Have you ever struggled to get students pumped up for ELA activities? Have you ever tried using an ELA Mystery in your classroom? I know I have worked and worked on different activities and found my students finish them too fast. Other times, my students simply can’t do the ELA activity because it is just too difficult or complicated. Finding engaging ELA activities that are also rigorous while still completely doable as an independent activity can be difficult. That’s why engaging ELA activities like the ELA Mystery Activities are a must-have for every English teacher! 

What is an ELA Mystery?

An ELA Mystery is an engaging activity that tests students ability in terms of ordering events, comprehension, context clues, and of course the ever important and hard to assess in a fun way, grammar. Once you use an ELA Mystery Activity, you’ll be hooked and so will your students! You can find these activities at English, Oh My! 

How to Use These ELA Mysteries

Usually when we think of an activity being engaging, we think it needs to be engaging on an individual level so students stay silent. However, the Mystery ELA activities are great for several different activities in your classroom. 

Collaborative Efforts 

Engaging ELA activities often start with students getting to work together. I like allowing students to collaborate on the ELA Mystery activities because they can learn from each other and talk through some of the problems. Now, I will say, if this is how you choose to use your ELA Mysteries in your classroom, you’ll want to make sure you set some expectations. 

For example, in the grammar section, it can be easy for one student in the group to just tell their partner their answer. To combat this, I make sure I am always circulating around the room while my students are working on these activities. Plus, I make sure there is a writer and a reporter. So, if you use this as a classroom discussion, the reporter has to be able to explain their way through the answer. This tends to combat some of the issues of one person doing all of the work. 

Review the Basics 

Another way you can use ELA Mysteries is as a class activity. When you do this, you’ll want to make sure you’re doing it to review and not so much to teach. This is a great way to use the ELA Mystery the first time because you’re teaching students how to do the activities. Then, when they get to do it on their own, they’ll be able to do it with few problems. 

A great way to use the ELA Mysteries as an engaging ELA activity for the full class is to exercise the I Do, We Do, You Do method. This helps make sure students are still doing some independent work. 

Assess Student Knowledge 

Now, you can use these engaging ELA activities in groups/partners, as a whole class, or as an individual activity. When you use these activities as an individual activity, you are giving your students an informal assessment. The main reason I love using these as an informal assessment is they are fun! Because these are fun activities, students don’t feel so much stress or pressure to be right. Therefore, you are getting more authentic work and you can see which area students need the most help with. 

What are Waiting For? 

When you check these engaging ELA activities out, you’ll see there are several mysteries to choose from. What does this mean? You’re covered with fun for several times of the year including: 

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• March with March Madness
• February with Valentine’s Day 
• The Fall with Football 
• Spring with the Missing Seed Truck 

Now of course you can use all of these at any time. However, it can be nice to do with the time of year. Make sure you check out all of my ELA Mystery Activities on English, Oh My! You and your students are sure to love them! 

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Have you incorporated an author study in your classroom? Are your students tired of the traditional ways of learning about an author? Teachers are always searching for more engaging, exciting ways to engage their students.  I have a wonderful author study activity that is digital and engaging. My Author Adventures are digital, foster reading skills, take your students on virtual field trips, and are fun!

Incorporating an author study into your English Language Arts classroom has many benefits. One way to learn about an author, his/her writing, and their life is including this activity into your English curriculum, whether it is through research or digitally.  Author studies are perfect for culminating projects and connecting students with books. In addition, they help create life-long readers.  When your students become excited about a genre of literature, introducing your students to an author adds to this enthusiasm. I wanted to share with you 5 reasons to do an author study in your classroom.

5 Reasons to Incorporate Author Studies into Your Classroom

An author study develops critical thinking skills. First, students make connections between an author’s life and his/her work.  You students can also relate their life to the author’s life. Most importantly, your students will critically analyze a variety of the author’s work.  Your students will make inferences and draw conclusions.  These skills help develop your students overall reading skills.

An author’s writing becomes mentor writing for your students after an author study. When your students read multiple pieces of a particular author, they will begin to notice the author’s word choice and writing style.  You can have your students attempt to mimic the author’s writing by using the author’s work as mentor texts.  Provide your students with a line from the author. Then, have your students try to write a sentence just like the one you provide. Your students can use this technique to improve their word choice and sentence structure.

Take your students on a virtual field trip with an author study. Many classrooms are digital or have devices within the classroom. This gives students the opportunity to travel all over the globe and visit different places.  You can have your students use Google Earth to see the author’s birth place. Secondly, you can have your students check out a 360 view of a particular place that relates to the author. This brings engagement and the technological aspect into your classroom.

