5 Tips to Improve Student Reading Comprehension In Middle School

By: Presto Plans

Reading comprehension is one of the most important and transferable ELA skills in middle school - and beyond! When students have a well-rounded vocabulary, can apply a variety of active reading skills, have the opportunity to talk about what they are reading, and are able to understand a variety of text types, their learning in all subjects improves! 

Although ELA is the perfect place to practice these skills, reading comprehension isn’t just for English class - it’s a life skill! That being said, I totally understand why many ELA teachers find it so daunting to teach. After all, it’s important to strike the right balance. Reading comprehension activities need to be engaging AND effective, and students require regular opportunities to build stamina and practice their skills. 

If you’re looking to improve your students’ reading comprehension skills, I’ve got you covered! Today I’m sharing my five tips for improving reading comprehension in middle school!

1) TEACH THE PROCESS OF ACTIVE READING

 

I think it’s really important for students to understand the difference between passive and active reading. While passive readers may experience a surface-level understanding of text, active readers are able to engage more deeply with literature. Interactive tasks - making annotations, highlighting key ideas, and answering questions - can help students connect to their reading. 

Of course, active reading is a skill that needs to be developed, and like all good things, it takes time! I like to incorporate active reading activities throughout the year to reinforce this concept. Through consistent practice, students will eventually learn to apply the strategies to a variety of different types of text, including poetry, nonfiction articles, and fiction passages. 

facebook profile one. 

I find it can be really helpful to model the active reading strategy you want students to practice, and then allow them to practice in a low-pressure way. For example, you might demonstrate how to summarize key ideas along the margin of a text while reading. Or, you might have them use sticky notes to record additional notes on key ideas or themes that emerge. As students gain more confidence applying their active reading skills to smaller texts like paragraphs and articles, you can slowly incorporate longer or more complex passages. Eventually, they will be able to independently apply active reading strategies to a variety of texts, including short stories and novels.

2) BUILD VOCABULARY

When students have a strong and well-developed vocabulary, and can determine the meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues, they are able to understand a variety of texts more easily. Building a comprehensive vocabulary requires practice - especially in middle school - but “practice” doesn’t need to be “boring!”

I love helping students apply their understanding of context clues through a hands-on, collaborative activity. One FREE escape-room style challenge I love is Escape the Egyptian Library, which allows students to work together to solve a series of puzzles that require the use of a variety of close reading strategies.

Students can also grow their vocabulary through more exposure to a variety of different words. Incorporating a Word of the Day or Week into your classroom routine can be a low-pressure way to expose students to a range of unfamiliar words. Exploring vocabulary on a regular basis can also help students review other ELA fundamentals, including the parts of speech, spelling, synonyms and antonyms, figurative language, and more!

3) INTEGRATE STRUCTURED PRACTICE

I notice middle and high school ELA students often struggle with essential reading comprehension skills, like finding text evidence. Just like vocabulary-building, this skill requires regular, consistent practice, lots of modeling, and plenty of patience!

With this in mind, it can be helpful to incorporate a structured, low-prep reading comprehension program that can be integrated on a daily or weekly basis. You can choose to incorporate different types of passages throughout the year, depending on how they integrate with your other units of study. Alternatively, you can also use a variety of high-interest readings, questions, and related activities as you support students in preparing for tests or final exams.

4) DISCUSSION & GROUP WORK

In my opinion, creating opportunities to discuss reading and literature is one of the best ways to support reading comprehension in middle and high school ELA. I like to remind students that they likely already practice this skill outside of the classroom when they share their thoughts on a new movie or show, or the lyrics to the latest Taylor Swift songs! When people of all ages - not just ELA students - talk about texts, they actively build connections and strengthen their understanding.

Because many middle and high school ELA students love to socialize, it can be helpful to channel their “talkative” energy into a productive and focused task. This is why I like to provide lots of structured guidance and support for their conversations. 

There are lots of different ways for students to engage in discussions about reading, including:

• Think-Pair-Share - After providing a few minutes for individual students to respond to a comprehension question independently and jot down some ideas, they can “turn and talk” with a seating partner, and then share their thoughts with the rest of the class. 

