Classic middle grade novels are some of my favorite things to work with. There’s just so much to draw from with great novels like Number the Stars or The Cay. With perennial favorites like these, there is something for everyone, and plenty of connection to any reading skill you might want to work on. […]
Other than lessons on the computer, what is your favorite assignment for kids to work on from home? School time at home seems to me like the perfect opportunity for certain assignments that may be difficult to fit into the usual school day – such as book studies. A book study seems especially […]
National Poetry Month comes at such a great time. Just when everyone is ready for a break, here it is – a month dedicated to playing with words! Great little readings, or writing assignments, that grab kids attention! I’ve been looking over some of the wonderful ideas out there for getting the most […]
What do 4th graders, 5th graders, 6th graders, and 7th graders all have in common? As soon as their teacher announces the day’s lesson, they love to respond “We’ve done that before!” or “That’s boring!” or even “That’s too elementary!” In Language Arts in particular, we have to admit that there is SOME […]
When reading a novel for myself, characterization is usually my favorite story element. To me, that’s what a story is really all about – character development and how a character changes as the story progresses. As a language arts teacher, I found that while it can be difficult for kids to come up with […]
As essential as Latin and Greek roots are to vocabulary growth, to a middle schooler or upper elementary student they can seem more than a little dry. For an English teacher, it’s easy to get interested in a new root that can open up a whole new selection of words, but for a kid, probably […]
Informational texts can be high-interest for many kids, but first the topic of the text needs to look appealing. Maybe it’s the pictures, the title, or the topic itself, but something has to appeal to the kids right off the bat to get them into the text before they can begin to get to […]
In language arts class, a reason to celebrate can be just what’s needed – to get things done! As middle school and upper elementary teachers know so well, education is not a priority for kids at this level; having fun with friends, on the other hand, is. So we are always on the lookout […]
Every year (at least in the middle grades!) teachers address the topic of story elements. After all, it is an essential skill for a good understanding of fiction and even for good basic reading comprehension. But each year, that means starting out with some method of finding out what your kids already know […]
This Autumn Sampler is my freebie of the season. It’s a set of three autumn-themed activity sheets with a little bit of reading, writing, and vocabulary practice on each one. I call it a “sampler” since each activity is one little part from one of my larger resources, and this week just seemed like […]
Kids don’t learn reading skills just once! Reading skills take repetition and practice, not just yearly reviews but practice throughout the year as well. But to kids, this essential practice can sometimes look like just a rehash of something they learned last year. That’s one reason why seasonal and holiday activities are so welcome […]
If ever there was a time when kids needed to learn to how to make sense of what’s going on in politics, it has to be now! Every year, it’s becoming more essential that citizens learn to dig out and really understand the facts behind what they see on social media. And with […]
CRASH, the middle grades novel by Jerry Spinelli, is such a fun read for the beginning of the school year with it’s cast of unique character types that any middle school or upper elementary student will recognize. Heading the cast are Crash himself, a football star and a bully, and Penn, a quiet, […]
There are two ways to do close reading without a LOT of prep work. One is to wing it, and the other is to find some good readings of a suitable length with activities already prepared for you. Both ways have their place, I suppose. If you’ve taught close reading for a while, you can […]
Kids love puzzles, and I suppose that’s why they love mysteries! Each mystery is like a new puzzle that has to be solved in a different way. Luckily for us, that makes these stories (fiction or true) a great vehicle for teaching all manner of reading skills. At the top of the list, I […]
Planning to teach story elements gets trickier as kids move into upper elementary and middle grades. As much as they still need to fully understand the elements that make up the stories they love, many have still just scratched the surface when it comes to fiction-reading skills. They may remember what characters, setting, and […]
It’s no surprise that some of the most useful reading skills are also some of the most difficult for kids to master. Skills like making inferences, characterization, and making use of text structures take practice. They require close reading. Kids gradually become proficient at these deeper thinking skills by putting them to use. One […]
Journey, the middle grades novel by Patricia LacLachlan, lends itself really well to related vocabulary activities, and it’s a great choice for upper elementary kids as well as those middle school students who do best with shorter easy-to-read novels for whatever reason. Actually, people of all ages enjoy reading this easy little story. Mainly […]
For a class of middle grade kids who love to work in groups and love to move around the room, task cards can be your go-to resource. They are so handy to have around and pull out throughout the year as needed. And task cards work great for any language arts skills – reading, writing, […]