Make your students global readers. Broaden their genres. When kids find a book they love, they often will stick to the same genre.  Because an author may write through different genres, this will expose your students to other genres- fiction, non-fiction, biographies, etc. This will have your students branch out, and try new books.

An author study may forge a love of books.  Students tend to fall in love in with an author’s characters and the plot.  When a student finds their favorite book, they will usually tell you it is because it is action packed, highly engaging, and/or they just love the characters.  Introducing students to an author will expose them to more than one novel or short story. Students may be more likely to pick up another book by an author they are interested in reading.

Resources for Author Studies

The Author Studies Toolkit

Author Studies Resources

Great Activities for Author Studies

I have some great digital activities for a variety of authors.  These are perfect if you are doing an authors study in your classroom. With these activities, your students will go on an author adventure, reading about the author’s life and the author’s writing. Also, your students will spend time analyzing lines from their writing. They will also take a trip with Google Maps, and learn about the author’s birthplace.

EDGAR ALLAN POE AUTHOR ADVENTURES

RAY BRADBURY AUTHOR ADVENTURES

ROALD DAHL AUTHOR ADVENTURES

Your students will love these! Happy reading!

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As ELA teachers know, April begins poetry month.  First, making poetry exciting in the middle school classroom is not easy, for both the teacher and the student. Teachers fret teaching poetry because many do not have a teaching method that is successful. Secondly, teachers are often met with groaning and whining from their students because they have the impression that poetry “is boring”.  How do you make poetry exciting in the middle school classroom? In this blog post, I am going to give you some poetry teaching tricks, exciting and engaging poems for your middle school students, and suggestions on how to make poetry exciting in your middle school classroom.

Poetry Teaching Tips

When I was in college and studying English, I had one professor who taught us some really great ways to analyze poetry. He demystified that poetry is hard. Honestly, this is why I think middle school students groan about poetry.  It’s not that they find it boring; it’s that they don’t know how to properly read or analyze the poetry. His poetry strategies are how I teach my own students to analyze poetry.

1. Read the poem twice. One reading of a poem is not enough to truly understand the meaning of a poem.  Students should read the poem at least twice, and they should not stop at the end of line, but rather at the end punctuation.  Our students want to stop at the end of the line, and they think this is the end of the sentence.  Teaching your students to read through to the end punctuation will help them comprehend what the narrator is expressing.  Reading to the end of the line makes the image or thought choppy.

2. If the poem is not already broken into stanzas, chunk the poem into sections. After each stanza or chunked sections, write a small summary or understanding in the margin of the poem.

3. Identify the setting of the poem. Knowing where the poem takes place is key to helping a student to understand the poem.

4. Identify the speaker. Kids tend to think the poet is narrating the poem.  Teachers have to reiterate this to their students. Identifying the speaker, whether the narrator is male, female, old, young, or an object is significant to understanding the meaning behind the poem.

5. Write a small, short summary or interpretation of the poem. At the bottom of the poem page, have your students write a short summary of the interpretation of the poem.  This will help to assess their understanding.

Side note-I like to have my students annotate for figurative language and imagery for the added understanding.

Poetry That WILL NOT Make Your Middle School Students Cringe

“The Rose That Grew from Concrete” by Tupac 

“Worst Day Ever” by Chanie Gorkin

“Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans” by Reg E. Gaines

“The HIll We Climb” by Amanda Gorman

“Dear Basketball” by Kobe Bryant

“Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” by Rhold Dahl

Engaging Poetry Activities to Try with Your Students

Are you in the hunt for some engaging poetry activities for your middle school students to have your students buy into poetry? Check out these ideas:

1.Try the Magnetic Poetry Website. When I was growing up, I had a set of Magnetic Poetry on my closet door, and I would move around the words to make poetic sentences.  Now, students can “play” with words online.  This may spark ideas for your students, and it is quite fun to play with!

2. Use song lyrics. Popular songs are perfect to excite students in poetry. Print out some of the popular songs your students are familiar with and you have the opportunity to show how song lyrics look just like poetry and technically read like poetry.  This activity also gives teachers the opportunity to review figurative language and imagery in the songs. See my product below on how I teach my students to elaborate with song lyrics!

3. Try out a Poetry Scavenger Hunt.  Here your students can hunt through a poem to find figurative language, imagery, and poetic devices.  This activity has your students diving deep into the poem! Check out my Poetry Scavenger Hunt Activity below.

PRODUCTS DISCUSSED IN THIS POST

Have fun teaching your poetry unit. Leave a comment below if you have any questions!

