5 Ways to Reduce Your Grading

 

I'm going to be very honest here. I did not enjoy grading. In fact, I may have used the word "hate" regularly because I resented the time I had to spend outside of school doing it. It was also super frustrating to be putting in the time only to read poorly written student work. But, despite the negative feelings I had toward grading, I knew it was a  very important part of my job. So, instead of just wallowing in my misery, I came up with strategies to tame the grading beast. And now, I want to share 5 ways to reduce your grading too.

The best thing about the strategies that follow is that they are also better for student learning. They allowed me to get to know my students' abilities more quickly and then to give them faster feedback. This built their confidence, increased their skills, and made my grading more manageable.

Did I still spend time at the kitchen table grading? Yes. But it was less frequent and more "enjoyable." I did this by:

1. Providing more in-class formative assessment
2. Using focused short assignments for skill-building
3. Requiring annotated good copies
4. Switching to checklists from rubrics
5. Using conferences for in class grading

Read on to get the details and to grab some freebies that will help you reduce your grading!

1. Give more in-class formative assessment

Ultimately we want our students to focus on learning, not a number on the top of an assignment. And, yes, I know most of us teach in a world where we need to assign grades, but that doesn't mean that you have to grade everything students do.

One of the biggest issues with the grading process is not only that it takes us so much time but it also prevents students from getting the advice they need when they need it. They work on learning a new skill and then don't get the feedback until days later - after you've already moved on to something new.

However, formative assessment in class gives them just-in-time feedback that they can use and learn from right away.

You can provide more opportunities for formative assessment when you give your students activities that focus on the steps of a process they need to follow to be successful in later assignments. Then, while they are working on these steps, you can help them if they go off track. This makes learning visible because students can see what it is they need to do, and you can see if they are doing it properly and guide them then and there. This is much more powerful than a scribble on their paper or rubric that comes days or weeks later.

How does formative assessment reduce your grading? 

Formative assessment allows you to give focused feedback without having to take in assignments to do so. You do not have to grade everything students do in order to get them to learn a skill. It does take a bit of training at the beginning of a term, but you can create a climate where they will engage in active learning activities in class.  

Yes, you will still be grading assignments later on, but by building in opportunities for students to practice and get feedback IN class, you can assign fewer papers and your students will still improve their skills.

If you want some ideas for visible learning activities that allow you to give in-class formative assessment, open these blog posts and save them for later:

• Ideas for teaching writing skills without grading any papers
• Teach Writing by showing, not telling
• Learn how to scaffold writing skills here
• Grab ideas for visible learning & formative assessment here and here.
• Getting students to do work that's not graded

 

2. Use focused, shorter assignments

Eventually, you'll need to give summative feedback because you have to assess the outcomes of your curriculum. In the first part of my career, most of my assessments were essays, and students wrote several over the semester because I felt they needed the practice. And I graded all the things . . .

I tried using shorthands or fancy coding systems, but I've never really found them to make a huge difference. That's because these systems only shaved a bit of time from a process that was basically the same. Instead, I wanted a streamlined one that didn't require me or my students to be looking up the code for faulty parallelism or a missing topic sentence. I wanted - and my students needed - something that was more user-friendly.

This streamlined process started with a clear focus on the skills I wanted my students to learn. Now we English teaches could fill a full page with the things we look for when grading an assignment, but that can get overwhelming for students. If they are learning to select, embed, and cite quotations, but are too worried about whether their topic sentence is focused and their grammar is up to snuff, they can get overwhelmed.

But shouldn't they be able to handle multiple things at once?

Let me answer that with a sports analogy. Imagine you take someone new to a sport and put them on a field, a golf course, or a court. You give them the equipment they need and a quick overview of the game, and then send them off to play. Most newbies will get through it, but they may not perform well because most games have a lot of complexity.

Golf is certainly not as simple as just getting the ball in the hole; a successful golfer needs to be able to drive, chip, putt, etc. and to know how to do it without sending the ball sideways or missing it altogether. The successful basketball player needs to be able to dribble while moving, pass without giving it to the wrong person, and shoot the ball in the net while others are trying to grab it.

