Program Designed to Help Struggling Students with Literacy What: This activity took place in a Title I school in which over 90% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch and about 25% are identified as English learners. Because we receive federal and state money, we also have numerous government mandates to fulfill. Some […]
Category: English/language arts
The Egg Drop Project
Hands-On Activity Helps Students Integrate STEM Concepts with Content Writing 7th grade science, math, and English honors teachers at Southside Middle School developed a cross-curricular egg drop project to integrate STEM concepts with content writing. Student were challenged to design, create, test, and analyze a BESS (Better Egg Shipping System) that would protect a dropped […]
Let’s Get Visual
Visual Cue Cards Enhance Classroom Management This summer, I attended a conference on appealing to special needs students. There were many strategies presented about adding more visual elements to your classroom. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough to appeal to the visual learners in my classroom. This year, I have tried out visual cue […]
A Great Way to Integrate: Language Arts and Social Studies Combined
Two Departmentalized Teachers Integrate Lessons to Help Students Become More Engaged Two departmentalized teachers share how they integrate their subject matter to make lessons meaningful for their students. There are strategies, lessons, and tips on how they easily manage their cross-curricular planning. Challenges or Obstacles: Challenges can occur if you are sharing the subjects mentioned […]
Learning Centers: Not Just for Elementary Students
Learning Centers Enable Teachers to Cover More Content and Increase Student Participation When secondary teachers struggle to keep students engaged learning decreases. The use of active learning centers increases student engagement, participation, and therefore learning. There are some tangible advantages to including learning centers in the classroom. Experience has shown that students actually tend to be […]
Student Led Book Clubs
Book Club Allows Students to Take Ownership for Their Reading Book Club was originally created through collaboration with a third grade teacher(me) and fifth grade teacher who were seeking a way to empower students to have meaningful discussions on complex texts that were being read in class. When Book Club was first created, the whole […]
Intervention for All: Encouraging Growth of Language Arts Mastery
English Enrichment Program Allows Students the Opportunity to Experience in Depth Exploration of Class Standards At Northside Middle School, we knew a key component to achieving success in the mastery of language arts would be to encourage growth from all of our students. While many intervention programs are aimed at only the bottom or top […]
Use of Quarter Courses to Increase Curriculum Diversity for High Ability High School Students
Quarter Length Courses Allow Students the Choice Between Multiple Narrowly Focused Subject Matters Throughout the Semester Quarter courses were developed to increase the diversity of courses available to high ability students. Courses last for half a semester and are usually developed in pairs taught by the same instructor. Topics for quarter courses are usually more narrowly […]
The 10 Day Push
Last Minute Review Helps More Students Pass the English 10 ECA Kay Winter, former AHS instructional/ data coach, heard about The 10 Day Push used at another high school with incredible results. They reported that 60% of their students who participated in The Push passed the English 10 ECA. Kay brought the idea to AHS, […]
Cultural Literacy in English Enrichment
Enrichment Course Enhances Students Knowledge of Cultural Experiences The English Enrichment courses at Muncie Community Schools were designed to provide students with extra exposure and practice in key English/Language Arts skills. As an entirely new class, this meant developing a course from nothing. I hired on to teach this course last year, and decided immediately to turn […]
Community Inclusion: Bringing a Novel to Life
Using Classic Literature to Inspire Student Success Through Inclusion So many great works of literature connect to universal themes experienced by our students. Students in high school with functional reading levels significantly below their peers need assistance in accessing the literature their peers study in general education high school English classes. Finding time to collaborate […]
Student Literacy Projects in the Virtual Setting
Literacy Projects Helps Virtual Learning Students The virtual learning world is still a new one. Many projects, and project ideas, begin in the brick and mortar setting. Teachers in the virtual world are always looking for ways to translate those projects into the virtual setting, especially when thinking of literacy projects for our elementary students. […]
Interactive Notebooks In Middle School Language Arts
Interactive Notebooks Help Students Organize and Synthesize Information The purpose of the interactive notebook is to enable students to be creative, independent thinkers and writers. Interactive notebooks are used for class notes as well as for other activities where the student will be asked to express his/her own ideas and process the information presented in class. The purpose behind […]
Vocabulary Call and Response
Transitional Practice Helps Students Learn Vocabulary Vocabulary Call and Response is a best practice that can be used during transitional times throughout the day. Students are introduced to a new vocabulary word that can be tied to any subject or course. We began by using Common Core vocabulary in Language Arts and Mathematics. When the […]
Success
Remediation, Maintenance, and Enrichment Period Helps Students Achieve Success We offer a Success period at the beginning of each day. Our periods are tiered into three levels for both math and ELA. We have remediation, maintenance, and enrichment. Our enrichment period is project and community-based learning with the current math and ELA standards wrapped into […]