5 Routines to Transform Your ELA Classroom

 

By Presto Plans

When I plan for the first few weeks of school, one of the most important things I like to consider is what routines I want to establish for teaching ELA. Students thrive on predictability and structure - and let’s face it, so do we! I find that establishing good middle school classroom routines right from the get-go is one of the best ways to set up a new school year. 

When students know what to expect in their learning space, it takes all the guesswork out of classroom management. I've always found that middle or high school classroom routines helped give me a few extra moments during the day to connect individually with students, take attendance, collect forms, or even just enjoy a few sips of coffee while it’s still hot! Here are five routines that every ELA teacher should use.

1) Bell-Ringers

One of the most game-changing routines that I ever incorporated in my classroom are bell-ringers. Bell-ringers helped to smooth out the transition of moving from class to class (this can be tough for middle schoolers - and chaotic for their teacher!), and really set the tone for learning in the classroom. I also find they’re a really useful way for students to practice specific ELA skills related to writing and reading comprehension.

If you’ve never used bell-ringers as part of your routines for teaching middle school ELA, here’s how they work.  As students come into your classroom, they can immediately begin a short, focused, and targeted activity that introduces, reinforces, or allows them to practice a concept related to a certain area of ELA. Each of these short tasks takes about five to ten minutes to complete.

Over the years, I’ve expanded my bell-ringers to include skill-focused activities related to specific days of the week. Although each of my bell-ringer sets are different, here's an example of how I structured my third volume:

• Monday Mistakes: Students correct the errors in a short passage.

• Tuesday Terms: An opportunity to examine unfamiliar words and use context clues to determine their meaning.

• Wednesday Wise Words: Students explore the deeper meanings (and their own personal interpretations) of famous quotes.

• Thursday Thoughts: After viewing a short video or reading a brief excerpt of text, students share their reflections in writing.

• Friday Figurative Language: A weekly opportunity to practice finding (and using) a variety of types of figurative language.

If you’d like to check out the magic of bell-ringers for yourself, try out a free sample (including four weeks of daily activities!) of my full-year programs!

2) Sustained Silent Reading (SSR)

Setting aside dedicated time for students to enjoy books is a pretty standard routine in a lot of elementary school classrooms, but can sometimes become less of a priority in middle and high school ELA. I can definitely see why this happens - there are so many standards to cover! However, I still think that a regular reading routine can support older students as well.

Here’s the way I see it. Yes, our job as teachers is to make sure we are teaching the standards in our curriculum. But in a world where students increasingly communicate through technology, I think it’s also important to create opportunities for them to engage with physical books, too. Fostering a genuine love of reading is why I don’t put too many “rules” around my SSR time. As long as students choose appropriate, good-fit books that they find engaging, pretty much anything goes (yes, even graphic novels and comics!). My hope is that the practice of sustained silent reading (SSR) helps to build students into life-long readers, who continue to be open and empathetic to the stories and experiences of others around them.

I find an SSR routine very helpful if I need to quickly conference with a student, or complete a brief 1:1 or small-group check-in. Over the years, I’ve also noticed that building this type of routine from the beginning of a new school year can also increase students’ stamina, and their ability to focus on a task for longer periods of time.

3) Quick Writes

If your students struggle with the writing process, I’m not exaggerating when I say that quick writes can be an absolute game-changer! I find that some middle schoolers can struggle to generate ideas, or write about a provided prompt. Quick writes allow students to practice these skills in a low-pressure way (that can also be a lot of fun!). Here’s how they work:

At the beginning of class, provide your students with a prompt. This might be an image, a short video, or a quote - pretty much anything goes, as long as it has the potential to spark creativity. Depending on your goals, you may like to help students focus on a particular type of writing (descriptive, narrative, persuasive, etc.). From here, I like to set a timer for about five minutes, and allow students to write freely on this topic.

What I like about quick writes is that they allow students to practice the process of writing without the pressure of evaluation - although they can also act as a springboard for a narrative or functional writing task that incorporates student choice and voice. For example, you might your class complete a week’s worth of quick writes, and then ask them to select their favorite to turn into a full-length short story or persuasive essay! From time to time, I also like to conduct spot-checks of students’ notebooks (or digital files) to gauge their progress as writers over the course of the term.