Journey, the short novel by Patricia MacLachlan, is a wonderful choice for whole-class reading. The story reads like a simple tale, but there is plenty of depth to it. Many sections of this novel would lend themselves to great class discussions. With an 11-year-old main character who comes to new understanding of his family with […]
With my novel study for Wringer completed, I’d like to share some additional resources for teaching with Wringer in the classroom. Wringer, the middle grades novel by Jerry Spinelli, is an interesting springboard for classroom discussions and lots of other language arts activities, and there are plenty of good resources that can be paired […]
Freedom of the press is a topic that is both timely and perennial as a subject for classroom activities. Whether in language arts, reading, or social studies class, a discussion of freedom of the press can lead into all kinds of great reading and writing lessons as well as friendly debates! As I […]
Since I’ve been working on resources for teaching text structures, I thought I would also check out blog posts for more ideas about teaching these reading skills. Here are some that I liked. These are from a variety of blogs, and they offer interesting choices of text structure lessons for middle school or upper […]
Here is a little anchor chart about text structures that you can download for free from this post. It includes definitions and an example for each of five text structures: Chronological Order Cause and Effect Problem and Solution Compare and Contrast Description The chart is a one-page size that might come in handy for […]
Voice and tone – it can be a little bit hard to explain. OK, maybe a lot hard to explain, especially to middle grade kids. Maybe it’s because voice and tone are so similar. Maybe it’s because many of the adjectives that describe voices also describe tones. And then there’s the problem of […]
Beginning a new whole-class novel is an exciting event. Teachers talk up the story, and kids start to make connections to their own experiences right from the beginning. Then they get to meet the new characters; it’s almost like getting new students in class – always exciting! As the story progresses, there are […]
If you’re one of those educators who love to use public domain materials in your lessons, then you most likely already know that a whole treasure trove of new books, movies, images, sheet music, and more were released into the public domain on January 1 of this year, 2019. This was a big […]
Is it that time of year when you can finally settle in a spend the time to do some close reading with your kids? Time to choose a few articles that will appeal to the kids, and really dig in – show kids how much they can actually get out a piece of reading […]
I’ve finally finished all of the text structure resources that I’ve been working on! Here are the details. I’ve made resources for five text structures: Cause and Effect Chronological Order Compare and Contrast Problem and Solution Description For each one, there is a set of 30 task cards and a slide presentation. […]
If it’s that time of year when your kids need a little reminder about staying focused or working persistently, the picture book Snowflake Bentley, by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, might be just the ticket! It’s a Caldecott winning winter-themed story, and the main character demonstrates the characteristics of focus and persistence to an amazing degree. […]
The picture book Grass Sandals, by Dawnine Spivak, would make a perfect introduction to a language arts unit focusing on imagery of the five sense, poetry, or descriptive writing in general. Grass Sandals tells the story of the poet Basho’s journey on foot across Japan. Basho was a Japanese poet who lived in the 1600s and […]
As I’ve mentioned before, using a great picture book is one of my favorite activities for introducing a new reading unit. Short and sweet, with lots of engaging pictures, it’s a sure way to get kids interested in the theme and a quick way to introduce a reading skill or two that you plan […]
Making inferences – really, it’s what reading is all about. Without the ability to make simple inferences, reading would be just a dry reciting of statements without any though putting it all together, and the better inferences you can make, the more you get out of your reading. That’s why making inferences is such […]
“I’m not finished my assignment because Billy pushed my paper on the floor, and then Stan stepped on it, and so I had to start over. And that’s why it’s not finished yet.” From missing assignments, to ice cream melting in the sun, to snow causing holidays, kids are great at explaining WHY […]
For many kids, maybe most, reading is all about twists and turns of plot. And what makes plot exciting is the conflict. Kids read to see what will happen next. How will it all work out? Fortunately for teachers, plot is an excellent lead-in to all sorts of reading lessons. From plot maps […]
There’s so much you can do with the text structure of compare and contrast. As a reading skill, kids can compare two things, characters, or places from a story or article. They can also compare two articles about the same topic that have different points of view. Or students can practice writing a compare […]
The fun part of reading class is reading the stories, not teaching lessons about stories, but sometimes a story will provide a great lead-in to a lesson on a particular story element, and of course, these lessons in context are often the most effective ones! For example, maybe a story that your class is […]
Near the end of September each year, schools, librarians, English and reading teachers, and students across the country celebrate Banned Book Week. Kids may not know why we celebrate banned books – after all,”banned” sounds like a bad thing, right? So starting with information about the event, which is all about freedom to share […]
Scientists aren’t always right. But they are pretty good when it comes to making inferences and drawing conclusions (using that scientific method of theirs). Wouldn’t it be great if kids took an approach that’s just a little bit more scientific when they are called on to make inferences or draw conclusions, even if it […]
