Language Arts Education Articles for Teachers - Page 11

Motivating students to be active readers is challenging when everyone is reading the same novel during a class literature study. Choosing a novel that everyone will enjoy is virtually impossible. This dilemma led me to construct an independent book study for my advanced language arts class. I use...

Teachers can find exploring the book “Animal Farm” by George Orwell with high school students to be an especially rewarding experience because they can discuss politics, social issues, and a variety of other topics. Also, it’s a way for teachers to talk about peer pressure and media influences. S...

As a child I remember reciting tongue-twisters in order to practice the “s” sound. For reasons unknown, I found the “s” to be one of the most difficult letters to pronounce. Eons later, I cannot only pronounce the letter “s”, but I can also enthusiastically recite the “Sally’s Seashore” poem. As ...

Narrative writing is perhaps one of the easiest forms of writing for students and adults to connect to and create. Put simply, narratives are stories and essays based on our life experiences. From “getting-to-know-you” writing assignments to writing from the perspective of a fictional charac...

“O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild, Should waste them all.” I love that stanza from Frost’s poem “October”! Every time I read it I am transported to my favorite season, and can visualize my nine year old self walking through the woo...

One of the most difficult writing assignments for my students, rather surprisingly, is to summarize what they did over the weekend. The task of distinguishing major details from the minor ones can prove to be a challenge for students. But this goal can be easily accomplis...

Reading fluency is the all important literacy skill that encompasses both rate of words read per minute, as well as the ability to read with expression. As important as this literacy skill is to master, it can be tedious to teach. As a sixth grade teacher, I like to incorporate fluency instructio...

  Introducing nonfiction literature can be a delicate matter when dealing with middle school students. Just mentioning the topic of nonfiction seems to bring out the yawns and groans out of even the most attentive students. This is why I am very cautious in selecting the first piec...

My favorite genre to both read and teach is mystery. Everything from the history of the genre to attempting to solve the mystery before the end of the book, are elements I look forward to both as a reader and a teacher. One of my favorite books for teaching the mystery genre is Ellen Raskin's The...

If you take a few moments to listen to a middle school conversation you might hear something like this: "If I don't make the basketball team I'll die," or "I was so embarrassed I thought I'd die." Is it only me, or is there a pattern here? What is it about middle school students that makes t...

As the last leaves fall and the weather continues to change, I begin class discussions about the upcoming holiday season. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to review the writing concepts and skills that were taught during the first quarter of the school year within a context that is...

At this point in the school year, my students are improving their writing fluency. Free writing time is increasing, and students are creating responses to literature, and keep a personal journal. In looking through students' writing, one thing becomes clear - they need to organize their thou...

Observations worth putting in a writing journal: the sound of the wind rustling dried leaves, the vision of ghosts lurking behind storefront windows, and the pumpkins on display throughout the neighborhood. It's Halloween, and in Mrs. Dodson's sixth grade language arts class a myriad of creative ...

When working through a class novel, I like to incorporate a long term project throughout the duration of the unit. My objective in assigning a long term project is to scaffold students' critical thinking and comprehension skills, and reinforce story information (i.e., concepts, themes, elements, ...

 As a language arts teacher, I am always looking for ways to make writing meaningful for students. In previous years I have begun the school year writing instruction with students writing about their own lives and personal experiences. This approach has served well as a starting point, howev...