Comparing two texts sounds simple enough—until students actually have to do it. Many middle school students can tell you what happens in Text A and what happens in Text B. The real challenge comes when they are asked to explain how the texts are similar, how they are different, and why those similarities and differences …
Starting a new novel can be one of the most exciting parts of an ELA classroom—or one of the most challenging. Teachers may be eager to dive into a story, but students do not always share that enthusiasm. Hand students a novel, announce that they will be reading it for the next few weeks, and …
The moment you announce a poetry unit, you may hear a few sighs from around the classroom. Some students immediately assume poetry will be confusing. Others picture endless worksheets asking them to identify metaphors, rhyme schemes, and unfamiliar vocabulary. A few may insist that they simply “do not get poetry.” Fortunately, poetry does not have …
Test preparation season can create anxiety for both teachers and students. Teachers feel pressure to review an entire year’s worth of reading standards, while students may feel as though every class period has become another long practice test. Practice passages can help students prepare for standardized reading assessments, but only when they are used intentionally. …
Literature circles can transform reading from a quiet, independent activity into a meaningful conversation among students. When they are implemented effectively, literature circles give students opportunities to choose books, discuss ideas, support their thinking with evidence, and take greater responsibility for their learning. However, literature circles require more than placing students in groups and telling …
Have you ever told students to annotate a text only to watch them highlight nearly every sentence on the page? Maybe they circle random words, underline entire paragraphs, or write comments like “interesting” in the margins without explaining what they found interesting. Students are not born knowing how to annotate. Annotation is a skill that …
Teaching students to use text evidence can sometimes feel like teaching the same lesson over and over again. You ask students to support their answers, but they respond with: Middle school students often understand what they have read, but they do not always know how to prove their thinking. The problem is not necessarily reading …
Graphic organizers are one of the simplest and most effective tools teachers can use to support reading comprehension. Whether students are reading a short story, article, poem, novel excerpt, or nonfiction passage, graphic organizers help them slow down, organize their thinking, and make sense of what they read. For middle school students especially, reading can …
Finding books for reluctant middle school readers can feel tricky. Some students say they hate reading. Some shut down as soon as they see a long chapter. Others can read but have not found a book that feels worth their time. The good news is that many reluctant readers do not actually dislike stories. They …
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 …