This little foldable bookmark is by far the most popular item in my Teachers Pay Teachers store! It’s an easy to use reading response format for any novel. And it’s FREE! The picture above shows the bookmark folded for keeping a student’s place in her book. Open, it’s a full sheet of paper […]
Does your class usually include kids who are really into football at the start of the school year? Does it also usually include kids who think football is violent and a waste of time? In that case, you should definitely meet Crash and Penn. Crash is a bullying middle school football star. Penn […]
Since it was first published in the early 1960’s, Madeleine L’Engle’s novel A Wrinkle in Time has stirred up controversy. The novel, which is a mix of science fiction, fantasy, and realism tells the story of Meg, a high school girl who defeat the forces of evil in the universe to rescue her father from the […]
After reading A Wrinkle in Time, the classic middle grades novel by Madeleine L’Engle, kids will enjoy a class discussion. Maybe first they will need to tell you all about the special effects and costumes in the movie, but once they get that out of their systems, its time for some real discussion questions. Here is […]
Kids need to learn to handle increasingly complex texts, and that includes putting higher level reading skills into use to really comprehend those texts. Making inferences and drawing conclusions are two of the most important of those skills. But before they can become expert at using those skills on difficult texts, sometimes kids just […]
Close reading! Just the term conjures up visions of hard work for the teacher and the students. For the teacher – preparing a long, involved lesson. For the students – marking up the text, reading number one, reading number two, reading number three, using text based evidence, etc. Close reading can be a […]
Learning how to read informational texts and how to efficiently get all of the information out of them is such as important skill for middle school and upper elementary students. And kids often really enjoy reading an informational article about something completely new or one about a favorite topic, making informational text reading a […]
Setting was one of the story elements that I used to spend little time on when teaching story elements. Once the kids could identify the time, place, and duration of a story, that was it. On to more interesting topics. But lately I’ve noticed that story settings are an untapped source of material for […]
In Walk Two Moons, the middle grades novel by Sharon Creech, Sal keeps the long car ride interesting by telling an “extensively strange story” about her friend Phoebe. Also, many of the young characters in the novel share their stories in journal entries that unexpectedly get read aloud to the whole class. Both […]
Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech, is a novel for upper elementary and middle school kids about a girl who goes on a life-changing journey with her grandparents. So for related texts to use in paired passage language arts activities, I began looking for writings related to travel and journeys. There was so much […]
For this holiday season, I’ve been working on two new resources – a set of story studies for seven classic Christmas stories and a free resource with three activity sheets for the winter holidays. Christmas Story Studies for classic holiday stories includes story questions and two additional activity sheets for each of seven traditional stories. […]
Picture books are great vehicles for clarifying one particular story element for the class. For example, the book Riding the Tiger, by Eve Bunting, is a great one for introducing theme. One way to do that, of course, would be to discuss the theme of the story after reading the book to the class. But […]
Figurative language and imagery! Teaching these concepts can be a fun part and a dreaded part of the language arts curriculum – all at the same time! Kids in middle school and upper elementary are still much more comfortable with writing whatever comes to their minds rather than working slowly to craft language, and […]
This week, I’m re-posting an old favorite. It’s about teaching point of view and theme – two reading skills that are, to say the least, not the easiest to teach! Luckily, I found a picture book that works great for introducing, or practicing both of these topics, and it works great for upper elementary and […]
Bud, Not Buddy is a great read. Who wouldn’t enjoy this story of a spunky orphan who’s had such a rough start in life and suddenly finds adventure and a real family at the end of it all! Bud, Not Buddy, a middle grades historical fiction novel by Christopher Paul Curtis, is a wonderful […]
Choosing novels and other readings for a new class might well be a favorite task of language arts teachers. There are so many great choices, and it’s pleasant to imagine your students responding to a book or story that you have enjoyed. But organizing those readings for the year can easily become a least-favorite […]
So I was looking through old posts the other day and found all of these ideas for teaching story elements – lesson planning ideas, picture books to use for specific story elements, and other resources. Here are the best of what I found. Just click on any image to see the original post. Story […]
For some great, funny examples of similes, try the picture book, Saving Sweetness, by Diane Stanley. The sheriff in Saving Sweetness has a way with words. His descriptions of the little girl, Sweetness, and the outlaw, Coyote Pete, are sure to make your students laugh. He also has some choice words for Mrs. […]
Arrow to the Sun, by Gerald McDermott, is an adaptation of a Pueblo Indian story about a boy’s search for his father, the sun.
