Category: Middle School Writing

If you’ve taught a writing unit before, you know one of the hardest parts for students is getting started. I used to have students who

It’s every middle school ELA teachers dream: strong student essays. But getting students to write effective essays is hardly a walk in the park. You

You’re not imagining it: teaching literary analysis is hard. Your students essays barely scratch the surface, and you’re not sure how to get students to

After you’ve wrapped up a novel or a short story, there is a lot to cover: main idea, theme, plot, and so on. But you

Your narrative writing unit is approaching. *gulp* You want students to walk away with a successful narrative essay in the end, but your last narrative

When I ask teachers about their biggest struggle with narrative writing, they always say the narrative elements. And I totally understand why. Trying to get

Raise your hand if teaching narrative writing has you feeling stressed or overwhelmed. I’ve been there. Every writing unit seems to bring its own challenges

You would think narrative essays would be one of the easier forms of writing. Students have been interacting with narrative stories since they were little

I’m a huge fan of using mentor texts in the classroom because I’ve seen what they can do. Traditionally in the classroom, students are given

Teaching middle school students how to write high-quality literary analysis can be a huge challenge. As I’m sure you’ve found, oftentimes, students’ literary analysis barely

Writing can be a real headache for ELA teachers. Writing is layered with skills – from grammar to analysis – so it’s not a walk