Teaching for Understanding “If I had a nickel …” is the overused phrase I fight the temptation to say out loud when teachers tell me that they just taught something and their students don’t remember. What actually comes out is usually along the lines of “don’t take it personally. Your students are not out to […]
Middle School
Writers’ Workshop: Show Don’t Tell
Every elementary Writers’ Workshop teacher has a go-to “Show, Don’t Tell” lesson in which students learn how to show or illustrate what is happening, instead of merely stating it. But do we ever have enough? Do the students ever master this highly important writing skill?? Exactly! So here is another lesson to add to your […]
Content Area Essays in Middle School
Admit it – you groaned just reading the title of this post! Any teacher who has taught middle school students to write in the content areas realizes how frustrating this experience can be. I am not going to even pretend that I have a silver bullet and everything will be fine. You might still smack […]
Critical Analysis of a Poem in Middle School
Most middle school students are not thrilled to learn that they will be analyzing one poem over three days.
Readers’ Workshop: Managing Student Choice
As a Literacy Coach, I view my main job as getting kids to love reading. Here are some of my tricks!
7 Strategies for Generating Ideas in a Writers’ Workshop
In the ideal Writers’ Workshop, students will write about topics of their choice that they are passionate about. This sometimes leads to frustration on the part of the students because they have a hard time figuring out what they want to write about and many times we hear comments like “I have nothing to write […]
Guest Post: Mind Mapping with Signposts (Readers’ Workshop)
Guest post by Julia Swanner, Baylor University Intern, and Liz Hagins, Midway ISD Teacher The preface: In our PreAP 8th grade English class, my mentor teacher and I were noticing a severe lack of enthusiasm for reading expository writing, specifically breaking down passages to get to the core of them. We implemented Kylene Beers’s nonfiction “signposts” […]
Personal Narratives in Middle School
** Contact us if you would like Rogers Education Consulting to bring an engaging, hands-on, and evidence-based Writers’ Workshop session to your campus ** Last week I was so excited to work with middle school students in a Writers’ Workshop. I love that when I first tell the students that I am teaching a writing […]