#2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. We chat every Tuesday night at 8 pm EST using #2ndaryELA. We'd love for you to join us!
A1: read aloud to them, work through questions with them, offer them a relatable companion piece, match them with a great self sustained reading book. #2ndaryela
A1: I provide my students choices and that means offering reading materials at all kinds of different levels, genres, and topics. Many of my students also use digital books and audio books-assistive technology is amazing for all students! #2ndaryela
A1: parallel text for Shakespeare's plays, audio versions of text, reading guides with integrated questions or prompts to chunk reading, I like that Newsela lets you adjust the reading level of articles. #2ndaryela
A1: I have used the audio texts. I also like to use Newsela to differentiate to their specific reading level. It helps build confidence in the student when they can read it and answer basic comprehension questions. #2ndaryela
A2: My students love the The Outsiders. It gets my struggling readers interested in reading more. The Uglies is another book my students really enjoyed, especially my female struggling readers #2ndaryela
A2: The list is endless: anything by @kwamealexander, This is where it ends, Orbiting Jupiter, almost anything by Jason Reynolds, Dogman, lots of great picture books, A Monster Calls, etc.#2ndaryela
A3: offer options, group write, writing with colors, give them quotes to use, workshop a first draft, 1:1 conference during process if possible, acknowledge previous writing feedback before writing new piece. #2ndaryela
A3: graphic organizers, brainstorming, using voice recorder first to capture ideas and then get it in words, partner writing, mentor texts, and lots of examples. #2ndaryela
A3: modeling, there's no such thing as too many examples, graphic organizers, color-coding to help organize info, thinking symbols to note reactions to reading #2ndaryela
A few ways to do it. I ask them to use 3 colors to help them organize their ideas — topic/transition sentences, specific details from the text, analysis. #2ndaryela
A3: Graphic organizers, power writing, exemplar examples, color coding, whole class writing, task card writing, small group writing, peer to peer writing #2ndaryELA
A4: ones that are super relevant/related to them or what’s going on in the world, writing for a real audience, writing preparations for a debate, argumentative and narrative writing. #2ndaryela
A4: When we do our opinionated writing focusing on pet peeves, it leads to much animated discussion. I use some of the articles from the NY Times Complaint Box as examples https://t.co/HDQT7uruDF We discuss humor, exaggeration, anecdotes, voice, etc. #2ndaryela
A4: Students had to write using sensory details based on what they feel in a brown bag. That was fun. You could do the same thing with sounds and blind taste tests. #2ndaryela
I haven't seen anyone mention modeling reading like we model writing. Read aloud and pause to TELL Ss what we think, notice, re-read, and all the behind the scenes action that happens every time we read. #2ndaryELA
A4: W/creative writing, lots of lessons w/mentor texts using picture books (they love the lesson on beautiful language using Come On Rain). W/informational writing, I've created 'mastery paths' that allow them to work through lessons w/resources they need at own pace. #2ndaryela
A5 I'm a big fan of Google Classroom's feature where you can assign resources to specific students. It's a great way to differentiate without anyone knowing they are getting different materials #2ndaryELA
A5: Lots of feedback, lots of conferencing & building relationships so students can trust it's okay to not be successful first time around, lots of choices, and showing my passion for LA w/all I do. #2ndaryela
A5: I started using the intervention Ask-Read-Tell with my lower level readers to help them work on reading comprehension and I am seeing progress. I also use several online reading sites like Read Works, Read Theory, Newsela, etc. #2ndaryela
