weekly ela homework middle school

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Daily and Weekly ELA Plans

Looking for a daily ELA plan? Perhaps a weekly ELA plan? In this post, you’ll find some ideas for both. I hope they provide a starting point or spark your creativity to craft something that works best for your own situation.

Teachers like to be organized. And, why wouldn’t we? Going into a new school year, week, or even day feeling like we have a confident handle on what is going to happen is empowering. The thing is, it’s hard to fit teaching into a tidy box. I love talking about pacing curriculum, but creating too much structure can prohibit us from responsive teaching…if we adhere to it too tightly.

Still, there’s nothing wrong with getting organized and having a game plan. Part of the difficulty with creating a daily or weekly ELA plan is that it varies, often, by the unit we are teaching. Another factor to take into consideration is the length of the class periods.

Let’s explore some ELA weekly plan options for different scenarios.

READING UNITS

If you’re heading into a reading unit with short class periods (like we do – 44 minutes is not much!), you’ll want to try to chunk your periods into two to three different segments.

This is my typical daily structure :

• 10-15 minutes: bell ringer (independent reading or vocabulary study )
• 10-15 minutes: whole class mini lesson or read aloud
• 15 minutes: group or individual work with time for conferring

Sometimes, mini-lessons are long or students need more time to discuss what they are reading and to apply strategies. So, depending on where I am in a unit, I also use this daily ELA plan:

• 20 minutes: mini lesson, independent reading with conferring, group work, activities , or assessment
• 20 minutes: individual work with conferring or assessment

I always try to leave some bookends at the front and end of the class period to connect the lesson to the overall unit and learning targets. This time is also helpful for building in reminders and allowing students to record work in their planners and for filling out exit activities.

Weekly ELA Reading Plan

What might this weekly ELA plan look like over the course of a week during a reading unit?

I almost hesitated to write this post because I didn’t want anyone to walk away feeling like this is the gold standard. The suggested structure below is what I try to stick to for engagement and for workshop-style teaching, but that’s certainly not to say it’s the only acceptable approach.

The graphic below provides some specific ideas for how to fill the chunked time slots meaningfully. Adding daily vocabulary or language practice – or, as often as possible – is important to me.  This plan works well for literature circles and book clubs as well as for analyzing shorter texts.

WRITING UNITS

Writing units could look similar. If your class periods are short, you may want to stick to grammar and writing standards. When I alternate units, I try to use reading as a springboard for writing as much as possible so that we are still integrating concepts. This is not to say, either, that we don’t talk about vocabulary words we have learned with grammar or analyze grammar while reading. It just isn’t built into the period to take up a specific chunk of time.

This is my typical daily structure for writing units:

• 10 minutes: bell ringer ( independent reading with conferring )
• 10-15 minutes: whole class writing   or grammar mini lesson
• 15 minutes: group or individual writing with time for conferring

But, depending on where I am in a unit, I also use this daily ELA plan:

• 20 minutes: group work, stations , peer revision or discussion activities
• 20 minutes: individual writing with conferring

Weekly ELA Writing Plan

Below, you’ll find an organized weekly ELA plan for writing that you could use as a reference while lesson planning. As you can see, it’s relatively simple to shift around types of instruction and application. Having the structure of the organized time slots just helps me to maximize engagement and prioritize students’ voices.

I do prioritize daily independent reading during writing units. I never want my students to think that reading is only something we do during a specific reading unit. The conferring is key to building relationships and helping students grow their reading skills. Plus, there’s so much potential to integrate grammar and writing lessons by studying author’s style in their independent reading books.

Different Class Lengths

Teachers have emailed me with questions about the best way to structure their weekly ELA plan, and it’s such a weighted question…one that I love to dig into. One of the largest variables in creating this plan is maximizing the class time. I recently surveyed teachers in my Facebook group regarding the length of their class periods.

80 to 90 minute class periods were actually the most popular. In comparison to the outlines above, created for 45 minute class periods, 80 to 90 would feel like a dream. ( Although I will say the urgency of the shorter class periods really forces you to make sure no time is wasted .)

A Possible Daily ELA Plan for Longer Periods

In this lengthier scenario, you really could have the best of all worlds and incorporate all facets of the ELA core curriculum. Imagine…

• 5-10 minutes: vocabulary bell ringer, like this or this
• 15 minutes: reading mini-lesson , read aloud, or strategy groups
• 10-15 minutes: independent reading and conferring
• 15 minutes: writing or grammar mini lesson
• 15-20 minutes: writing practice, stations or group application activities

You could tie the writing activities to the current whole-class reading or students’ novels, or you could leave them separate. However, transitions tend to flow more naturally when one part of the lesson connects to the next.