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Do you allow your students to listen to music in your classroom? A study that was conducted in 2016 concluded that 79% of people are more productive with their work when they are listening to music. Music can also lower people’s heart rate and stress levels, helping them relax more. Dopamine releases into our brain when we hear the music we really like, putting us in a better mood as well. 

Now that you’ve decided you want your students to be able to listen to music while they are working, what do you listen to?

Suggestions for Listening to Music in Your Classroom

First, mix it up. A lot of teachers like to play “pump it up” music as students enter and exit the classroom. (Some teachers find this is too stimulating for their students and decide against it. Of course, this is a matter of doing what you see fit for your class.)

Next, be sure to switch up the genres of music. My students and I listen to Disney hits, country, the 70s and 80s, rap, hard rock, and even steel drum music. There are so many good tunes out there! Expose students to them all!

Lastly, have your students help you create a playlist. This allows them to have input and increases the variety of music played. (I am sure to sensor the songs for explicit language and to make sure it fits the vibe I want in my classroom before adding it to the list.) I DO tend to make the music instrumental as I have found songs with music are usually distracting for students. 

If you don’t want to make your own music list, don’t! Here are a few specific stations that have great music for your middle school classrooms:

• Dallas String Quartet on Pandora turns popular songs into instrumental music

• Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra on Pandora is pop music turned instrumental

• Classical Goes Pop on Pandora is full of wordless, modern songs

• Under the Stars on Spotify has a great mix of slower and upbeat instrumentals

• Video Game Soundtracks on Spotify have some great background music choices

• Miss Bensko on Spotify has some excellent playlists that she’s created in a variety of genres

ELA Lessons with Music

Incorporating music into English Language lessons will definitely engage your students. Have you used music in any of your lessons? Here are some lesson ideas to incorporate into your classroom:

Song Lyric Analysis

Teaching Elaboration with Song Lyrics

Have a suggestion you think I need to add to the list? Be sure to let me know by leaving a comment below! Happy listening!

Kim

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Using engaging TED Talks in middle school is a perfect way to engage, inspire, and motivate your middle school students and young adults. First, TED talks are brief, to the point, lectures that are wonderful for encouraging an open dialogue with your middle school students. Next, there are a variety of topics that the TED talks cover. There is one thing these videos have in common. The subjects and themes are those that matter in the daily life of students, faculty, and families. Check out some of these amazing middle school TED Talks and motivating videos to inspire your middle school students.

Engaging TED Talks for Middle School Students

THE SIMPLE POWER OF HAND WASHING-

This first engaging middle school TED talk suggestion covers a topic we should all be on board with right now (and should’ve been on board with years ago). Dr. Myriam Sidibe, who is a crusader against childhood disease, discusses how important it really is for everyone to grab a bar of soap and wash their hands.

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES-

Next, Steven Claunch, who was born with multiple physical disabilities, gives a powerful talk. He discusses overcoming obstacles, as well as disabilities vs. abilities, in under 5 minutes.

WHY I, AS A BLACK MAN, ATTEND KKK RALLIES-

Daryl Davis, a professional musician born in Chicago, explains why he, as a Black man, has attended Ku Klux Klan rallies. Mr. Davis eventually became the first Black man to interview various KKK members. He wrote a book about what he learned. His driving question was always, “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?” Today, he owns multiple robes and hoods of prior KKK members who have renounced from the group after befriending Mr. Davis.

MAKE YOUR BED, AND NEVER RING THE BELL -University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address-

Naval Adm. William H. McRaven’s 2014 Commencement Speech at the University of Texas at Austin gives quite the inspiring speech. He teaches us 10 important life lessons that he learned in the 6 months of Navy SEAL training, beginning with his first one – every morning, make your bed and ending with don’t ever, ring the bell.

Audrey Mason-Hyde discusses how people instinctively judge someone’s gender at their first appearance. She goes on to explain her trouble in bathrooms and how this progressed for her as she aged, as well as why we should try to denounce gender roles.

TOILETS, BOWTIES, GENDER AND ME-

Audrey Mason-Hyde discusses how people instinctively judge someone’s gender at their first appearance. She goes on to explain her trouble in bathrooms and how this progressed for her as she aged, as well as why we should try to denounce gender roles.

More Suggestions for Your Classroom

Here are some more links to help you explore engaging TED talks:

1. 10 TED Talks to Empower Middle School & High School Students
2. 35 Must Watch TED Talks for Students

How Would You Like a FREE TED Talk Digital Worksheet?

I created a TED Talk Digital Worksheet for you to assign to your students in Google Classroom or on a digital platform.  This worksheet asks your students to write about the main points of the TED Talk. It also asks your students to write a summary, discuss a theme, among other important items.  Grab it HERE.

Looking for more engaging resources like this? Check out my shop! 

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