4) Individual Conferences

I think individual conferences are one of the most valuable tools in any ELA teacher’s toolkit! Conferencing with students holds them directly accountable to their learning goals, and allows me to quickly assess their progress, troubleshoot any tricky areas, and provide praise and encouragement! I try to keep my conferences brief (three to five minutes, tops) and low-pressure for students. 

For me, I find it easiest to incorporate conferences alongside other routines for teaching ELA. For example, I might schedule two or three quick conferences a day during times where the rest of the class is engaged in an activity like a daily bell-ringer, or sustained silent reading. I like to schedule these conferences in advance so that students know what to expect, and I keep brief notes from each student meeting. These notes can be especially useful in preparing for parent-teacher conferences, or when I need to write report card comments!

I also find that in addition to learning about my students’ areas of strength and growth, conferencing also helps me to get to know each member of the class individually. Through conferences, I can quickly learn about students’ extracurricular commitments, personal goals, and other useful information that can help me support them in ther learning.

5) Attendance Questions 

Are you one of those teachers who struggles to get your attendance in on time? I’ve been there, too! Finally, after one too many reminders from the front office, I realized that I needed to incorporate a better routine for taking attendance.

For me, integrating attendance as part of my daily teaching routine for ELA really saved my relationship with the front office (and made things more predictable - and fun! - for my students, too). I found that students really enjoyed it when I posted a daily attendance question on my board. Here’s how this process works:

As students enter the classroom, they can read the daily attendance question on the front board. I’ve had a lot of good success with Would You Rather? and True & False style questions, depending on the group! Then, when you take attendance, each student can call out their answer to the question, rather than simply saying “here” or “present.”

I find this type of routine is a great classroom community-builder, and also helps to smooth out the process of taking attendance for a substitute teacher if you happen to unexpectedly be away for the day!

Hopefully these routines for teaching ELA help you out as you ease back into a new school year!

Looking for more great classroom routines for teaching ELA in middle or high school? Our bloggers in the Coffee Shop have you covered!

A Year of Journal Writing Prompts (over 400 prompts) from Tracee Orman 

Classroom Management Strategies for the Last Minutes of Class from Room 213

5 Tips for Implementing Daily Bell-Ringer Activities

By Tracee Orman

Bell ringers, also known as warm-ups or do-now activities, are brief tasks that students complete at the beginning of a class.

Using bell ringers with your students is an effective way to begin class each day. Students know what to expect and can settle down and get to work right away; it also gives you time to take attendance and get ready for the class. If you need help implementing them in class, I have some great tips for you.

1. Decide how you wish to distribute the bell ringer to your class: 

There are many ways you can administer the daily assignments, such as using paper copies, digitally through a grading app or Google Classroom, or projecting it in class and having students use a bell-ringer journal (either paper or digital). 

I have tried ALL of these methods and found the easiest to be digitally through our grading app (we used Skyward). I took a screenshot of the bell ringer and attached it to an online assignment within the app.  However, ALL of my students had laptops, which made that feasible. 

My second choice would be to use paper copies so it was easy for everyone (those who were absent could easily access a paper copy). 

It's OK to mix-and-match the ways you distribute the bell ringers. Some days you may not have time to make copies and some days the internet may be down and you have to adjust. You also may find that some students work better using paper and pencil and some work better typing their answers. Learning how to adjust and differentiate is key.

2. Set a timer: 

If you have limited time to spare, set a timer for anywhere between 6-10 minutes at the beginning of class. Students will learn quickly if they need more time to get started as soon (or before) the bell rings. You can use your cell phone for this (use the clock app and choose "timer," then set your desired time). You could also go old school and purchase an egg timer or use a board game timer. 

Whatever you use, make sure to stick with it and be consistent. Your students will catch on quickly if you don't give them a set time and will try to procrastinate the assignment (I know this from experience). 

3. Have a weekly routine of bell ringers: 

Setting up a weekly routine for your bell ringers is simple and can help students get into a groove. It's OK to start this any time throughout the year; it's never too late to begin using them. You can start with doing them just one or two times a week or try to do them all five days per week. I will share with you how I set mine up (and know that initially I only did them one day per week then added more each year).