For example, we can say, “ Let’s find a good place to stop in our independent reading books.. . During our reading mini lesson and conferences today, we talked about how authors use text features intentionally to enhance the reading experience. As we move into our writing lesson, let’s keep those ideas in mind. We’ll be talking about how we can add text features to our own essays to make them more informative and visually pleasing. ”

Tip: Purposefully alter interactive opportunities with those that are more low-key to give students a variety of experiences and to keep them from becoming bored or overstimulated.

I hope that reading this post has been a little bit like peeking into my lesson plan book. Sometimes, seeing how other teachers choose to structure their lessons inspires us to adjust our own, and I’m happy to be that virtual teacher across the hall for you.

RELATED READING:

If you’d like to read more about fitting it all in with teaching English Language Arts, you can find more ideas in these posts:

Structuring ELA: Fitting it All In

First nine weeks curriculum overview, how to structure a grammar lesson, engaging students: 20 active learning strategies.

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Free Middle School ELA Resources to Save You Time and Money

I am happy to provide you with free middle school ELA resources to save you both time and money! Here, you will find how you can use my  free ELA resources  to help teach comprehension, text structure, and inferencing: three sets of skills that always appear on reading assessments!

Comprehension Resources

First, understanding is the foundation of literacy and critical thinking. Students must first understand what they read before they can even begin to analyze it, apply it, and evaluate it. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy can be a great way to look at instructional objectives and also help students build upon prior knowledge and skills already attained to achieve more challenging objectives.

Building Vocabulary

To build understanding, we study vocabulary. Building vocabulary is one of the most important skills for elementary and even middle school readers. Students will encounter a broad range of words that will be unfamiliar to them. In order to get through difficult texts, they must be able to determine their meaning. The best way to accomplish this is to use context clues. Of course, I have the perfect daily reading activities to teach context clues for grades 5 through 8! Using the free resource  Daily Reading: Context Clues Week 1 , you can provide students with daily opportunities to determine the meaning of challenging words. Along with practicing using context clues, learners will also get a chance to practice inferencing and determining the central idea of a piece, both higher-level literacy skills. To try out another free resource for context clues, check out the   Survival Stories Week 1 free resource ! All of these activities are perfect bell ringers to get your classes ready for state assessments or just to use as review.

Text Structure

Understanding a text’s structure (and how to navigate it) is a key component of comprehension. I always tell my students that they can find the main idea by understanding the text structure! Many state and even district reading assessments include questions focused on text structure, so this next freebie is a great tool for test prep! In the   Text Structure Reading Comprehension Passages freebie , you will find three reading comprehension passages and multiple-choice questions to help your learners prepare for their tests!

Inferencing

To infer means to look at the available information you have and draw a conclusion as to its meaning. You may even phrase it as “reading between the lines.” I have students read passages daily about different informational text topics and then answer two multiple-choice questions that focus on the central idea and an inference that could be made from the passage. To support their choice, students are asked to provide a quote that supports the inference they made. These activities are great for bell ringers to start your class, to use as homework to extend the lesson, or even to use as test prep! Try it for yourself free using   Week 1 of the Daily Reading: Central Ideas and Inferencing 8 Week Bundle !

Additional Reading Passages

To keep the freebies flowing, pair the above activities with daily reading comprehension passages about  blizzards . (What middle schooler doesn’t love learning about natural disasters?) Next, try reading comprehension passages focusing on  Amelia Earhart . And to round out the free resources to teach context clues, add a little fun review into your lessons using the  Winter Context Clues Color by Number Freebie ! These multiple ELA freebies will not only save your wallet but your sanity! I love using these resources in small groups, for bell ringers, and for test preparation and to get a jump start on teaching vocabulary development, context clues, comprehension, text structures, and even inferencing! Enjoy!

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• Dec 4, 2023

My Schedule in Middle School ELA & What my 60 Minute Blocks Look Like

Time. This is what all teachers want. Time to teach. Time to plan. Time to collaborate. Time for (useful) professional development.

Across the nation, schedules for teachers are inconsistent. Some districts give ELA teachers 40 minutes a day, others give 2 hours. Some teachers give loads of planning time, and others force teachers to cover classes during their only free time. This inconsistency is what leads to the students getting so many different types of education, some more valuable than others.

This post is to explain what is going on for me and what works and also doesn't work.