Coaches and phys ed teachers know this to be true, and that’s why they practice and work on single skills at a time. Michael Jordan famously practiced free throws for hours, and Kobe Bryant spent his workouts perfecting only one move. They were isolating the skills they needed for success and working on them. They didn’t read a handout, try it once, and head off to the court to play.

Shorter assignments allow students to practice and build the skills they need for success in the big game –  the longer assignments they need to do. They also take less time to grade and so students get feedback faster – when what they did is still fresh in their minds (read more about this process here).

So, make a list of the skills your students need to have to write their final assessments, then plan to give them short, scaffolded  assignments to build those skills.

3. Annotated good copies reduce your grading time

Whether students are passing in a paragraph or an essay, ask them to show you where they met the required outcomes via highlighting and underlining.

For example, if your focus was on writing a paragraph with a clear, fully supported topic sentence, ask them to underline the topic sentence and highlight the points they made to support it in different colors.

If you are working on embedding and citing quotations, ask them to underline the words they use to introduce the quote, highlight the quote, and circle the citation.

Or if you're working on fluency, they might circle their transitions and highlight sentences of different lengths in different colors.

Let's look at an example. The following is a paragraph that a student wrote analyzing a passage in The Book Thief. My main focus was on teaching them to embed their quotations and on using transitions to create flow within the paragraph. I asked my students to highlight their topic and concluding sentence in one color, and their lead in to the quotation in another color. They also had to underline their transitions.

First of all, because they had to annotate their good copy, most recognized what may have been missing and they could fix it before submitting the assignment. For example, my focus for this assignment was not on topic/concluding statements, but by asking them to highlight them, it was a reminder that they are an essential part of this type of paragraph.

Secondly, I was able to quickly identify the elements I was looking for. In this case, the student is embedding quotations well and is using transitions. However, his transition words are not overly sophisticated and his feedback would indicate that it was time to move beyond the basic list of transitions.

How does this reduce your grading time? Because you have given your students a clear focus, a specific set of skills to work on, you can quickly see if they have met the mark without having to wade through their paper, hoping to find evidence of their success.

However, you need to include the next step to make this really work:

4. Switch to checklists instead of rubrics

Rubrics are a wonderful thing - when students read them. How many times have you actually seen students go through the rubric when they've gotten an assignment back?

After watching my students ignore the information on my rubrics (and on the assignments), I decided to move to checklists. Yes, students have to read them too, but they are quicker and easier to read than the row/columns of a rubric.

To create checklists that reduce your grading time, think about the skills you most want students to demonstrate in the assignment. Then:

• write a sentence that states they have been successful
• under that statement, write bulleted feedback that represents what you typically tell a student who has not been successful

See the example below:

Then, when you do have to provide a grade, you can just check off the area the student needs to improve, rather than writing the feedback. Yes, this is the same as using a rubric, but students find them easier to read. This means, there's a higher chance they will read and use it!

5. Use conferences to get assessment done in class

I've saved the best idea for last: in-class conferences reduce your at home grading time, lead to greater student learning, and help you build relationships with your students.

Conferences with students are the fastest, most efficient way to find out what your students know and to help them learn - on the spot. When you take in an assignment, it can be days before you find out what they have learned and even more days before the student gets the feedback needed to fix or improve something.

But, when you are chatting one-on-one with a student, you have access to their thinking in a way that no exit ticket or written assessment will ever give you. You find out right away what they know and where they might need guidance, and you can get to work right away helping them build the skills they need. That’s the beauty of the conference: the teaching and learning is instant.

Conferences take some upfront work to organize - and to train your students to prepare for them. You also need to adopt some classroom management tricks to make sure things run smoothly. However, all of these things are so worth it once you and your students get the hang of how conferencing works.

One of the best ways to build conferencing into your classes is with learning stations. Your students will be busy working on different aspects of their writing, while they take turns visiting the teacher feedback station to chat with you.