• Motivational Mondays: 

I used a motivational quote and writing prompt every Monday to start the week. My students always looked forward to the quotes. As the years went by, I started to have my students submit their own motivational quotes to share with the class.  These bell ringers are independent of any curriculum and can be used any time of the year. I found them to be such a positive way to start the week. My bundle contains a wide variety of quotes and prompts to last you years. Because I taught in a small school, I had to change up my quotes when I had the same students multiple times. These are great to practice daily writing. I usually just required a few complete sentences. Some students wrote multiple paragraphs and some wrote the bare minimum. The objective is to just get them writing.

• Test-Prep Tuesday: 

If your students have state or national tests, this is a good opportunity to throw in a sample test question each week as practice. It could be a short reading passage with 2-4 follow-up questions or grammar work, etc. I used reading comprehension questions from old state testing booklets and sample questions from ACT and SAT. Oftentimes textbook companies provide test-prep materials with their teaching bundles, so you may actually have access to grade-level sample questions. I would definitely keep the reading passages short or give extra time if they are longer. That said, having a limited amount of time also prepares them for timed tests.

• Wordy Wednesday: 

This is a great way to get vocabulary work in each week. I used my vocabulary graphic organizers and used words from whichever text we were currently reading. Sometimes I would have them study a single word; sometimes I would have a list of words, depending on what my learning goals were for the week. If you do not need to use specific words and just want general vocabulary practice AND your students have access to devices and the internet, an excellent FREE website to use is Free Rice. The nonprofit (sponsored by the World Food Programme) donates rice to people in need. Students can play without having to make an account, but if they wish to keep track of their donations, they can create a free account. There is no subscription or catch. The longer they play, the higher the level. 

• Think & Write Thursday: 

I used this day to focus on more in-depth journal writing prompts. I would choose one or more for the week from my bundle of journal prompts. Many of the prompts have a short little factoid related to someone famous or a historical or pop culture event. But then it has students make connections in their own lives with that person or event. 

• Free-Read Friday: 

This one is self-explanatory. I love letting my students read anything they want each week and usually gave them a little longer than the other days if they were all reading quietly. Allowing them to read their choice of materials is key. Comic books, graphic novels, picture books, Guinness Book of World Records, novels, newspapers, magazines, blogs...it did not matter. As long as they were reading. In addition, it's important for YOU to participate in free reading, as well. Don't use the time to catch-up on grading or other tasks. Model the behavior for your students. Plus, they love to see what you choose to read in your free time. 

While those are just suggested days, you can make ANY day whatever you like. In fact, you don't even need to stick to "specific" days. See the next tip below.

4. Use Content-Related Bell Ringers: 

Another option is to toss out all those set days and just have a set amount of time at the beginning of each class period to use content-related bell ringers. I have many packs that can be used with ANY text and are perfect for introducing, reviewing, and in-depth analysis of a text. These activities will reinforce the learning that is already taking place and also make the assignments more digestible in small bites. 

If you love to save money, I offer a huge discount on my entire pack of bell ringers and exit slips in this growing bundle. It will last you for years and most are standards-based!

5. Give Completion Grades: 

To make your life easier, it's OK to give completion grades rather than trying to go through every single bell ringer and grade it for specific content. I usually made the daily assignments 5 points and if it was completed, students achieved a 5/5 grade. If a student did not do the bell ringer at all, they achieved 0/5. If a student completed it more than a day late, they achieved 3/5 (only because my grading app did not allow for 2.5 points). You can adjust this to suit your needs, but this method worked very well for me and students never argued the grade they achieved. I would at times need to remind some students to put more effort into their work or I would take points off, but usually that worked. Honestly, I do not believe in a grading rubric for assignments like bell ringers and journal writing. I think they are too subjective and will only cause more headaches for you. 

I hope these tips will help you implement a daily bell ringer routine in your classroom. Have a wonderful year!