My Daily Schedule

So, each day is not EXACTLY the same, but my main ELA classes are the same time everyday. So, I teach 3 sections of ELA a day, each section is 1 hour long . I have a section of 7th and 2 sections of 6th.

3 days a week I teach a 41 minute class called Language Workshop. I get each class once a week for that (well, all 6th grades, so one class is with a group of students I do NOT have for regular ELA). This class was added due to them shortening my ELA time. In the past, I had 82 minute blocks everyday. They brought it down to 1 hour because they wanted to give Math more time so my time was sacrificed.

Due to this change from 82 minutes to 60 minutes, I now teach grammar and vocabulary (explicit and direct instruction) once a week in that 41 minute Workshop period. I do not teach it during my 60 minute blocks. Here are some things I do during that time .

Truthfully, this has evolved a lot since this blog post. I still use these on occassion, but I've also been using Patterns of Power and this fun Doodle Vocabulary .

Besides my 3x a week Workshop class and my daily 60 minute ELA classes, 3x a week I teach an RTI class to my struggling 6th graders. I also have a lunch duty once a week (yuck).

To save you the math, most days I will get an hour of prep time. Some days I get more, if I am lucky. I have a special assignment period twice a week that's 41 minutes in which I will be asked to cover classes. If they don't need me, it's more prep.

Do I Like My Schedule?

Short answer is...yes! At first, I was super grumpy about losing my 82 minute ELA class time. It's still a struggle getting it all done. I find many days, students just have to finish things at home and if they're focused the whole period, it's not much to finish.

However, this has given me more planning time! This is so necessary and I have been able to take less work home since the change. Honestly, I am still teaching the same amount I did before my class time was shortened.

What my ELA Block Looks Like

Background: I teach using my version of reading and writing workshop . It doesn't strictly follow it, but the basic structure follows it. Also, for reading, choice reading drives my instruction. I teach in units and alternate between reading and writing. So, I will do a month of reading, then a month of writing and so on.

10 minutes : Students come and read. Every single day. Non-negotiable. Even if we are doing a writing unit.

10-15 minutes : My read aloud is always geared toward a skill. I read chapter books, but a lot of times read excerpts as it can be difficult to read through the entire book. I only do a read aloud for a reading unit. If it's a writing, unit, I dedicate more time to students having writing time.

10 minutes: Mini-lesson. If I am reading aloud prior, they get a minute or two to walk around and stretch. Otherwise, I go right into the main lesson, which is focused on a specific skill showing that skill with my read aloud or with my own writing piece written by me .

5-15 minutes: This is partner work. This varies day to day, but they are often in physical notebooks here making lists, t-charts, etc. about either the read aloud or a shared text. I prompt them with something that will segway to their independent work.

20-30 minutes: Independent work time is usually a bit longer for writing. I try to keep my direct instruction very short and allow them time to work. They do their work, based on my mini-lesson, with their own individually chosen books or writing topics.

5 minutes or less: In the workshop model, closure is a huge deal and I remember having to write such a long one in my college lesson plans. Yea, it's not like that. I just tie up the lesson and that's it.

I get it all done in this time. I do not assign homework. Their only homework is to finish what they don't in class. I do assign some ongoing grammar work (No Red Ink or IXL) early in the week, but they have an advisory class to do that.

Bottom Line

I am sorry for those of you that have less than an hour; I often feel pressed for time in an hour! But for those of you who are looking for structure, I hope this helps.

Read more about my day-to-day in the posts below:

BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT:   Behavior Management in Middle School: 6 Components for a Peaceful Classroom

LESSON PLANNING MADE EASY:   Lesson Planning Made Easy: Plan Entire Units QUICKLY exclusive blog freebies here  

NO TANGIBLE REWARDS:   Why I Don't Do Tangible Rewards or Points-Based Classroom Management  

CLASSROOM THEME : 4 Reasons Why I Don't Have a Decorative Theme in my E.L.A. Classroom

LOOPING WITH STUDENTS: The Pros and Cons of Looping with Students: Teaching the Same Kids Twice  

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10 Must-Teach Middle School ELA Lessons

The content and skills students learn in their middle school English language arts classes provide them with a strong foundation and help prepare them for high school and beyond, and these middle school ELA lessons are just the ticket! From learning about fundamental grammar rules to learning how to become stronger and more confident writers, middle school is an important time for students to begin thriving in their English classes.

Here are 10 must-teach middle school ELA lessons

1. middle school ela lessons: sentence structure: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences.

Learning about the different sentence types is a crucial building block to understanding the English language. This sentence structure teaching unit includes a detailed teacher outline, a presentation for direct instruction, practice worksheets, and an assessment.