• Comprehension Stations - After reading a short story or other text, students can travel to various “stations” set up in the classroom, working with different small groups to respond to a variety of different comprehension questions or activities. 

• Escape Rooms or Collaborative Games - Students work together in small groups, applying their reading comprehension skills as they solve a series of engaging and high-interest challenges. 

• Peer Teach - After reading a short story, have each student (or pair of students) dive deeply into a different element of the text. (For example, one group can locate three examples of irony, while another group can explore the qualities of a character.) Then, each group can share their findings and reflections as part of a broader class discussion.

5) INFERENCE PRACTICE

One reading comprehension skill I notice many middle or high school students need to work on is their ability to make inferences. This can happen for a variety of different reasons - many students are very literal in their reading, while others may lack background knowledge that helps them “read between the lines” of a particular text. The good news is that making inferences is a reading comprehension skill that can be strengthened in middle school with direct instruction and regular practice!

For students who need to build a foundational understanding of how to make inferences, I love incorporating activities that incorporate visuals and other multimedia elements. (You can find some of my very favorite resources in my Inference Activities Bundle!)

For example, students can look through fictional social media profiles and draw conclusions from posts, photos, images, and other online behavior (like “liking” a particular store or brand). comments, and more. Sng lyrics also provide great opportunities for students to read between the lines and infer information, particularly with songs that weave in a specific narrative. Once students understand how to make inferences, I recommend integrating texts that require them to apply this skill. One short story I really love for practicing inference skills are “The Chaser” by John Collier.

Finally, once students understand how to make inferences, I recommend integrating texts that require them to apply this skill! One short story I really love for practicing inference skills are “The Chaser” by John Collier.

I hope these ideas help you support your middle and high school students with reading comprehension. Have a great week, friends!

Looking for more reading comprehension activities and routines for middle or high school ELA? Check out some of the other Coffee Shop blogger ideas below:

Reading Log & Comprehension Questions Bookmarks & Journal Page by Tracee Orman

Activities to Ease into a New Year & New Semester

 

By Tracee Orman

Easing into both the new year and/or a new semester can be like starting all over again. The difference is that in January, students (and teachers) are already a little burned out from the first semester and the holidays. Not to mention the lack of sunlight and colder weather many of us face this time of year. It can get pretty depressing in January.

This is the time of year when I try to reinvigorate my students with activities that will foster their creativity and growth mindset rather than trying to start the year or semester off with a rigorous curriculum. It is more important to continue building relationships with students and give them the time to decompress. Here are a few activities you can incorporate this month (even if you're already into the swing of things):

SETTING NEW GOALS AND REFLECTING ON THE POSITIVES

A new year is about starting fresh, a new beginning. Remind your students that no matter what happened in the past, the future is theirs to mold and create. In one exercise, I use the numbers for the year (in this instance, 2025--but it is updated yearly) for students to create short, simple goals and how they plan to achieve them. 

For example, the "2" stands for two things to accomplish this year. Two is a manageable number of goals for teens. Everyone should be able to come up with two things they can achieve.

The "0" is how they will "zero" in on obtaining these goals: how are they going to do it? What steps do they need to take?

The next two numbers vary based on the year. For the "2" I have students write two things they wish to improve this year/semester. This can be related to what they want to accomplish or can be completely separate.

For the final number, have students write that number of things they are looking forward to this year. I like to end it with this positive outlook for the year. 

I use this handout and have students decorate the numbers then we display them. It's always nice to celebrate when they do accomplish their goals, too. This is an easy activity that doesn't take too much time (it can even be assigned if need be) and another way for you (and their peers) to get to know each other and further build your relationships.

If you wish to go deeper into the goals, my pack of activities includes several different handouts to choose from (it also includes the digital versions in Google Slides for a paperless activity). One of the new activities is a one-pager goal-setting activity. It is an alternative to the year numbers but still incorporates some of the same things. Students can choose to focus on one goal or three in the differentiated handouts. 