You can also make use of what I call "quickie conferences." For these, you tell your students that you are coming to see all of them and they need to show you that they can do something. It might be that they can identify sensory imagery in a text they are reading or that they can use it in something they are writing.

I would create a form like the one below, put it on my clipboard, and as students were reading or working on something, I would circulate and ask each one to show me, for example, a vivid verb they used in their writing. I would give them a grade and quick feedback and then move on to the next student.

This gave me a quick snapshot of who had achieved and outcome and who needed more work. I could later take those who needed that work into a small group to give them further instruction. You'll see a script for these quickie conferences in the freebie I'm giving you.

Most things in life are better if you focus on quality versus quantity. Strategies that make feedback more meaningful and useful lead to greater student learning - and that means that there are ways you can take in fewer papers. 

I hope that one of 5 ways to reduce your grading will work for you.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Jackie, ROOM 213

Planning For An ELA Substitute Teacher

Planning for a substitute can be a challenge, especially when it comes to ensuring students stay engaged and on track with their learning. Whether you're out for a day or need to prep for an extended absence, having go-to lesson plans or resources that are both meaningful and manageable is essential. Here are our favorite ELA substitute tips, resources, lessons, and ideas that will keep your students focused, productive, and practicing key skills while you're away.

1. Activities That Work for Any Novel

Hi there! Christina from The Daring English Teacher here! Just in case I am ever out and it is unexpected, I like to have a couple of activities from this novel activities resource printed out and ready to go! Even though this resource says it is for novels, it really works for any piece of fiction, so it is the perfect sub plan to keep the momentum going when you are either in your short story unit or reading a whole class novel! Two of my favorite things for emergency sub plans are the figurative language tracker or any of the writing assignments!

2. Figurative Language in Song Lyrics Activity

Unless you have a planned absence and have all the time in the world for making sub plans (who does?), it is always wise to keep some lessons on hand for when you need them at the last moment. Tracee Orman loves to use this activity for sub plans--it’s fun, a great review for figurative language, and perfectly easy for a sub to implement: just print and go! The best part is that it can go with any unit you are currently teaching.

3. Missing Teacher Substitute Teacher Lesson Plan

The Missing Teacher substitute lesson plan is ready to use for any day off! The assignment is about your inexplicable absence and puts students in charge (by the principal) of investigating the reason you are not at school. Students will create a Missing Teacher poster and an investigative police case file that has them examine evidence and witness testimonies. You will come back to school to an assignment that will get you laughing! Click here to check it out. - Bonnie from Presto Plans 

4. Substitute Teacher Feedback Form

If you're in a hurry to get a substitute feedback form ready, I've got you covered! Print out this simple, yet effective form to help your students document their time in your class. This printable sheet will note a variety of management issues, concerns, or suggestions that the classroom teacher should be made aware of during their time away. Right now, over 130 people have left. - The Classroom Sparrow

5. Emergency Substitute Lesson Plan Tips

We’ve all been there: you wake up feeling terrible, and you have no idea what to get a sub to do with your class. So, you drag yourself to school because it takes more effort to come up with a lesson plan. I’d love to help you stay home and look after yourself the next time that happens, so I’m sharing ideas for emergency sub plans, ones you can use with any text. They are great critical thinking exercises that can be used over and over again, so you can use them as emergency sub plans AND when you are in school too! I explain them here, and then you can grab the detailed instructions if you want them. -Jackie, from Room 213

6. Pet Peeve Poetry

If you're looking for an engaging and low-prep activity for an unexpected absence try having students write a poem based on their pet peeves!  Using their pet peeves as inspiration the results are always hilarious and it's one of my favourite activities to do throughout the year.  The Pet Peeve poetry lesson also encourages students to use figurative language, specifically similes, to help them make their point!

Addie Williams

We hope these ideas and resources help take the stress out of planning for a substitute and that they help you feel confident that your students are learning and staying on track, even in your absence! 

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