2. Middle School ELA Lessons: Parts of Speech

While students learn about the eight parts of speech in elementary school, it doesn’t quite stick. In middle school, students need to go back and relearn the parts of speech. Just like sentence structure, understanding the parts of speech is a fundamental building block. This parts of speech unit includes both the digital and print files, and it is a complete grammar program. I designed it for older students so that it won’t seem too elementary for middle school kids.

3. Middle School ELA Lessons: Learn How to Write an Essay

Writing a multi-paragraph essay can be a daunting task for middle school kids. This essay writing unit breaks it down paragraph-by-paragraph to make it more manageable for middle school students. With instructional slides and detailed writing organizers, this essay writing unit is perfect for helping middle schoolers gain confidence in their writing.

4. Middle School ELA Lessons: Descriptive Writing

Learning to write more descriptively is one-way middle school students can become stronger writers. This descriptive writing unit includes a presentation for direct instruction and plenty of activities to get students writing.

5. Middle School ELA Lessons: Dependent and Independent Clauses

Another great way to help students become more confident with the English language is by learning about dependent and independent clauses. In doing so, students will vastly improve their own writing. This dependent and independent clause lesson includes a presentation for direct instruction, practice activities, and an assessment.

6. Middle School ELA Lessons: Punctuation: Commas

7. Middle School ELA Lessons: Elements of Literature: Plot, Setting, and Conflict

8. Middle School ELA Lessons: Latin Root Word Vocabulary

When students learn root word vocabulary, they learn how to decipher the English language. This Latin Root Word Vocabulary program is an ideal way to help students strengthen and improve their vocabulary. With ten weeks of vocabulary instruction, this Latin Root Word Vocabulary program includes ten roots and 100 words.

9. Middle School ELA Lessons: How to Annotate Text

Teaching students how to annotate text is a great way to help them learn how to read closely. This text annotation lesson breaks down the process of annotating text to make it manageable and accessible for middle school students. It includes a presentation for direct instruction with a step-by-step class activity for annotating text.

10. Middle School ELA Lessons: How to Annotate Poetry

If there is one genre that intimidates middle school students, it is definitely poetry. However, reading and analyzing poetry doesn’t have to be challenging. This annotating poetry made easy unit will help students break down the process of reading poetry to better understand what the poem says.

If you are looking for must-teach high school English lessons, check out this blog post !

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10 Free ELA Resources That Every Middle and High School Teacher Needs

Is there anything better than free resources for middle and high school ELA teachers? When feeling tight on time to plan, or curious about trying something new in the classroom, I love to lean on my bank of freebies, tricks, and tips. These include free reading and writing activities, as well as ready-to-print resources for grammar, poetry, or ELA skill-building lessons.

If you’d like to expand your library of free resources for middle and high school ELA teachers, I’ve rounded up ten of my all-time favorites for you! Here are some of my top picks:

1. Grammar Challenge: 

I find grammar is a trouble spot for many students. If you experience this too, an engaging resource can really help! In the Commas in a Series Grammar Challenge , students hone their comma skills by identifying how words, phrases, and clauses can be separated in a sentence. The activity is presented in the form of an escape room (which is always a winner in the classroom!). 

I like to begin by explaining the backstory of the fictional scenario. For this task, students take on the role of an anthropologist who has inadvertently stumbled upon a promising clue. It just so happens that this clue was discovered while hunting for treasure in ancient Mayan ruins. Next, in small groups, students examine task cards, identifying the numbers of commas missing in each example (remembering the Oxford comma, of course!). If they complete the task correctly, they can use the provided floor plan of the Mayan temple to track their way to the hidden treasure. If they don’t, they will need to start again!

Similar activities can be found in the year-long Grammar Challenge bundle. It contains 40 weeks’ worth of engaging lessons, stories, escape rooms, assessments, and other activities to help middle and high school ELA students brush up on their grammar skills.

2. Comma Posters

Eye-catching posters are a great way to breathe life into your classroom decor. They’re especially helpful when they help to reinforce concepts from middle and high school ELA class! Grammar posters are a high-impact resource to support students during every stage of the writing process.

This free resource for middle and high school ELA teachers covers the eight different ways that commas can be used, including:

• To introduce items in a list
• Before co-ordinating conjunctions
• After introductory elements
• To set off appositives
• And many more!

High-impact, easy-to-download posters can be printed in color or black and white, and look great in the classroom all year long.

