fit an entire library into a lunchbox. You are expected to teach reading comprehension, writing, grammar, vocabulary, discussion, research, test prep, speaking and listening, digital literacy, and sometimes intervention skills too. Add in assemblies, testing windows, shortened schedules, …
As ELA teachers, we ask questions all day long. We ask questions during read-alouds, class discussions, small groups, exit tickets, writing conferences, novel studies, test prep, and pretty much every lesson in between. But not all questions require the same level of thinking. Some questions ask students to find an answer. Others ask students to …