ONE-WORD FOCUS

Another activity in my bundle is for students to choose one word as a focus for the new year or new semester. The purpose of the activity is to inspire growth either personally, academically, athletically, etc. (students can choose how they interpret it). Example words could be: Determination, Courage, Gratitude, Growth, Adventure, Teamwork, Focus, Strength, Resilience, and so on. 

After the students choose their words, they will give the definition, synonyms for the word, a quote using the word, and the reason they chose that particular word. They can use these words to remind them from time to time to hang in there to get through the rest of the year and achieve their goals. I also include a blank template so you can customize it with your own unique prompts for your students.

CURRENTLY STATUS UPDATE

I love doing this activity from time to time throughout the year for several reasons: book recommendations, gauge students' needs and moods, learn more about what they love and what's important to them, etc. You can download this handout FREE here (it also contains a blank page that you can add your own prompts). It's such a simple, quick activity to use throughout the year as a bell-ringer or exit slip. Then you can display them for their peers to also get to know each other (and get book recs!).

COLORING PAGES & BOOKMARKS AND PUZZLES

After a long break, sometimes students just need some time to catch up with friends. Instead of just letting them talk and socialize, have them color or work on puzzles while doing so. Some may say this is brainless or busy work, but it does serve a purpose. Coloring has been proven to improve mental health in teens and adults by lowering stress, improving focus and mindfulness, and even improving brain function because it engages both of the brain's hemispheres. Teens need these opportunities in their busy lives. I have a bundle of New Year Coloring and Bookmarks and New Year Word Search Puzzles that are perfect to use this month! 

If you don't have colored pencils or markers for your classroom, Amazon has numerous packs that are relatively cheap. You can also ask your fellow teachers if any have some you can borrow for a day. This is also a great request to ask of parents or a parents club. 

BACK TO SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

Starting a new semester with a new group of students (or even the same ones) is a great time to bust out your back-to-school activities once again. Even if you use the same ones over again, you'll most likely get different responses. It's also interesting to see how students have changed from the beginning of the year. I love having them revisit some of my beginning-of-the-year activities.

It's also a good time to go over your rules and procedures once again. That's never fun, but it often needs repeating this time of year. Use some funny memes or pictures to help. Students always need refreshers, especially if you have new students who have recently joined your class.

I hope these ideas will help you ease into this new year and new semester. Have a great one, friends!

Check out these great resources from my colleagues to help you ease into the new year:

New Year's Figurative Language Worksheets & Activities by The Daring English Teacher

New Year Escape Room by The Classroom Sparrow

New Year's Close Reading Mystery Inference Activity by Presto Plans

Back to School Activities by Addie Williams

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

Thanks so much for reading!

4 Must-Teach Essay Writing Skills to Boost Student Writing

By The Daring English Teacher

If you are tired of reading “This quote shows” or scanning over quoted evidence that is five lines long in your students’ essays, I’ve got the perfect solution to help you boost your students’ writing! Teaching these four essay writing skills is essential to transform decent, formulaic writing into stand-out, exemplary writing.

These are the four must-teach essay writing skills: writing effective commentary, writing in the third person, writing in the literary present, and properly using brackets and ellipses to pare down only the essential information for cited quotes.

However, Teaching these skills all at once is much too daunting of a task. Instead, teaching these skills one at a time and providing students with dedicated time to practice each skill before moving on to the next one is more beneficial and more effective. Furthermore, students must have a basic understanding of essay and formulaic writing before teaching these skills!

All of the resources mentioned below in skills 1-4 are available in a money-saving bundle that is sure to help improve your students’ writing: Focused Essay Writing Skills Unit - Teaching 4 Focused Writing Lessons.

Essay Writing Skill 1: Effective Commentary Writing

Teaching students how to write meaningful commentary is one of the best ways to see a dramatic improvement in their writing. After years of formulaic writing instruction and practice, many high school students are stuck at and almost refuse to move beyond the standard sentence starter “This quote shows…” that they’ve learned from their elementary and early middle school years.

It is worth noting that sentence starters such as the infamous “This quote shows…” are essential and developmentally appropriate for younger students during initial essay writing instruction. However, as these students transition to eighth grade and high school, expanding beyond “This quote shows…” helps a student elevate the commentary and analysis in their writing.