3. Four Free Weeks of Bell-Ringers

Bell-ringers are such a game-changer for classroom routine. As the class works on short tasks that focus on essential ELA skills, it buys you time to complete attendance, collect forms, meet one-on-one with individual students, and start the day with a calm and relaxed outlook! 

The free download contains four one-week samples of a variety of bell-ringer activities for middle and high school ELA classrooms. They include high-interest tasks such as:

• Figurative language practice
• Critical thinking activities
• Grammar and spelling skill-building tasks
• Brainstorming prompts
• Quotation analysis
• Writing prompts

Interested in even more bell-ringers? Check out a variety of bell-ringer tasks for middle and high school ELA teachers here ! (Don’t worry, elementary ELA teachers – there’s a bundle for you, too !)

4. Nonfiction Article of the Week: 

Nonfiction articles can be a great way to boost middle and high school ELA students’ close reading, comprehension, inferencing, and critical thinking skills. I love incorporating nonfiction reading into students’ weekly schedule. One of my favorite passages is about hot dog eating contests (students love it, too)!

I begin the lesson by activating my students’ prior knowledge – I ask what they already know about hot dog eating contests. Then we read about the famous Coney Island hot dog eating contest together. Using a graphic organizer, students track their responses to questions about the reading, citing evidence from the text when needed.

For even more nonfiction reading instruction resources, check out the Nonfiction Article of the Week Program . This 40-week bundle for middle and high school ELA teachers includes high-interest articles, instruction slides, standards-based reading responses, videos, and creative assignments.

5. Figurative Language:

If you’ve always wanted to test out an escape room-inspired activity in your middle or high school ELA classroom, this free resource is a great choice.

In the Figurative Language Escape Challenge , students practice skills related to close reading, critical thinking, and figurative language. Working alone or in groups, they begin by reading a brief passage that contains a variety of different examples of figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, and onomatopoeia). As they identify the different types of figurative language using a color code, a key is revealed that allows students to “escape” the room!

Looking for even more escape room activities for middle and high school ELA? Shop the complete collection here .

6. Poetry Discussion:

Poetry can be a tricky topic for middle and high school students, especially if you want them to dive more deeply into the analysis and interpretation of a poem. This is why poetry discussion task cards are one of my all-time favorite resources for guiding think-pair-share routines or small group work.

This printable free poetry discussion resource for middle and high school ELA teachers is easy to use with minimal prep! To get started, print the cards and cut them out, then distribute a few of them to different groups or pairs of students. Together, they can select the question they want to respond to, and move the discussion forward from there! Best of all, the questions are flexible enough to be used with almost any poetry you are already studying in your learning space.

I like to begin this activity by laying out the ground rules for respectful, productive, and on-task discussions. During this introduction, I also like to clarify expectations for how long the students should spend on this task, and what they should do when they are done (select another card and keep discussing poetry, of course!).

If you’re looking for even more ideas to make your poetry lessons more engaging and collaborative, check out my blog post on 3 Collaborative Poetry Challenges Your Students Will Love .

7. Reading Challenge:

Reading challenges are an amazing for helping to build essential ELA skills in a fun and engaging way. In this interactive escape room-style activity , students will put their vocabulary skills to the test as they work collaboratively to solve a series of riddles and clues to reveal a secret code!

Students begin by imagining they are visiting the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on a once-in-a-lifetime school trip to Egypt. While exploring, they lose track of time and find they are locked in the famous library! Using vocabulary, teamwork and logical reasoning skills, students need to examine a bank of words and identify synonyms in context. Once they have solved the puzzles, they take the first letter of each new word used to spell a secret message that allows them to leave the library!

If you want to make reading mysteries part of your regular literacy program, check out the full-year Reading Mysteries Program . It contains a collection of highly engaging resources to help improve comprehension, close reading, and inference skills.

8. English 5-4-3-2-1

For a different take on bell-ringers in middle and high school ELA, why not try a free week of English 5-4-3-2-1 ?

This resource includes everything you need to support five days of ELA skill-building, including student handouts, instructional slides to clarify each task, and a teacher key. Here’s how it works:

• 5 – On the first day, students read a short passage and identify five capitalization errors. 
• 4 – To kick off the next day, students make inferences about the meaning of four vocabulary words, using context clues.
• 3 – On the third day, students examine three underlined terms in a short paragraph, and offer suggestions for more interesting word choices.
• 2 – As students move into the fourth activity, they identify and describe two different figures of speech from a brief passage of text.
• 1 – Wrapping up the week, students reference a writing prompt to draft a well-crafted paragraph. Of course, it should contain a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence.

