Teaching Middle School ELA

Are you looking for a way to refresh your teaching with new ideas and strategies? Would you like the kind of support a coach can offer: encouragement, guidance, and advice? Then what you need is the perfect mentor! Every teacher can benefit from having a great mentor. Listen here as Caitlin and Jessica show you how to find one! Links mentioned in this episode: ebacademics.com/event https://www.ins...

Listen as Caitlin and Jessica discuss the importance of pursuing passions outside of the classroom so that you can thrive in the classroom. How can you make this happen? By considering what systems and processes will make your school year easier and planning them now. Make time for yourself; you don’t just deserve it - you need it.    Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us kn...

At first, you may not be excited by the thought of planning next year’s lessons in June, but by the end of this podcast episode, Caitlin and Jessica will have convinced you to do it. How? By giving you several reasons that batch planning early will make your teaching stronger, take pressure off your planning, and give you a fuller, happier summer.    Links mentioned in this episode: https://ebacad...

In this episode, you will learn how to use batch planning to strategically and intentionally plan your school year, using standards as your guide as you spiral students’ learning with mini lessons and carefully placed units. They will also point you toward resources like Batch Planning Live and their new book, The Empowered ELA Teacher , to give you even more support! Links mentioned in this episo...

In this episode, Caitlin and Jessica talk about how you can add rigor to your lessons without making your students feel overwhelmed or lost. It all starts with the belief that your students will succeed! Then the planning starts from there, as you scaffold lessons and build your students’ confidence (along with your own!). Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Produc...

In this episode, Caitlin and Jessica’s 3 tips on thriving instead of surviving will give you the inspiration you need to find joy and energy in your teaching and personal life. They will discuss the importance of finding the right teacher community, avoiding the temptation to compare yourself to others, and rewarding yourself for all the hard work that you do. Links mentioned in this episode: http...

When you think about the standards your students need to master, does fitting them all into the school year seem impossible? If you feel this way, you’re not alone! Caitlin and Jessica have both experienced this curriculum time crunch before, and they’ve discovered ways to overcome it. Listen to this episode to learn their four simple tips for teaching more content in less time. Links mentioned in...

In this episode, Caitlin and Jessica interview Monica Genta and discuss the challenges of engaging students in those last, long weeks of the school. Monica, who has been there before with distracted and disengaged students, offers up 3 easy tips for giving students what they need by also giving them some of what they want. These suggestions just may be the game changer you’ve been looking for to k...

In this episode, Caitlin and Jessica discuss the drawbacks of focusing too strongly on testing skills in lessons: boredom, poor confidence, and lack of retention. Using their own experiences, they explain how engaging, rigorous, fun lessons reinforce skills that will actually improve test scores. Yes, ironically, throwing out the “teach to the test” mentality doesn’t just create a happier classroo...

Today, we are interviewing teacher, writer, and podcaster Jacob Chastain, a middle school teacher who uses the writer’s workshop method every day in his classroom. He will discuss how this method benefits students, how he puts it into practice, and where you can find more information.    Links mentioned in this episode: https://teachmeteacherpodcast.com/ https://www.facebook.com/teachmeteacher/ ht...

In this episode, Meredith takes us back to the beginning of her career when she almost quit her seventh grade teaching position. She candidly shares what it took for her to survive some really challenging moments in the classroom, and she offers wisdom for teachers everywhere who are struggling to get by this year. Meredith brings honesty, humor, and compassion to the conversation as she pulls bac...

Listen to this episode where we describe how to effectively assess students with shape, found, or blackout poetry. Better yet--give students a choice in their assessment to improve buy-in and enhance learning. Today, we share our best tips for making these assessments work in the classroom so that you can start planning your assessment today! Links mentioned in this episode: https://ebacademics.co...

Today, we share our Elements of Poetry Mini Research Project so that you can consider including a research component in your next poetry unit. We explain the purpose and framework of the assignment, giving you the strategies and tools to do this project in your class with any poems of your choice! Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Elements-of-Poetry-Poetr...

Today, we walk you through our favorite poetry resource--poetry stations . In just five stations, we explain how to get every student analyzing word choice, rhyme scheme, theme, and more! You can say goodbye to class periods where students zone out and stay silent as you do the hard work of breaking down a poem. Listen in to hear how you can get students doing the thinking and talking about any po...

Through our own trial-and-error, we were able to create a rigorous one-pager assignment that gave students the opportunity to showcase their best thinking and creativity every time. Listen in to hear how we completely redesigned our one-pagers so that students could enjoy the task and teachers would be proud of the results. Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Produ...

Today, we wrap up our three-week series on the EB lesson-planning framework and share how we create and assign end-of-unit “Beyond” lessons. Not only do we discuss why “Beyond” lessons are so simple to create, but we also give you our best strategies for assigning these lessons based on decades of trial-and-error. Listen in to reevaluate how you’re assessing your students. Are you enjoying the pod...

Today, we discuss how looking closely at the standards will provide you with the exact topics and framework for your lesson plans. We share specific lesson ideas and strategies for developing your lesson plans (that we refer to as “Through” lessons), and we offer practical tips for cutting down on time spent planning so that you can feel more confident and energized each day in the classroom. Are...

Today, we share some of our favorite engaging “Into” lesson plan ideas that can be repurposed over and over again throughout the year so that your planning can be efficient, and your students will be excited to start each new unit. We also share why it is so essential to begin your units in this way. Listen in to get a lesson-planning formula that will save you time and get you better results! Are...

Today, we share our tried-and-true Women’s History Month Brochure Project that will engage students and push their thinking. Whether you want to just listen in and get ideas for a similar project, or buy our read-to-teach resource, we know this episode will provide you with a timely and meaningful learning experience for your students. Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.amazon.com/Little...

If you want to see your students make genuine writing growth, it’s time to abandon the full-length essay craze, give yourself a break from non-stop grading, and instead assign targeted writing responses. Listen to today’s episode to hear our personal mistakes, and the strategies we use now to get real results in students’ writing. Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know w...

Whether you work with toxic teammates, are teaching online and feeling disconnected, or enjoy your coworkers but are just struggling to find “your people,” this episode is for you! Today we share how to surround yourself with people who will help you build a life and career you love. We get personal about our teaching experiences and offer some simple and practical strategies for finding the right...

In today’s episode, we share our favorite engaging introductory lesson activities for several different genres of expository writing. Listen in to hear how you can create these activities in your classroom to get your students eager and excited about your next writing unit. Engagement is more than half the battle in helping students reach their full potential as writers. Links mentioned in this ep...

In today’s episode, we share our all-time favorite Valentine’s Day lesson that we’ve used in fifth grade, all the way up to high school! We explain, step-by-step, how we use Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and conversation heart candies to help students write a love letter using textual evidence and love-induced zest. Whether you want to create the lesson on your own, or snag ours here , this activity is...

Today, EB team member and full-time teacher, Kara Wojick, shares her experience both resisting batch planning and giving it a try. She talks with us about the massive transformation she experienced in her work satisfaction and personal life after finally deciding to make the time to batch lesson plan. Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're liste...

In today’s episode, we ask you to consider a few important questions: How do you spend your prep periods? How often do you analyze student data? And how is teaching affecting your personal life? If you don’t like the answers to these questions, we’re here to help you start working smarter, not harder. Hello batch planning, and goodbye stress, resentment, and burnout. Are you enjoying the podcast?...