With it’s setting in the 1930’s and its connections to American history, the novel, Bud, Not Buddy, by Christoper Paul Curtis, is a great choice for a novel study in middle school or the upper elementary grades. It brings up lots of interesting questions for discussion, some that could apply to kids of any […]
In the picture book, The Wall, by Eve Bunting, a very young boy goes with his dad to find his grandfather’s name on the Wall, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This story would work well to introduce the story elements of point of view and tone, which students can then apply to their readings in novels and other […]
The picture book, From Miss Ida’s Porch,by Sandra Belton, describes a summer evening gathering on a neighborhood porch. To the young narrator, this is “the best time,” a time when wonderful stories are passed down. This story would be a great one to read aloud to the class, maybe in a couple of sittings since […]
Here’s a free mini-poster that I thought some of you might find useful. It’s an anchor chart all about how to solve analogies with an example that shows how the two sides of an analogy must match and a list of some common types of analogies to look out for. Post it on a […]
With this end of year activity, kids get to discuss and recommend their favorite novels that they have read this year, and they also end up with ideas for titles to try over the summer. To set up, take the novels from your class library and set them up around the room where […]
It’s that time of year – time to round up some simple, easy to use resources for kids to take home for summer practice. Maybe your kids (or their parents) want some review work to take home. Maybe you are required to send home some practice work to help students keep their skills current. […]
At a certain point in elementary school, students have learned their phonics and have a big enough store of sight words that reading then becomes more about comprehension and less about the words. In the early grades, kids had been working with words and expressions that then already know from speaking and listening. But […]
Pictures of Hollis Woods, the middle grade novel by Patricia Reilly Giff, introduces a number of great themes that kids in middle or upper elementary school will relate to – themes that can be used to spark a class discussion, for long-answer questions or writing prompts, and for hands-on projects. Although most kids will […]
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Patricia Reilly Giff’s novel, Pictures of Hollis Woods, and I also thought that it would appeal to a wide variety of middle grade kids. That’s why I chose it for my most recent novel study. Since I’ve recently finished writing my final activity, I thought it would be a good time […]
Whole-class novels are fun to do, but they can also be a great opportunity to work on those close reading skills and using text-based evidence. Students can use text based evidence from a novel in two main ways – to “prove” their answers are correct or to support their own conclusions about the […]
Many girls today have grown up hearing the message that they can become anything they want when they grow up – just one of the positive results of the women’s movements of years gone by. But these girls may know very little about the tradition of women who struggled over the years to […]
If you’re using picture books to introduce figurative language, you might want to look at The Scarebird, by Sid Fleischman, when you get ready to teach personification. Although the readers know that the scarecrow is just a scarecrow, the main character, Lonesome John, interacts with it as if it were human. In fact, most […]
Hurricane, by David Wiesner, is a great picture book for introducing metaphors, and you’ll find examples of other types of figurative language in there as well. Hurricane tells the story of a hurricane that knocks down a big tree in the yard of a family with two boys, David and George. The story starts by […]
Picture books are great for teaching figurative language – similes, personification, metaphors, or hyperbole – for any age level! For one thing, there’s lots of figurative language in there, and also the great artwork in many picture books enhances the figurative language and makes the images seem even more real. The only difficulty is […]
The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups, by David Wisniewski, is an attention-grabbing picture book that middle grade kids will love to read on their own. It would also be a good choice for a mentor lesson about writing with parts of speech and vivid vocabulary. The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups is about those rules […]
Animalia, by Graeme Base, is an alphabet book that is entertaining people of all ages. And it would be a great mentor text for lessons in either alliteration or sentence building – or better yet a fun lesson that combines both! As with many language arts skills, kids have come across both alliteration and […]
Best ideas this year? I think one of mine was the format I finally settled on for my novel studies. After some trial-and-error and trying various ideas, I’ve come up with a format that I like and that seems to work well for other teachers who have downloaded my novel studies. I wrote about […]
