If you haven’t incorporated peer editing into your essay units, you are truly missing out. Anytime I can use positive peer interactions in an assignment I find heightened engagement and a better turnout of essays. Find my top reasons for including peer editing below, and don’t forget to check out my resources. Reasons why you should include peer editing 1. So students can write to a wider audience. When my students write essays that only I will read, they tend to write what they think I will like. Especially when students write later in the year, they’ve “been there done that” with writing for me. Most students know what I’m nitpicky in, possibly what my own biases are (even the most objective teacher may inadvertently share personal opinions from time to time). When they peer edit, they also consider the other students who will be reading the paper. In fact, I usually preface and emphasize that they are writing for the wider audience and NOT to just me. 2. So students are more engaged...

If you aren’t using bell ringers in your secondary ELA classroom - you should. I can’t say enough good things about what bell ringers have done for the routine and structure of my classroom. They do not require much upfront work and preparation once you decide the process you want for bell ringers. And there are so many bell ringers you can find ready-made (check out the end of this post for a couple of my favorites). Here are five reasons you should start your class with a bell ringer. 1. Bring Routine A great benefit to starting class with a bell ringer is how it will bring routine to your day. Class can often start in chaos as students make their way in from the hall, continuing conversations, and shifting into a new subject. I’ll have students who are still amped from a P.E. class, students who just finished a math exam, and students who have snuck in late to the school day. Having a bell ringer ready at the start of each class means my students know what to expect when they come i...

Incorporating a growth mindset into your classroom can have quite a few benefits. According to the American Psychological Association, “Growth mindset is the belief that a person’s intelligence and abilities can grow and improve with practice, and researchers have found that brief exercises that increase growth mindset can help keep students motivated when they face challenges, improve their grades, and even increase college graduation rates.” However, it should also be noted that a growth mindset isn’t a quick fix. Students will need time to process, think about, and reevaluate these concepts throughout the year. When incorporating a growth mindset into the middle school and high school classroom, teachers should focus on spreading out activities and incorporating them throughout the year rather than all at once. Here are five ways to incorporate a growth mindset in the classroom Growth Mindset Posters I have these growth mindset posters displayed in my classroom, and I love how my s...

A great way to incorporate a growth mindset into the middle school and high school ELA classroom is by introducing it through literature. As we read and teach novels in our classroom, discussing how characters persevere to overcome substantial obstacles can have more of an impact on our students’ lives than we imagine. It is important to have your students read books that tell stories of growing up. High schoolers are especially focused on trying to find themselves and who they are. By reading texts that tell the stories of characters who have a growth mindset, students will feel like perhaps they are not that different either. Your students finding who they are, and feeling like they belong is a valuable lesson easily learned through these kinds of novels. Here are 9 different novels, both classics and young adult fiction, with a significant growth mindset that your students will love to read: 1. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston In this novel, the reader watc...

At the beginning of every single school year, I agonize over whether or not to accept late work. Finding the balance between being firm and strict, but yet also caring, nurturing, and empowering is difficult to find. If you lean too far one way, you will lose students in the middle of the year. For the first few years of my teaching career, I changed my late work policy with each new school year. One year I would accept late work at any point in the year, and the next year I would not allow any late work whatsoever. During the years when I would accept late work, I always seemed swamped and overwhelmed. During the years when I didn’t accept late work, I had less assignments to grade and saved a lot of time. I also thought that I was teaching my students about responsibility and accountability. Allowing students to turn in late work is time consuming. You must be super organized, have a system in place, and put in extra time grading all of those late assignments that come rolling ...

Many schools across the nation are adopting a growth mindset approach to education. Schools and classrooms that embrace a growth mindset see the value in learning as a process and strive to help students put forth their best effort. So, what exactly is a growth mindset? According to Carol S. Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University, there are two kinds of mindsets: fixed and growth. People with a fixed tend to see themselves with fixed intelligence and capabilities, whereas people with a growth mindset believe that they can increase their intelligence and improve their capabilities through effort and determination. In the classroom and beyond, real learning occurs when students put forth the effort to break through barriers, accomplish difficult tasks, and learn from mistakes. To help facilitate a growth mindset in your classroom, I’ve created a Growth Mindset resource, especially for secondary teachers. As a teacher, there are five simple steps you can take to create ...