MIDDLE SCHOOL ELA | Read it. Write it. Learn it.

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High Impact, low prep lessons for middle school ELA

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The Research Based Reasons We Should Cancel Standardized Testing for Good

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4 Student Roles for Digital Literature Circles

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5 Steps Towards Implementing Standards-Based Portfolios in Your Classroom

4 min

5 Steps Towards Implementing Standards-Based Portfolios in Your Classroom

When I was working on my masters degree in English Education, I had an amazing professor who encouraged us to create more meaningful, research based assessments of our students' learning. I was a second year teacher at the time, and I knew that I had to change the way I assessed my students' learning. When the standards shifted to the Common Core, my students' portfolio work shifted with it. The steps below were developed as I worked to shift to the Common Core (now Next Gene

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Four Guidelines for Making Final Assessments Meaningful

4 min

Four Guidelines for Making Final Assessments Meaningful

Standards-based learning has transformed my classroom in many ways. This transformation is never more evident than final exam season. While many teachers still require their students to sit and take final exams in rows upon rows of desks in a silent gymnasium, my students' final assessment no longer looks anything like that. In fact, it is the polar opposite. As my students work on their final assessments, my classroom fills with discussion of learning, standards, and growt

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Standards Based Grading for Independent Reading

5 min

Standards Based Grading for Independent Reading

Two years ago I changed my grading practices from the traditional 0-100 scale model to Standards Based Grading (SBG). Making this change forced me to reevaluate how I measured my students' independent reading skills. Standards Based Grading finally gave me the perfect balance between encouraging a love of literature through independent reading and using independent reading as a tool for building literacy skills. The first step in switching over to SBG was asking myself, wha

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