The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, by Gloria Houston, is a sweet story for the weeks leading up to Christmas, and it lends itself well to a study of the story element, theme. The story is about Ruthie, a girl who lives in a small village in the Appalachian Mountains. It is […]
In it’s simplest form, using context clues can mean looking back at a textbook page to find the definition of a word embedded in the text. It’s using text based evidence at its most basic, and that is a great place to start when introducing close reading. Most likely, students are already doing this […]
For practicing close reading, using text based evidence, and just basic reading skills, using context clues is one of the most useful topics out there among the many possible reading skill practice topics. There are lots of good context clues activities that work well with whole class review, small group practice, and individual exploration. […]
Teachers have so many choices and decisions to make, but one that can be really fun is choosing a novel to read with your class. Choosing a class novel can also be a little overwhelming because there are so many good ones. In my latest guest post for Hojo’s Teaching Adventures, I talked about some […]
It’s that time of year – the time that I always started thinking about which of the many great Christmas stories, poems, plays, and informational texts I wanted to read with my class for the holiday season. This year, I’ve put together a list of fifteen favorites, some classics and some new, some […]
So, all of my Because of Winn-Dixie resources are completed! This novel by Kate DiCamillo is such a nice read and it was so much fun to work with! In fact, that’s why I decided to work on resources for this novel even though there are lots other resources out there already. I just […]
Sometimes when you’re reading a novel with the whole class, you just want to have an informal class discussion to talk about the story with your kids. And kids are sure to love talking about Because of Winn-Dixie, the novel by Kate DiCamillo. The characters are interesting, and Winn-Dixie himself is sure to be […]
How do you organize all the various types of vocabulary that you want your kids to learn in language arts throughout the year? Do you start with certain groups of terms so that you can have plenty of time to review them as the year goes along? Check out my post, Teaching the Vocabulary […]
With the presidential election a few short weeks away, it’s the perfect time to incorporate informational texts on elections and candidates. It’s something kids don’t read often and should work well with a close reading approach and text dependent questions. So I thought this would be the perfect time to demonstrate the election-themed resources […]
Making inferences is a skill that all reading teachers want their kids to master. Even when you’re not teaching kids specifically how to make inferences, inferencing is probably in the background of your lesson somewhere. So many other reading skills involving inferences in one way or another. For just a few examples: Characterization – […]
Half-Minute Horrors, a collection of really short stories by renowned authors including Lemony Snicket, Jerry Spinelli, James Patterson, and many others is a book of short stories that kids will love, especially at Halloween time. The stories are very short, a half-page to maybe two pages, and some of them are in graphic novel […]
Literary genres is one of those topics that English teachers come back to little by little throughout the year. There are many genres, and lots of ideas about which ones to include. Here is the list I like to use. Fiction Novels and short stories: realistic fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, mystery […]
Learning terms and definitions by themselves doesn’t provide much value to kids, but they need to know, and be able to use, certain terms in order to discuss and understand what they read about literature – story elements, types of figurative language, vocabulary terms, etc. What other categories of terms do you teach to […]
With the possibility of the first woman president in the US just around the corner, it seems like the perfect time for reading about other women who ran for president in the past. There were more than you might imagine! I’ve included links below to three news articles about this interesting and diverse group […]
I was looking for poems that would work great at the beginning of the school year with middle schoolers and upper elementary kids, and I’ve found some great ones! Some are about starting back to school, and some are about perennial school topics. Some are funny, and some are serious. If you’re looking for poems to […]
I used to introduce figurative language with our poetry unit, but now I’m liking the idea of introducing it early in the year along with reading fictional stories and writing narratives. That way you can come back to it throughout the whole year, using the bits and pieces that fit best with whatever types of […]
Story elements – you’ve been over it briefly already, and the kids have “covered” it in previous years. So do you really need to teach story elements in detail? Sometimes it’s hard to decide. Sometimes it seems as if the class as a whole has got it, when the reality is that some kids do […]