The two most effective strategies for teaching students how to write effective commentary are exemplar sentences and detailed sentence frames. These strategies are included in this teaching unit: Essay Writing Skills - How to Write Commentary and Analyze Quotes in Essays.

Exemplar sentences are crucial for students to learn this skill because they’ve been writing “This quote shows…” for so long that they need to see how to write commentary differently. The use of sentence frames helps students build off what they see with the exemplar sentences by providing them with the necessary framework for writing their commentary sentences.

Here is an example. Let’s take President Roosevelt’s famous quote from his speech about Pearl Harbor.

“Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

If students were to quote this in an essay, the goal is to move the commentary from “In this quote, the President states that the U.S. was attacked” to “In announcing the attack, Roosevelt makes it clear that the attack was planned ahead of time. Words like ‘suddenly’ and ‘deliberately’ show his audience that the U.S. was targeted and caught off-guard by the attack.” Do you see how powerful this difference is? The latter sentence would serve as an exemplary sentence for the students.

Here is what a sentence frame might look like:
When [author] __________, [pronoun] [strong verb] ________________________.

 Essay Writing Skills - How to Write Commentary and Analyze Quotes in Essays.

You can find more instruction, examples, and dedicated practice in this unit: Essay Writing Skills - How to Write Commentary and Analyze Quotes in Essays.

Essay Writing Skill 2: Writing in the Third Person

While students learn all about writing first, second, and third person during their early elementary years, there is a keen difference between being able to identify point-of-view and consistently writing in one point-of-view.

One of the best ways to quickly improve student writing is by teaching them to take themselves out of the essay. That is, stop writing in the first and second person.

Rather than having a student write, “I believe that schools should not require students to wear uniforms because uniforms restrict student expression,” the statement “Schools shouldn’t require students to wear uniforms because they limit and restrict student expression” is much stronger. One of the main reasons why the latter is a stronger statement is because it sounds more assertive and less wishy-washy. Just the phrase “I believe” detracts from the power of the student’s initial claim.

In my classroom, especially for the students who use the “I think,” or “I believe” sentence starters, I encourage them to use those phrases at first if they need to, and then delete the words afterward.

Essay Writing Skills - How to Write in the Third Person

By teaching students how to write in the third person, students will gradually elevate their writing. You can teach this writing skill with this unit: Essay Writing Skills - How to Write in the Third Person. Your students will benefit from the unit’s side-by-side examples that clearly demonstrate to students why the third person is so much more powerful.

Essay Writing Skill 3: Writing in the Literary Present Tense

Once students have a solid understanding of writing effective commentary and consistently writing in the third person, another essential essay writing skill to teach them is the literary present tense.

When writing about literature, the literary present tense is the most conventional tense for academic writing. With the literary present, students wite about events and examples from literature in the present tense - as if they are currently happening.

The literary present is sometimes a difficult concept for students, especially because they already read the book, the events in the book already happened, and the characters already said that they said. The literary present tense extends beyond just works of literature too. It also applies to films, paintings, and other artistic expressions.

The best strategy for teaching students the literary present tense is exemplar sentences, and lots of them. Since writing in the literary present tense is so challenging for students, the more examples they see, the better. It is also helpful to employ the literary present tense as a teacher when discussing and reviewing literature in class. The more exposure students have to the literary present tense, the more they will begin to write with it naturally.

Rather than saying Romeo was lovesick for Rosaline at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, say that Romeo is lovesick for Rosaline. Rather than saying Romeo met Juliet at the masquerade, explain to students that Romeo meets Juliet at the masquerade.

Essay Writing Skills - How to Write in the Literary Present Tense

In this resource, Essay Writing Skills - How to Write in the Literary Present Tense, the instructional presentation explains and breaks down the literary present tens, and there are multiple examples to help students understand how valuable it is.

Essay Writing Skill 4: Using Brackets and Ellipses in Quoted Evidence

One of the final essay writing skills to teach students is to use brackets and ellipses in the evidence they cite in their writing. This skill helps improve student essays in two unique ways: the essay will grammatically fit in the essay and students will only use the most crucial part of the quote.