Looking for even more bell-ringers, or a full year of English 5-4-3-2-1 ? Click here to check out the full range of 40-week skill-building programs for middle and high school ELA!

9. Literary Terms Bookmarks:

For a quick and easy reference tool, nothing beats a printable bookmark! I love using Literary Terms Bookmarks in a variety of different ways, from independent reading to structured novel studies.

These handy free resources for middle and high school ELA can be printed on regular paper or on cardstock for greater durability. Conveniently, they are available in high-color, light-color, and black and white versions, depending on your resources.

Most importantly, each bookmark contains a reminder for students about the literary terms they will likely encounter while reading fiction. Terms included on the bookmarks include:

• Foreshadowing

10. Inference Mystery:

Generally, I find students need a bit of additional support to make inferences while reading. This is why this Inference Mystery Challenge is one of my favorite free resources for middle and high school ELA teachers!

In this engaging task, students need to take on the role of detective. The principal is missing and possibly kidnapped)! With this in mind, they need to examine the crime scene, and look through evidence, including emails, notes, and a resume. As they pore over the clues, they need to make inferences about who kidnapped the principal!

What I really love about this task is that students can work alone or in small groups. Best of all, the Inference Mystery Challenge is available in a fully digital version. This is great for remote learning and paperless classrooms!

Similar activities are available in the Inference Activities Bundle . It includes a variety of tasks to help middle and high school ELA students brush up on their inferencing skills.

Whether you use them right away or save them for later, I hope these ten free resources for middle and high school ELA teachers support you in your classroom!

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How to do a middle school ela reading and writing workshop model.

If you’ve ever wondered how to implement a reader’s workshop or writer’s workshop model in your classroom, I got you covered! Middle school ELA reading and writing workshop models are my go-to methods of teaching, and have allowed me to best utilize my time in the classroom.

What is the workshop model in teaching ?

There are three parts to the workshop model in teaching: mini-lesson, workshop, and reflection. Here’s a breakdown of what this means:

Mini-Lesson – This is your whole group portion where you are teaching a mini-lesson, engaging in a class read-aloud, using interactive notebooks, or some other whole class activity where students learn and practice content.

Workshop – During the workshop, students are completing an independent activity related to the mini-lesson. You may also meet with students individually or in small groups during this time.

Reflection – This portion of the workshop model can be short and sweet. This is where students are able to share or reflect upon their work from the day. For example, this may be completing an exit ticket or talking in a small group.

Why use a middle school ELA workshop model ?

The workshop model of teaching has become increasingly popular, but why should you use it? And is it right for your classroom?

Ultimately, you have to decide how you feel most comfortable teaching. I personally love the workshop model because it gives me time to meet with my students and assess their progress on a daily basis.

The workshop model also makes them responsible for their own learning. I could lecture for an entire class, but A) that would be exhausting and B) I would be doing all the work! Our students need to demonstrate what they have learned.

How to plan a reader’s and writer’s workshop

I wrote a blog a while back about what my classroom schedule looks like each day , but I want to talk specifically about how the middle school ELA reading and writing workshop model is incorporated into my class periods.

While reading and writing workshops have the same essential steps, they can look a little different due to the content.

Reading Workshop Model

For reader’s workshop, here is what your workshop might look like –

• A mini-lesson over a reading skill and then reading a short story or chapter as a whole group.
• A workshop where students answer reader’s response questions or another novel related activity. When students begin to finish their work, they read silently. During this time, you pull small groups or individual students to host reading conferences.
• For the reflection, ask students an exit ticket question or to turn and talk to their neighbor about the mini-lesson of the day.

Here is the hourly schedule I use for the reading workshop:

Here is an example of how this hourly schedule might look in my classroom for reader’s workshop:

• 5-10 minutes – Students look at the mentor sentence of the day and practice verb agreement.
• 15-20 minutes – As a class, we review plot diagrams and talk about climax. Then, we read the next chapter in our fiction book.
• 15-20 minutes – Independently, I have students fill out a plot diagram with the information we have so far. I call groups of students to my table and talk through it with them. I am mostly looking to see if they could identify the climax.
• 10-15 minutes – When students are done with their work, they read the next chapter in the book quietly to themselves. I continue to call students to my desk.
• 1 minute – I ask students to turn and talk to their neighbor and tell them how we can identify the climax of a story. 

Writing Workshop Model

For writer’s workshop, here is what your workshop might look like –

• A mini-lesson that models and provides plenty of examples for a specific writing skill.
• During the workshop, students work independently on applying the writing skill from the mini-lesson to their own writing. Students are pulled individually or in groups to work on their writing.
• For the reflection, students will share what they wrote that day with a partner or group.