My colleagues here at the Coffee Shop also offer some excellent resources for bell ringers. Check them out here:

Absurd Words Bell Ringers by The Classroom Sparrow

Classroom Community Bell Ringers by The Daring English Teacher

English Bell Ringers Vol 3 by Presto Plans

Mindfulness in the ELA Classroom: 5 Ways to Add SEL, Mindset, and Mindfulness to the Classroom

By The Daring English Teacher

One of the best ways classroom teachers can help build and establish a positive classroom community with their students is by incorporating SEL, mindset, and mindfulness activities throughout the school year.

And SEL isn’t just the new education buzzword either. Recent educational studies by the Learning Policy Institute show that incorporating SEL, mindset, and mindfulness positively impacts students, their engagement in learning, and facilitating positive behaviors and relationships with others. 

While the start of a new school year is an opportune time to introduce SEL into the classroom, it's important to note that teachers can incorporate these activities at any point in the school year. The flexibility of this approach ensures that no student misses out on the benefits of SEL.

Here are five ways teachers can add SEL, mindset, and mindfulness to the ELA classroom

1. Daily Attendance Questions

Introducing daily attendance questions is a fun and engaging way to get to know your students and encourage classroom discussion. This low-stakes opportunity for students to share aloud in class not only makes attendance more enjoyable but also helps every student feel more welcome in the classroom.

One of my favorite daily attendance questions is a fun and engaging 'Would You Rather' question! Instead of the usual 'here', students get to answer a thought-provoking question, sparking their interest and setting a positive tone for the day.

This Would You Rather slide deck includes 50 engaging and exciting Would You Rather questions available in both a Google Slides and Canva format. Each question comes on its own slide that is easy to read and includes eye-catching pictures! You can ask your students questions like would you rather go skydiving or shark diving!

Plus, the Canva version also includes pre-made templates to customize this activity for your students. 

2. Team-Building Tuesdays

Another way to include SEL practices in your classroom is by incorporating Team-Building Tuesdays into your classroom routine. These activities can happen as often as every week, or they can happen once a month.

Some of my favorite team-building activities for middle and high school students include the stacking cup challenge and “I Say, You Draw.” These activities encourage and facilitate communication, teamwork, and higher-level thinking skills. Plus, they are a great way to foster a positive classroom community! You can read more about my Team-Building Tuesdays activities in this blog post!

This Growth Mindset Escape Room is another great way activity for a Team-Building Tuesday!

Growth Mindset Escape Room

3. SEL and Mindset Activities

In addition to daily attendance questions, incorporating activities focusing on social and emotional learning and mindset is another way to help add SEL, mindset, and mindfulness in the classroom.

Growth Mindset and SEL Activities

I recently updated my Growth Mindset Activities resource to include several new SEL-focused activities! These mindset and SEL activities include a gratitude jar, an emotion wheel, and information about SEL, growth mindset, and more! 

Another great SEL activity for middle and high school students is this FREE Goal Jar activity! While I used this at the start of the school year, this goal jar works as a fantastic SEL activity at any point in the year! 

Students fill the jar with their goals and then write about their goals and why these goals are important to them! You can access this free download by signing up here!

4. Mindful transitions 

A great way to practice mindfulness is by having mindful transitions in the classroom to help students incorporate more mindfulness in their days. Between activities, at the start of the class period, or at the end of the class period, facilitate some breathing exercises or desk stretches with your students. 

YouTube is filled with many breathing videos that you can project for your students that will help them with deep breathing exercises. I like this one by the Calm app because it provides animation that helps students visualize what deep breathing is supposed to look like. 

In addition to breathing exercises, adding in a couple of desk stretches can also help students refocus and center their energy and focus on mindfulness. 

This video from Duke University introduces students to quick and easy, yet effective, desk stretches that students can do from the comfort of their own seat. 

5. Analyze literature through a psychological lens

Finally, a way to tie in SEL, mindfulness, and mindset into the curriculum is to have students analyze literature through a psychological lens. As you are reading a short story or class novel, ask your students mindset and emotion-related questions like the ones below to get the students analyzing the literature on a deeper level and thinking about their own emotions as well.