Here are the final two posters in my “Starting with Stories” set; these two are about conflict and plot. The conflict poster defines conflict and lists basic conflicts, such as individual versus individual, individual versus nature, and so on. The plot poster defines plot and includes a plot diagram demonstrating the arc of a […]
As promised, here are the second two charts in my “Starting with Stories” mini-poster set. The first two, which I posted about a week ago included a chart of basic story elements and one on characterization. Today’s charts are about setting and theme. You can download them both here: Setting, Theme. If you missed the […]
One of the most enjoyable things about being an English teacher is teaching stories. Kids love them, and it’s fun to read new stories with an eye to which ones might work best with your class. When you introduce kids to story elements and show them how to read closely, it’s great to see the kids […]
It’s great for students to read stories, discuss stories, and write about stories, but to get the most out of the books they read, students also need to spend time learning about individual story elements. Knowing more about characterization, for example, can help students relate to the characters they read about and get into […]
Today’s students are surrounded by an immense amount of information, quantities of information that teachers of the past wouldn’t have even dreamed of, but all of these resources are of little use if the students don’t have the skills to use them. That’s why informational text skills are so important in today’s classroom. The more […]
Task cards are a favorite item for teachers to stockpile. They’re so versatile and can be used over and over again. Task cards work great for a full lesson, for individual practice, or for small group activities. So it’s not a surprise that task cards are one of those things that teachers collect over the […]
Do you have a hard time deciding what to include, or how much to include, whenever you are beginning a new novel study? These were the same choices I was thinking about as I designed the novel studies for Classroom in the Middle. Some of my favorite activities and questions are the ones […]
The end of the year is in sight; testing is finished. But, with weeks of school still to go, it’s the perfect time for a novel study – at least from a teacher’s perspective. Kids, on the other hand might need some convincing! One way to do that is with plenty of activities leading up […]
The summer slide, of course, is that step backwards in their literacy skills that kids take during the summer while they are enjoying a break from school and having fun in the sun, but there are a number of ways to combat this phenomenon. Some kids enjoy reading during the summer and keep […]
The first story in Cynthia Rylant’s book The Van Gogh Cafe is titled “Possum,” and this particular possum seems to be on a mission! At least, once the possum arrives at the Van Gogh Cafe, things begin to happen. As explained in the story, the arrival of the possum is something of a story, but then […]
The back of the book describes Cynthia Rylant’s The Van Gogh Cafe as being about a place where anything can happen. The stories in The Van Gogh Cafe are all about magic, but not magic of a very supernatural kind. The unusual events in the stories are more unexpected, or maybe serendipitous, than any spooky kind of […]
Mysteries is another great theme that kids really get into! In this guest post at Minds in Bloom are suggestions for a unit that combines reading, writing, and other language arts skills with a fun mysteries focus! Included are suggestions for using fiction and informational text, finding resources, and using incentives. And of course there is a […]
Love to read plays but just don’t have the time! Read my suggestions for practicing close reading skills while reading a play with the class; just check out my guest post on HoJo’s Teaching Adventures! While you’re there, you might want to pick up my close reading FREEBIE, too! And thank you to […]
Cynthia Rylant’s Missing May is a lovely, short novel about a twelve-year-old growing up in an unconventional family that will appeal to students with family issues as well as students in general. The protagonist, a girl named Summer, came to live with her elderly Aunt May and Uncle Ob in the mountains of West […]
With its message of acceptance and its positive outlook, Fish in a Tree, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, is a popular novel among teachers. So I decided to give it a try to see how it might work with older kids. The story is about a 6th grader, Ally, who first discovers that she […]
After reading a novel with the class, one thing I always enjoyed doing was choosing one or two of our language arts objectives to teach or review with examples from the novel. After reading the novel SCHOOLED, by Gordon Korman, I was surprised to see that one thing which really stood out in […]
A book or two of mini-mysteries are great to have on hand for when a lesson runs short or you have a few extra minutes at the end of the day, but that’s not all they are good for! Mini-mysteries are great for getting kids to pay attention to details of text-based […]
After reading a whole-class novel, many teachers like to add follow-up activities such as class discussions, essay writings, posters, or other projects. To make the most of these activities, it helps to have some specific topics in mind. Since I’ve just finished working on materials for Gordon Korman’s novel SCHOOLED, I thought I would […]
