Middle School Café – Strategies & Support for Middle School ELA Teachers

Reading Strategies: How to Get Students Thinking About What They Read [Ep 85]

Reading strategies should do more than help students find the right answer in a text. We also want students thinking about what they’re reading, making connections, consi

Teaching Author's Craft From the Writer's Perspective [Bonus]

Literary skills like point of view, mood, dialogue, imagery, and conflict aren’t new to our students. But even when students can identify these skills in a text, they may

Helping More Students Participate in Academic Conversations [Ep 84]

You ask a question and wait. A few hands go up right away, while everyone else seems perfectly happy to let those same students do the talking. But that doesn’t necessari

ELA Warm-Up Activities: A Simple Routine That Supports Student Success [Ep 83]

The first few minutes of class often set the tone for everything that follows, yet warm-up activities are sometimes treated as little more than time fillers. In this epis

Five Class Routines to Focus on During Back to School [Ep 82]

The first few weeks of school are the perfect time to establish classroom routines that will support learning all year long. In this episode, I share five routines I inte

What Struggling Readers Need Most at the Beginning of the Year [Ep 81]

The first few weeks of school can set the tone for the entire year, especially for students who struggle with reading. In this episode, we look beyond classroom strategie

Why Reader Identity Should Be Part of Your Back-to-School Planning [Ep 80]

The beginning of the school year is about much more than classroom routines and lesson plans. It's also when students begin forming, or reinforcing, the stories they

Summer Book Study: Reflecting on Reading Instruction [Bonus]

In this special bonus episode, I'm sharing three key ideas from our summer book study of In the Best Interest of Students by Kelly Gallagher. Whether you're rea

Creating Readers Requires More Than Reading Instruction [Ep. 79]

Creating readers is one of the most important goals of ELA instruction, but it's also one of the hardest things to measure. In this episode, I explore the difference

Building Reading Culture Through Student Experience [Ep. 78]

What makes a classroom feel like a reading classroom? In this episode, we explore the difference between a classroom where reading is simply part of the curriculum and a

End-of-Year Teacher Reflections: What to Keep and What to Change [Ep. 77]

End of year teacher reflections can be easy to skip as you’re wrapping up your classroom and heading into summer, but taking a few minutes to pause can make a real differ

5 Student Reflection Strategies for the End of the Year [Ep. 76]

As the school year starts to wind down, this episode focuses on helping students recognize how much they’ve grown since the beginning of the year. Without time to reflect

Using Questioning to Strengthen Reading Comprehension [Ep. 75]

Are your students answering questions but still struggling with true comprehension? In this episode, we’re talking about how to use questioning to move students beyond ba

Rebuilding Reading Stamina After Spring Break [Ep. 74]

After spring break, it’s common to see a shift in student focus, especially in reading. In this episode, we’re talking about how to rebuild reading stamina without starti

Teachers Need Teachers: Why Support Matters in the Classroom [Bonus]

Teaching reading in middle school involves constant decision-making. Teachers are choosing texts, adjusting strategies, supporting struggling readers, and working to keep

Building Critical Reading Skills with Short, Complex Texts [Ep. 73]

As testing season approaches, many middle school ELA teachers feel pressure to shift everything into test-prep mode. But strong reading instruction is still strong readin

Read Like a Writer: How to Strengthen Student Writing [Ep 72]

Most middle school students can summarize what they’ve read, but their thinking often stops there. In this episode, we explore what it really means to help students read

Bias as a Research Skill: Helping Students See Author Choices [Ep 71]

In this episode, we continue the research series by focusing on how students learn to recognize bias in informational texts. Instead of treating bias as a separate lesson

Research Isn’t a Unit: Teaching Evidence Evaluation All Year Long [Ep. 70]

Research often feels overwhelming because students are asked to read, take notes, decide what matters, paraphrase, organize ideas, and write—all at once. One of the bigge

Rethinking the Way We Teach Research (Without the Overwhelm) [Ep. 69]

Research is a core part of ELA, but it’s also where many students feel stuck and unsure how to begin. In this episode, I break down why research feels challenging for stu