My middle school students range in ability level from very proficient to no experience with essays at all (because they are new to the United States). You can imagine that I have had to get creative with essay helper ideas to get my students to learn essay writing. I have done many things, from …
Struggling learners come in all shapes and sizes. Some have diagnosed learning needs and others do not. What they all need is something to use to help them remember what they are supposed to do. I recognized this early on and created writing "toolkits" with my students. I gave each s…
Maybe it's just me, but I always have students who like to cite evidence by just picking anything from the text. Of course, I teach what relevant evidence is, but always struggled with getting kids to use their knowledge until I started breaking it down and taking students through the entire…
This year there is more of a focus on differentiation than ever. The idea is that not all of the students need to be doing the same thing at the same time. But how does one make that work in the regular classroom? I have a few ideas: 1. Have students work in centers (stations) In Middle School…