By teaching students how to use brackets and ellipses in the evidence they choose for their essays, it helps the quotes fit in more seamlessly while also ensuring that the cited quote doesn’t take up a quarter of the page (because we’ve all read those essays).

To teach this skill, one teaching tip is to have students identify the entire quote they wish to use, highlight the most important part of it, and then begin their sentence by paraphrasing the beginning of the quote to add context to the evidence sentence. They can also remove unneeded material from the quote by using the ellipse.

From there, have students read part of their essay with the quote embedded aloud. This will help students identify any tense errors or ambiguous parts of the quote that can be eliminated and clarified using brackets.

Essay Writing Skills - How to Use Brackets and Ellipses in Quotes and Evidence.

To help your students effectively use brackets and ellipses in their cited evidence, you might be interested in this teaching unit: Essay Writing Skills - How to Use Brackets and Ellipses in Quotes and Evidence.

More Ways to Help Your Students

If you are looking for additional teaching tools and resources for helping your students become stronger writers, I’d like to recommend my teacher professional development book “Building Strong Writers: Strategies and Scaffolds for Teaching Writing in Secondary ELA” to you! I wrote this book to help teachers with writing instruction, and I filled it with strategies and actionable activities that teachers can immediately apply to their own classroom instruction!

You can also check out a previous blog post I wrote about breaking down the writing process. 

More Essay Skills Teaching Resources:

• Argumentative Essay Writing BUNDLE Editable Google Drive Distance Learning
• Research Magazine with lessons on paraphrasing and using quotations
• Persuasive Essay Writing - Snowball Writing Collaborative Classroom Activity

Teach students to show, not tell, in any genre

One surefire way to improve student writing is by teaching them to show, not tell. Why is that? When students use strategies that create pictures in their readers' minds, they make their writing more vivid and interesting. This strategy is often associated with description and narration, but it's one that will improve any type of writing, even opinion, research, and literary analysis. It's one that you can circle back to at any time, once you've shown students the strategies. So let's learn how to teach students to show, not tell, in any genre.

What does it mean to show, not tell?

When writers "tell," they make statements that require no work for the reader. A single statement makes the point clear.

And while we do aim for clarity in writing, there are also times when we want to create images and ideas in the reader's mind. Simply telling them all the time can get boring, and it certainly doesn't give the whole picture.

Let's look at an example: Jalisa was cold. This is a telling statement, and nothing is left to the imagination. We know that Jalisa is cold, but not much else. However, if the writer uses specific showing details, vivid language, and dialogue, the reader gets a much clearer idea of what is going on with Jalisa.

Here, the writer has used language to create a vivid picture that the telling statement can't.

I'm sure none of this is new to you; teaching students to show, not tell is a staple in English classes when students are doing descriptive and narrative writing. But what about the other genres? We'll get there, but let's look at the strategies for showing, not telling first.

Strategies to teach your students to show, not tell

There are many ways to show, rather than tell, but these are some of the most common:

• Multiple examples and details
• Vivid nouns and verbs
• Adjectives and adverbs
• Sensory imagery
• Figurative language
• Dialogue

One of the best ways to teach your students to use these strategies is, not surprisingly, to show, rather than tell them. That means that it's not enough just to project a list like the one above, or to include it in a handout.

Instead, model what showing, not telling looks like with a piece of your own writing or a mentor text. Show them what a vivid description looks like and then ask them to identify the moves the writer made to create a picture in the reader's mind.

Next, use a combination of independent and collaborative activities that allow students to practice the skill of showing, not telling.

My favorite way to do this is via a group activity where students work together to practice their showing skills. Each group gets a graphic organizer and needs to do some brainstorming and planning before writing a showing paragraph.

Then, they share their paragraph with the class, and their peers have to guess their telling statement. It's always lots of fun!