Picture books provide great examples for students of beginning sentences. In my last two “Opening Lines” posts, I wrote about beginning sentences that introduce the setting and beginning sentences that introduce the main character. This time, I’ll show you some examples of opening lines that hint at what’s to come. Like the others, this […]
Last week I wrote about using opening lines from favorite picture books as examples for students of different ways to begin a story or an essay. The problem was that there were so many choices I couldn’t narrow it down to enough for one blog post. So, “Opening Lines” is now a series […]
Today, I’m looking at a simple advertisement as a way of introducing close reading. An ad can be used as an effective illustration of the layers of meaning in a picture or text. One way to do close reading is to have the kids read the text three times, focusing on a different […]
Did you ever . . .? Once I finally convinced my students not to begin their essays with, “I’m going to write about . . . ,” their next go-to opening sentence went something like this. “Did you ever wonder about . . .?” And, yes – starting with a question […]
To write with specific, vivid verbs, students need practice, and they also need exposure to good examples. To practice writing skills like this one, I like the idea of starting with a short story that the kids will enjoy. The update of “The Boy Who Drew Cats,” in Fairy Tale Comics would work […]
Sometimes a handy chart just makes things easier. This seems to be especially true for something like close reading! There are so many steps and so many variations on how to do close reading that just getting it all organized can be a lot of work for teachers! And keeping track of what they need […]
My middle school kids had a great time with a lesson on using context clues using the picture book, Baloney, by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, who also wrote and illustrated The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! and The Stinky Cheese Man. This picture book looked a little young for this age group, but the […]
So you’ve just finished reading a novel or a short story with the class, and it’s time for a fun small group activity. But you also want to review the basic story elements and get the kids thinking about the characters and the theme of the story. How do you combine the two? […]
Now that school is in full swing and the newness of back-to-school has word off for the kids, it just might be time for an activity to drum up interest in some of the great resources that you already have at hand. One activity that my kids always enjoyed at this time of […]
A Day’s Work, by Eve Bunting, is a beautifully written and illustrated picture book relevant to middle grade kids that would make a great class introduction to either of the themes addressed in the story — immigration or learning from elders. One use might be to introduce one of the themes before reading […]
I’m re-reading, and writing, about Danny the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl – an old favorite middle grades novel. I picked up on chapter 4 today, but it was such a fun part of the book that I decided to write about just this one chapter. Chapter 4, “My Father’s Deep Dark […]
These task cards are all designed specifically for the middle grades – four through seven. There is more content per card than on the typical elementary school task cards, so kids still get to move around when you’re doing an activity, but they also will spend a few more minutes on each card […]
Here is a handy anchor chart to show students how to search for context clues in a piece of text. The chart explains how to sue context clues and gives examples of three types of context clues that students can look for. You can download a copy here: How to Use Context Clues Related […]
These story dice look like a fun resource for introducing narrative writing. The set that I’m looking at here are called StoryTime Dice, and they’re from Imagination Generation, but there are a number of different choices from various companies. This set had dice for: • heroes •villains •settings •vehicles •tools •obstacles •and prizes […]
Fairy Tale Comics, edited by Chris Duffy, is a book that middle grade kids will love for its comic book style. There is even one story done by the designer of the SpongeBob SquarePants movie characters! Middle grade teachers will love this book too, because the stories in Fairy Tale Comics are perfect for demonstrating […]
Another great picture book for older kids. Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band, by Kwame Alexander, is another picture book that will appeal to kids of all ages. Once students have learned a little about the Jazz Age and have become familiar with names like Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, they are ready to […]
The short story, Dragon, Dragon, by John Gardner is a traditional-style dragon tale with an added dose of humor. Because of the humor, middle grade kids easily get into the story. It’s a fun one to read together in class. There are plenty of twists and turns of the plot as the first […]
I’m posting at Education to the Core today. A big thank you to Emily for that! It’s all about fun activities for students to do with a class novel. Lots of suggestions; check them out here.