Here is the hourly schedule I use for writer’s workshop:

Here is an example of what writer’s workshop might look like during a literary analysis unit:

• 5-10 minutes – Students look at the mentor sentence of the day and practice diction.
• 15-20 minutes – I give a mini-lesson over thesis statements. I model for students and do a think-aloud. I also give my students several examples and sentence stems to use for crafting their own thesis.
• 15-20 minutes – Students then work on creating a thesis statement for their own piece of writing. While they work, I pull students individually to conference with them about the topic and thesis of their writing sample.
• 10 – 15 minutes – When students finish, they can silently read. I continue to pull students. Some students may still be writing at this point if they need more time.
• 2 minutes – I call on a few students to share their thesis statements with the class.

If you want to know more about the units and lessons I use for my middle school ELA reading and writing workshop models, check out my middle school ELA pacing guides! They are free and show you a yearly, weekly, and daily breakdown of what I teach my students.

• Read more about: Middle School Reading , Middle School Writing

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We’re Tammy & Shannon , teacher besties we’ve been in the middle school classroom for more than 20 years. This site is our spot on the web where you can dig into our podcast archives, link to our TPT store , access our courses on Teachable , and keep up with what we’re up to. Make sure to sign up for our email newsletter so you don’t miss out on any of the good stuff!

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Our names are Shannon Temple and Tammy Lewis, and we are teacher besties. Tammy has taught for over 25 years and Shannon for over 20 years. We teach middle school ELA in a small school in a small town. In 2006, out of needs in our own classrooms, we started creating teaching materials. It was back then that we also began sharing and selling our curriculum materials. Teaching and sharing our resources make us happy, and we are honored that you have stopped by. Weather you’re brand new to teaching or seasoned teachers like us, we’d love to help inspire you to love what you do each day in your classroom!

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How can i assess the skills from the ela morning work ✏️.

A lot of teachers use the ELA Morning Work as a consistent review of critical content. (You can read more about that here.) Teachers that have been using the ELA Morning Work had one simple request. They wanted a weekly assessment that mirrored the skills from the morning work, and could be used to give a quick assessment at the end of each week.   Many teachers use the morning work as a daily warm-up or review to start the day. Some of the skills may have been introduced before, but other skills might require a super quick lesson. These teachers wanted a way to assess the skills practiced throughout the week. By giving a quick assessment at the end of the week, this holds students accountable for their learning and gives teachers a quick gauge for student learning. Plus, it’s a consistent weekly quiz grade that is short, sweet, and easy to grade.  My favorite part! ?‍?

The ELA Weekly Assessments are organized into the following sections that mirror the morning work: 

• Vocabulary & Comprehension
• Text Structure
• Figurative Language

They are designed and aligned to work as a companion to the ELA Morning Work. Because I get a lot of questions about the morning work, I wanted to share some Frequently Asked Q & A. 

Are the ELA Weekly Assessments available digital? 

YES! They are in both a printable (pdf) and Google Forms format. As of June 14, 2020 we are working month by month to add a digital option for all grade levels. The digital updates will be available to previous buyers at no additional charge. 

Are the Google Forms self-grading? 

YES! They are in both a printable (pdf) and Google Forms format. As of June 14, 2020 we are working month by month to add a digital option for all grade levels. The digital updates will be available to previous buyers at no additional charge.  They are also available in Google Forms. For the MOST part, these are self-grading. I get this question a LOT. The only questions that are not self-grading are with questions that are writing-specific. There aren’t very many of these throughout the year, so most weeks are self-grading. S ince you can edit your copy of the Google Forms, you can make any changes to the question types. 

What grade levels are available? 

The ELA Weekly Assessments are available for Grades 2 – 8. 

Can I try a free sample to see how it works? 

Yes! You can download a free week of the ELA Weekly Assessments in both a print and digital format to see how it works.

I’m ready! Where can I purchase the ELA Weekly Assessments?

Right this way! You can grab the ELA Weekly Assessments here on my website or on TpT. These are also part of our monthly membership that gives you access to all of our resources at one low monthly price. Click any of the links below to shop the morning work: 

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Comprehensive Full Year Lesson Plans For Middle School ELA

Are you looking for full year lesson plans for middle school ELA?

Finding quality middle school lesson plans can be a challenge. Many things online are either too young for this age group or too complicated. The lesson plans listed below have been used in my Grade 7 & 8 classroom for years.