If you'd like to get a copy of one of these exercises, click below:

 Showing strategies that work across genres

Now, let's look at how we can use the showing, not telling strategies across all genres of writing. Yes, the strategies I've mentioned can lead to vivid descriptive paragraphs, but they also create strong ones for any persuasive, expository, research, and analytical writing. For example, imagine if all of the informational text your students wrote contained:

• Multiple examples, details, facts, and statistics
• Vivid nouns and verbs
• Adjectives and adverbs
• Sensory imagery
• Figurative language
• Dialogue or quotations (note the change here - quotes are more prevalent in informational text)

It would be a well-developed paper, wouldn't it?

If you have already introduced the concept of showing, not telling during descriptive and narrative writing, it's an easy transition into illustrating how it can enhance other forms of writing too.

Again, use a piece of your own writing or a mentor text and ask students to point out how the writer shows the reader. With informational text, it's common to see a combination of telling statements with showing details; in fact, we often require a topic sentence that does make a clear statement.

However, students often fail to fully support their topic statements and a reminder of the importance of showing, not telling can remedy that. For example, they can state that texting and driving is dangerous, but they could add that it is no different than driving while putting a blindfold on for a few minutes while you are at the wheel. Or that driving with both eyes on the road and hands on the wheel is so much safer than having one of each on a phone.

The figurative language and imagery is just as powerful in persuasive writing as it is in descriptive because showing the reader the point drives it home better than a simple statement does. Show students multiple ways they can "show" as a way to support their topic sentences. They will likely be familiar with using examples and surprised to know that imagery and metaphor works in these cases too.

Students can SHOW with literary analysis too

Showing, not telling strategies work with analysis as well. For example, look at the following analysis of Gene from A Separate Peace. The topic sentence TELLS, or makes the point, then the writer SHOWS the reader why it's an accurate statement:

Gene considers Finny to be his best pal, but his internal dialogue displays very conflicted feelings for his friend. For example, when Finny gets away with wearing the pink shirt to the headmaster’s tea, Gene confesses that he “couldn’t help but envy him a little” (23). Later, when Finny escapes recrimination for using the school tie as a belt, Gene experiences “a sudden stab of disappointment”(26). Both times, he attempts to rationalize his feelings, thinking them normal. Gene’s initial reactions illustrate his hidden envy of Finny, but his subsequent excuses make it clear, that he is in denial over his true feelings.

• Use multiple examples and details (pink shirt, school tie, examples)
• Choose vivid nouns and verbs (confesses, rationalizes, envy, denial)
• Carefully chosen adjectives and adverbs (conflicted, hidden, subsequent)
• sensory imagery (using the school tie for a belt; stab of disappointment)
• dialogue (quotes from the text)

I love it when I can use lessons - or at least references to them - over and over. It reinforces skills and helps students hone their abilities to use them. 

When you teach students to show, not tell, you are giving them skills that they can apply again and again in your class. Regardless of the form or writing you require, they can support their ideas in a way that either paints a picture in the reader's mind or that fully supports their ideas.

If you want more help with showing, not telling, check out my new resource!

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you have any questions (and don't forget your free resource)!

Jackie, ROOM 213

☕️ My friends here in the coffee shop have resources that can help with this too:

Presto Plans: Paragraph of the Week

Addie Education: Descriptive Writing Graphic Organizers

 

6 Ways to Teach ELA Skills with Music

By: Presto Plans

In my experience, few things capture middle and high school students’ attention as effectively as teaching with music! I love incorporating music into secondary ELA classrooms whenever I can - especially contemporary music that students can relate to. In my experience, learning experiences that involve music can help to make tricky language arts skills and concepts (like grammar!) feel less intimidating for students.

If you’re interested in putting a musical twist on your ELA lessons, here are six of my favorite ways to teach ELA skills with music!

1) Figurative Language

If your students are struggling with figurative language terms, why not examine them through the lens of music? Popular songs are packed with creative examples of figurative language - perfect for teaching and reinforcing this essential ELA concept!

I find song lyrics are especially useful at the beginning of a poetry unit. Many middle and high school students can find poetry challenging, outdated, or overwhelming! Teaching with music can help remind them that poetry is everywhere, and for everyone! An introductory lesson that uses popular song lyrics to demonstrate various types of figurative language in action is a perfect “hook” for your students.