Animalia, by Graeme Base, is one of those picture books that appeals to all ages because of its intriguing pictures, and it is the perfect introduction to alliteration. Each page features one animal, described with creative alliteration and pictured with artwork that is expressive and animated. Each page is also full of interesting objects in […]
Story elements and persistence – two great lessons for the beginning of the school year. In the Language Arts classroom, introducing or reviewing basic story elements is a longstanding favorite activity for starting off the year’s literature studies. And the quality of persistence is a good one to demonstrate to kids at this season […]
A barking dog seldom bites. What does it mean? Well, first of all, it means that just because a dog barks and sounds scary, that doesn’t mean that he is going to bite anyone. To me, this seems like a good place to start – have students explain the literal meaning of the […]
The Library Card, by Jerry Spinelli, can make a great introduction to a summer reading program. What better way to motivate kids to check out the library over the summer than these mysterious short stories with their magical library cards? The Library Card consists of four short stories that will appeal to middle grade kids. […]
Kids first learn about speaking in different tones by listening to the responses of the people they are talking to. They learn that certain tones are appropriate for certain situations and that different tones get different reactions. Learning to use various tones in writing is much more difficult because those cues from a […]
A scavenger hunt is a fun way to follow up on a class novel. Kids will get to explore a range of reading materials, and you may end up with some good readings to use in class – great for some “paired passages” activities! Plan a visit to the library where you […]
CRASH, by Jerry Spinelli, introduces several interesting themes that suggest interesting topics for writing prompts. Here are some ideas for questions that students could write reading responses about after reading CRASH. For any of the questions, students might be directed to be sure to use evidence from the story, along with their own […]
Big Talk, by Paul Fleischman, might be just what you need if oral reading is on your list of things to do. If you’ve read Fleischman’s previous book of choral readings, Joyful Noise, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Joyful Noise, used by many teachers, is a book of poems for two voices, but Big Talk is, like […]
Research doesn’t always need to involve a trip to the library or the computer lab. Especially when you are introducing certain research skills and just want the kids get in a little practice, a kid’s almanac may be the perfect solution. Scholastic’s Almanac for Kids is one good choice. Ideally, you will need one […]
Theodore Taylor’s novel, The Cay, is a great one for working on the concept of theme. You can talk about themes in a variety of categories – man against nature – with the storm, man against society – with the war, man against technology – with the ship and the torpedoes, and man against self […]
Lois Lowry’s novel Number the Stars is a great novel to read as a whole class and then lead into a variety of other reading, writing, and even research activities. For extended reading, Number the Stars could be paired with current events articles to provide a mix of fiction and non-fiction. For example, […]
Making inferences is one of the most difficult reading skills that middle grade students need to master. It involves higher level thinking skills and requires students to put their background knowledge to use and make connections between things that they have read. Practicing with short passages can help your students become more proficient at […]
For a simple and convenient way for students to keep track of story elements as they read a novel, try this foldable story elements bookmark – a freebie from my TPT store. It’s the most popular freebie from Classroom in the Middle! Front of page: Back of page:
Two novels that tie in well with Veterans day for middle grade kids are Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry, and The Cay, by Theodore Taylor. Both books are about kids who are dealing with the effects of World War II on their families and would fit in with a discussion of how kids cope […]
Parts of speech is one of those topics that seem to need a little something extra to get kids interested – especially kids in the middle grades! So I like to add two favorite elements – a picture book and a contest. With kids who have already been introduced to the parts of […]
Mapping the elements of a story can help students to see the big picture of what goes into making a good story, but story elements is also one of those topics that gets repeated over and over throughout the years in an English curriculum. What do you do about teaching story elements to students who […]
My guest post on Minds in Bloom, which is all about making inferences, includes inference questions for the pictures books The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg and Riding the Tiger by Eve Bunting. One interesting idea might be to begin a lesson on inferencing with the photo activity described in that post, and then follow up with either […]
See my guest post on Minds in Bloom! It’s about using close-up photos to introduce the reading skill of making inferences.
The Cay, by Theodore Taylor, is a good choice for teaching the story element of setting. Since the two islands where Phillip lives in The Cay are so different, students can practice looking closely at each setting, by focusing on details from the novel, to compare the two. Curacao, the island where Phillip […]
There is more to teaching characterization than just having students name character traits. Another important characterization skill for students is to recognize how a character changes over the course of a novel. The Cay, by Theodore Taylor, is a great novel for teaching this characterization skill. The main character, Phillip, matures and undergoes many […]
Here is a characterization activity for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos; it asks students to read closely in order to select quotes from the novel. Having students choose specific quotes to illustrate character traits is a great activity for developing characterization skills because it requires students to be specific in their […]
Riding the Tiger, by Eve Bunting, is great for teaching inferences and extended metaphor! Riding the Tiger is the story of ten-year-old Danny, who is offered a ride through his city neighborhood on the back of a tiger. He would like to take the ride, but says that he has to ask his […]