1. What emotion is the main character feeling? What clues let you know this? Reflect on a time when you felt that same emotion.
2. What emotions led a character to make a decision they did? How did the emotions affect that decision? Reflect on a time when you acted on or made a decision purely based on emotions.
3. After overcoming an obstacle, what emotions did the character experience? What clues let you know this? Reflect on a time when you overcame an obstacle or accomplished a goal. 

In addition to analyzing literature through a psychological lens, you can also look at a character’s growth mindset. This Growth Mindset Character Analysis resource includes 12 different activities and four different writing prompts to help your students analyze literature through a growth mindset lens. 

Growth Mindset Character Analysis Activities

These five ways to incorporate SEL, mindfulness, and mindset in your classroom will not only help you build classroom community, but they will also help your students focus on their own emotions and mindset as well as think about various characters’ emotions and mindsets as well.

Looking for more ways to incorporate SEL, mindfulness, and mindset in your classroom? Check out these resources!

• Motivational Quotes Writing Prompts by Tracee Orman
• Growth Mindset Activities by Presto Plans
• Teaching Resilience by Room 213

Easy Back to School Activities

 If you're anything like me, the back-to-school season can be overwhelming... it's hard for staff and students to get back into the groove of a new school year.  Here are some easy and low-prep activities you can do at the start of the year.

1. SAY MY NAME  

One of my first jobs as a teacher is to learn who my students are... and getting their preferred names correct is sooo important.  Instead of calling out their names from my attendance list I just go around the room and ask students to tell me their first and last names (it might take me a minute to find them on my attendance list) but I'd much rather hear them say their names then struggle through it.  I also ask a silly question and they have to answer it when they tell me their name.  I usually start my class with an attendance question so this sets it up nicely.  On the first day, I usually ask if they prefer a dog or cat?

2. SURVEY SAYS?

The first day can be chaotic - students come late, they're nervous, they're unsettled, and often a little bored after listening to all of the reminders that hit them on the first few days.  I share this FREE GET TO KNOW YOU SURVEY with them (and I share my answers) and we have fun finding out what we all have in common.

3.  MY LIFE IN 30 WORDS

Instead of the dreaded "Who am I?" essay I like to give students a challenge!  They must write a poem about themselves, however it must be exactly 30 words. No more... no less!  It's much more challenging than they originally thought it would be and gives me insight into their writing skills and problem-solving abilities.  MY LIFE IN 30 WORDS is a print-and-go resource that will surely engage your students.

4. GOAL SETTING

I think it's important to have students think about the new school year ahead and set some goals for themselves.  Often I lead the students through this activity by brainstorming challenges they had last year and some ideas about how they could overcome those challenges in the new year.  Students can share with their partners or groups about their goals and perhaps provide inspiration for others.  This print-ready Get-to-Know-You & Goal Setting Resource is full of graphic organizers you can use (and refer back to during the year) to help students set goals and plan for the year ahead.

For more back-to-school inspiration check out more ideas from the Secondary English Coffee Shop!

Presto Plans - Back to School Activities -First Days of School Bundle

The Daring English Teacher - Back to School Activities for Middle & High School

Tracee Orman - Back to School Icebreaker / Bell Ringer Stations

The Classroom Sparrow - Back to School Interactive Notebook / Flipbook

Room 213 - Back to School Getting-To-Know-You Activities

5 Easy Ways to Add Movement in Your Class

 

Middle and high school English teachers: one very easy and effective way to get your students to engage in their learning is by getting them up and moving. I'm sure you know from staff meetings and PD sessions that it can be hard to sit and listen for long periods of time. It's no different for our students, so if we can provide opportunities for them to move around, we will get more engagement. But how do we do this and keep them learning? Read on to discover 5 easy ways to add movement in your class - and to get a PDF that will help you with inspiration & planning!

👉🏻 If you want to read some research that supports the idea of moving to learn click here or here.

1. The Easiest Way to Add Movement: The Stand-and-Talk

One of my favorite ways to break things up. - and to give students a chance to stretch - is the stand-and-talk. It's exactly like the turn-and-talk, but students do it on their feet. You can use it any time during the class, but it works really well after students have been sitting and listening for a while.