Presenting engaging, relevant examples to middle and high school students can help familiarize students with the most common types of figurative language they will encounter in the poems they read. For example, students can explore examples of assonance through lyrics from Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero.”

I wake up screaming from dreaming

One day I'll watch as you're leaving

And life will lose all its meaning

2) Poetry Analysis 

Introducing your poetry unit through the lens of music can often make this genre less intimidating to middle school or high school students. Once they start making connections to their favorite songs, students might be surprised to learn how much they already know about poetry! In my experience, a station activity involving music can be a great way to introduce (or reinforce) new skills and concepts. As students move from station to station, they can listen to a variety of different songs, read through lyrics, and practice their poetry analysis skills!

When you feel students are ready to take their skills to the next level, you can help them put their poetry analysis skills to the test through a flexible, choice-based learning task! First, students select a (school-appropriate) song of their choice. Next, they showcase their poetry analysis skills by summarizing the lyrics, analyzing the title of the song, and exploring its themes. Finally, students can identify and interpret the various literary devices and figures of speech within the song’s lyrics!

3) Teaching New Idioms

Whether your students are learning English as a second language, or simply making sense of the various quirks of ELA, teaching common idioms with music can be a lot of fun. Song lyrics provide an excellent springboard for discussion about idioms like “climb the walls” and “head in the clouds!”

One engaging way to reinforce students’ understanding of some of the more common idioms that appear in the English language is by playing a matching game. For this activity, students receive a selection of cards that contain lyrics from popular songs (including an idiom!). From here, they must examine a second set of cards, which explain the meaning of various idioms. Working alone or in pairs, students then match the idioms with their explanations!

4) Growth Mindset

Another great thing about using music in the classroom is that it can help empower your students to adopt a growth mindset! Connecting music to the concept of growth mindset can support student learning in all subject areas. Many popular songs contain themes of resilience and perseverance, and can help to foster a positive outlook on both learning and personal development.

One activity that can help middle and high school students cultivate a growth mindset involves the analysis of song lyrics. As they read the lyrics of “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus and “Rise” by Katy Perry, among others, students can identify the principles of growth mindset found in each song. Students can also use song lyrics to identify and reflect on the factors that support a growth mindset. For example, “Unstoppable” by Rascal Flatts emphasizes the importance of a strong support system, while “A Little Too Much” by Shawn Mendez provides advice on what to do when “it all gets a little too much.”

5) Grammar

Grammar lessons have a reputation for being a little bit dry - but sometimes, adding a small twist can boost your students’ engagement with this essential ELA skill. Teaching with music can be a really useful “hook” for a grammar lesson, especially when you reference your students’ favorite artists!

One effective strategy is to use song lyrics to help students identify and correct common grammar errors. This activity works really well as a station-based learning task, as well as an independent assignment. I like to begin by providing students with a selection of song lyrics that contain incorrect grammar (like “You and me could write a bad romance” from Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”). Once students have identified the error, I like to have them re-write the lyric using correct grammar.

If you want to extend this activity over a longer period of time, you could also create time in your classroom to discuss a musical mistake of the week. In this alternative approach, share a grammatically incorrect song lyric once a week, and have students identify and correct the errors. You can even create an engaging bulletin board display of the various “Musical Mistakes,” which can be refreshed throughout the year!

6) Inferences 

I find that middle and high school students can sometimes struggle to make inferences. If you’d like your students to brush up on this essential comprehension skill, why not add some musical references to your instruction or review? Songs that tell a story can help students make inferences, predict likely outcomes, and “read between the lines.”

For example, students can take a close look at the song “Travelling Soldier” by The Chicks, especially the lyrics: 

 

Our love will never end

Waitin' for the soldier to come back again

Nevermore to be alone

When the letter said, "A soldier's comin' home"

From here, they can make inferences about the contents of the letter as the chorus is repeated throughout the song. Other songs that work really well for teaching inference skills with music include “Back to December” by Taylor Swift, and “Someone Like You” by Adele.