Students find them engaging, and I enjoy teaching them.  Find the month you need lesson plans for and click the link. You can also check out these full year bundles to help with your planning load.

Full Year Lesson Plans For Middle School ELA

September Lesson

Planning your first month of school lessons can be overwhelming. Read this blog post to see what I teach during the month of September for middle school ELA. September lesson plans for middle school ELA

October Lessons

Planning your second month of school lessons can be overwhelming. Read this blog post to see what I teach during the month of October for middle school ELA. October lesson plans for middle school ELA.

November Lessons 

Find engaging November Lesson Plans for Middle School ELA for reading, writing, speaking/listening and media literacy in this blog post. in this blog post. Read this blog post to see what I teach during the month of November for middle school ELA.

December Lessons

Find engaging and rigorous December lesson plans for middle school ELA in this blog post. Check out these middle school ELA lesson plans to find quality ideas for teaching in December.

January Lessons

Use these January lesson plans for middle school ELA classes to help reduce your planning workload for the time right after the holiday break. 

February Lessons

These lesson plans help bring some fun into your classroom during this cold season. 

March Lessons

Use these March lesson plans for middle school ELA classes to help reduce your planning workload for the spring break season. 

April Lessons

Help students stay engaged as the weather gets warmer with these lesson plans. 

May Lessons

Use these lesson plans to help you and your students stay focused during the end of the year.

June Lessons

Use these June lesson plans for middle school ELA classes to help reduce your workload now that the weather is getting warmer.

Stop spending all your weekends planning your lessons. Check out these Grade 7 and 8 all-in-one full year lesson plans for middle school ELA. Click on the images for more information.

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This FREE persuasive writing unit is

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By using highly-engaging rants, your students won’t even realize you’ve channeled their daily rants and complaints into high-quality, writing!

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Trauma-informed practices in schools, teacher well-being, cultivating diversity, equity, & inclusion, integrating technology in the classroom, social-emotional development, covid-19 resources, invest in resilience: summer toolkit, civics & resilience, all toolkits, degree programs, trauma-informed professional development, teacher licensure & certification, how to become - career information, classroom management, instructional design, lifestyle & self-care, online higher ed teaching, current events, homework in middle school: building a foundation for study skills.

In the middle school years, students begin to experience the benefits of homework, though it is difficult to determine how much good it does, particularly at a given age. And there is some debate on how much homework students need to receive that benefit.

Duke University’s Harris Cooper, one of the leading researchers on homework, says students enjoy genuine academic benefits from homework, including better comprehension and retention of subject matter. However, while the benefit is clear for high school students and beyond, the degree to which homework helps middle school students is a matter of some contention.

• It’s difficult to tell if homework helps high achievers do well, or if they do their homework because they are high achievers.
• It’s challenging to determine how much homework students actually do. Most homework studies rely on self-reported data, which means students can easily misstate the quantity of time they spend on homework.
• Many studies use test scores to measure academic success, which, as many researchers point out, is an inherently problematic form of measurement.

Teachers should assign an appropriate amount of homework

While there is still much discussion on the effectiveness of homework, research asserts that the 10-minute rule per grade level holds true for middle school students. This means that students might receive anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes of homework each evening.

In middle school, students’ higher academic achievement starts to correlate with completing homework. However, this correlation fades if homework lasts longer than that.  Indeed, giving more than 90 minutes of homework has been shown to have detrimental effects on students.

Students need time away from their studies to relax and engage in social, extracurricular and family activities. When given too much homework, students lose this time and suffer the effects of stress and sleep deprivation, which has proved to reduce academic performance.

Purposeful assignments

Teachers who give homework must consider the purpose and value of the assignments. While elementary school homework can build confidence and engage students in the subject matter, middle school homework needs a more specific purpose.

Certain subjects require practice homework, such as vocabulary, which often requires drills. Other homework requires reading or more complicated skill work. Still, there is a growing belief among researchers that even when homework serves a clear and distinct purpose, less is more.

Homework should be clearly connected to learning outcomes and shouldn’t overwhelm students so much they are unable to actively participate in their lives beyond the walls of the classroom. Teachers should carefully consider how much practice students need and design homework to effectively meet those goals within the shortest duration possible.

Ultimately, even if the benefit margin is small for middle school students, there are other advantages of completing homework. Some researchers argue that at least anecdotally, students develop important study skills that will benefit them in high school and college, and they learn the value of time management and responsibility.

Caitrin Blake has a BA in English and Sociology from the University of Vermont and a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Colorado Denver. She teaches composition at Arapahoe Community College.

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