Both of these strategies are also really effective for getting all students to think, as you do this in place of getting a handful of students to answer the questions you pose during class discussions. If you need more background on this, click here.

The stand-and-talk is a way to add movement in your class that is simple and takes zero prep. Simply pose a question, ask all students to think about how they would answer or brainstorm how they would respond. Then, ask them to stand and share with a partner. You may have to prod them to stand at first - they are used to sitting and can be hard to move off those seats - but once they get used to this strategy, they welcome the chance to stand and stretch.

2. Stand-Up-Stations & Vertical Learning Add Movement in Your Class

I am a huge fan of learning stations, as they provide a chance for students to focus on a topic/skill AND move during class. You can up the movement factor if you use stand-up stations with your students.  Simply adhere the directions or questions on the wall, group your students, and send them off to complete each task that you assign.

Give each group a certain amount of time at each station, and then have them move clockwise as a group until they have visited each station. I tend not to give a designated time, but decide as I'm circulating and listening when it's time to move them on.

What do you put on the wall? 

Anything that you might put on a worksheet - questions about a text, quotes for response, ideas for discussion, even grammar exercises - can be copied on a 11 x 17 piece of paper or written on chart paper. You will need to break up the tasks, so you can distribute them on approximately five areas; then instead of having students working on their assignment at their desks, they do the work on their feet.

Here are some ideas that you can use for stand-up-stations:

• Copy significant sections of a text (a different one for each poster) and ask students to work together to do a close read and to conclude the author's purpose
• Do the same with a poem
• Grammar exercises that they have to complete
• Topics you want students to discuss/debate
• A topic sentence that you want them  support with ideas, images, etc.

The left hand picture above, shows the results of a discussion students had around pre-reading topics for a novel. Read more about it here.

The middle picture shows the prep work I did for a vertical writing exercise where students were learning about language choices and tone. I tell you all about it here.

And the right hand picture illustrates the discussion and conclusions students were making about the author's purpose in a section of the novel we were reading. More details on this post!

3. Get Students Moving in Class with a Gallery Walk

If you want even more movement in your class, you can follow any activities that you do via stand-up-stations with a gallery walk. Each group moves clockwise to the right to another group’s poster. There, they will read and discuss what they wrote, deciding if they agree or disagree or want to ask a question about what they wrote.

I especially like this strategy because I can use it to push students to fully develop an idea, something they often struggle with. If, for example a group made a point about a text or passage, a visiting group can add a new point to support - or even refute - it. If we are doing creative writing, I might ask each group to add a new sensory image to a description. They can write on the poster using a different color marker or sticky notes, as you can see below.

4. Get Students Moving with Quote Walks

Quote Walks are a special type of stand-up-stations.

Quite often, we English teachers like to give students significant passages from a class text to analyze. Instead of doing this via a worksheet, copy each quotation on a 11 x 14 or 11 x 17 page and place them in various places throughout the classroom. Then, instruct students to visit each one and respond to the prompt.

You can also ask them to choose two or three quotes that they want to respond to in order to give them some choice. Here's one I did with great success - that was super easy to assess too!

5. Use an Evidence Wall to Get Students Moving in Class

Several years ago, I was on a mission to get my students to choose better evidence (or even some evidence) to support their points. We were reading To Kill a Mockingbird and I decided to make Evidence Posters, using some of the themes and quotes from the novel.

The posters I made were put up throughout the classroom, and students were told to record quotations from the novel that they thought supported the idea on each poster.

During reading time, or after group discussions, they could get up and place the quotations they found with the appropriate theme/idea. We did periodic gallery walks for them to collect evidence, and when we were done, I assigned groups one of the topics and they did presentations for the rest of the class, using the evidence that had been collected.

You can read about this process in more detail here.

So those are my 5 Easy Ways to Add Movement in Your Class. I hope you were able to find some inspiration or ideas that you can use with your students. You can grab some strategies that you can use to add movement to your classroom here and check out some of my resources that include movement activities below:

Grammar Lessons & Activities

Learning Stations

ELA Games & Challenges

Choose Your Ending: Exploring Conflict

Thanks for reading!

Jackie, ROOM 213