There you have it! Teaching with music in secondary ELA? Check out these related resources from other Coffee Shop teachers!

Firework by Katy Perry Poetry Terms Figurative Language Activities by Tracee Orman

5 Strategies for Surviving the Holidays

Five Strategies for Surviving the Holidays

By Tracee Orman

Most of us have just wrapped up parent-teacher conferences, fall break, and have our first quarter in the books. But we're entering the time where everything around us starts (or continues 😜) to get bonkers. Not only do we have constant interruptions in our normal teaching week, but our students are starting to get stir-crazy with the holidays quickly approaching.

So how can we manage it all and still keep our sanity? NOW is the time to start planning and getting ahead of all the wildness that is to come. Here are a few strategies to help you survive this holiday season:

1. Be flexible! 

    Flexibility is key this time of year! Just plan for constant interruptions, days off, assemblies, fire drills, etc. In the weeks ahead, we will have Red Ribbon Week, Election Day, Veterans Day, pep assemblies for sports playoffs, music concerts, Thanksgiving break, and so much more and that's just November! You have to be flexible in this job. Know that you will probably be interrupted several times, so try to keep your units shorter. When you are planning out your lessons build in extra days with nothing. Believe me, you will not accomplish what you plan so you will be pushing back everything into those empty days. I learned this the hard way (then I stopped planning in advance 😆).

2. Streamline Grading

    • Make life easier by using simple-to-grade assignments and utilizing rubrics. Bell-ringers, exit slips, and anything that can be done for a completion grade are great when you have little time and many interruptions. If you are teaching a writing unit, definitely take advantage of pre-made rubrics. One trick is to focus on just one or two elements of the rubric and grade just for that criteria. It speeds up your grading process to allow you to get through more essays faster. This piece of advice given to me by a colleague years ago was a life-saver.

    • If you have to show student growth for your evaluations, use a growth tracker that automates the process. Just input the data and the form will do the sorting for you! It is a definite time-saver.

3. Lean into the Holidays 

    • It's only natural for students to get excited for the holidays this time of year. Instead of fighting it, lean into it with some holiday activities! It can be as simple as these FREE holiday-themed bell ringers. They can be used independently or with the current text you are reading. I also included some for your favorite history teacher.

    • You can be more elaborate and plan a unit with a holiday theme. One of my favorites is using the idea of regifting as a theme for argument writing. No matter what your religion, gift-giving is universal and is a pretty safe theme if you are restricted from celebrating holidays in your school. This activity ALWAYS gets students engaged and their opinions are always split! It's so much fun and you can expand the assignment to have them create polls and infographics, as well.

     • Have your students do a research project based on different holidays around the world. Have each student in each class draw a different holiday (or have them complete this in pairs). Require them to research and present their findings to the class. This activity can check many boxes: they learn research skills, practice writing and speech, and it's easier for you to grade than a million essays!

4. Prioritize Self-Care

    • Schedule downtime or "me" time. For some, this may be taking a walk or exercising; for others, it may be reading a book or favorite magazine.  Whatever it is that relaxes you and makes you happy, make sure to schedule time for it at least once a week.

    • Set boundaries. Make a point not to check your school emails or messages after school hours. When you are with your family, turn your phone and computer off and just enjoy time away from the screen. Staying off social media can actually save you a lot of time when you could be getting other work done (like during your prep period). However, if being on social media is your version of self-care, then, by all means, use it. Just don't let it dominate your life or prevent you from being productive.

5. Organize and Prepare for the New Year

    One of the best things you can do before you leave on ANY holiday break, whether it is Thanksgiving or Christmas, is have plans prepared for when you return. Have all your copies printed or Google Classroom assignments created, etc. Have it all ready to go so you can go on break without having to think about what you are going to teach when you return. If you need ideas for activities for the new year, I've got you covered here. 

Check out these great activities by my colleagues you can use in the coming weeks!

Escape Room Activities Bundle by The Classroom Sparrow

Holiday Literacy Activities by Addie Williams

Holidays Around the World Non-Fiction Activities by Presto Plans

Thanks so much for reading, Friends!