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Teaching Middle School ELA

Teaching Middle School ELA

Caitlin Mitchell

Welcome to the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, where we are dedicated to helping English Language Arts teachers create dynamic and engaging lessons for their students, while also managing the day-to-day responsibilities that come with being a Middle School ELA teacher.
As educators ourselves, we understand the challenges of finding a work-life balance that allows us to pursue our passion for teaching while also enjoying our personal lives. That's why each Tuesday, hosts Caitlin Mitchell and Jessica Cannata share practical and innovative solutions for managing your workload and staying inspired in your teaching practice.
Whether you are looking for fresh ideas to inspire your students, strategies for improving your writing instruction, or tips for managing your time more effectively, this podcast is designed to provide you with the tools you need to thrive as a Middle School ELA teacher.
Join us each week for curriculum and lesson ideas, classroom stories, and interviews with fellow educators who are experts in the field. We believe that with the right support and resources, you can create a classroom environment that encourages students to become strong and passionate learners.
If you teach reading and writing to middle schoolers and want to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in ELA education, then this is the podcast for you! Tune in every week and let us help you make a difference in the lives of your students and in your own teaching career.

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Top 10 Teaching Middle School ELA Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Teaching Middle School ELA episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Teaching Middle School ELA for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Teaching Middle School ELA episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Teaching Middle School ELA - Episode 241: This Will Be Your New Favorite Back to School Activity
play

08/15/23 • 14 min

In today's episode, Caitlin and Jessica dive into an engaging activity that will have your students strategizing and debating on an uninhabited island. But don't worry, there's no plane crash involved! We'll be discussing the details of this exciting back-to-school activity and how it fosters skills like justification, evidence-based thinking, and critical analysis.

Are you enjoying the podcast?

Tag us on Instagram @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to!

Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave us a review!

Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE by scrolling down our show page, selecting a star rating, and tapping “Write a review.” Let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom!

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Confession time: Do you dread teaching writing? Do you struggle to teach writing and do your students struggle to produce anything passable that doesn’t take you hours to grade? If so, consider what might be your biggest struggle with writing. Whatever the struggle, has writing become your least favorite part of teaching English because it’s just SO. MUCH. WORK?

We want to change that. At EB, we actually focus on 4 pillars that will truly help you look forward to teaching writing because you are confident in HOW to actually teach it and your students are confident in HOW to actually write. Listen in today as we share one of our favorite pillars with you.

Tune in now to hear:

  • [1:25] Caitlin starts off today's topic with what makes us dread teaching writing and how much work there is in doing so.
  • [2:46] Jessica goes on to list some of the struggles teachers face when it comes to teaching writing.
  • [4:23] Jessica touches on one of the 4 pillars that we use at EB that will help you look forward to teaching the subject.
  • [4:58] Caitlin goes on to share how providing students with teacher writing samples help them get a better idea on how to formulate their essays.
  • [7:10] Jessica talks about the common mistakes we make in teaching writing.
  • [8:38] Caitlin touches on the simple yet effective idea of writing a sample essay in advance; she goes on to share how this has become a game-changer in her writing classes
  • [13:48] Jessica discusses setting guidelines when providing your students writing samples and some engaging ways you can do it such as breaking down a paragraph sentence by sentence and letting your students creatively construct the paragraph themselves.
  • [17:58] Caitlin continues speaking on the importance of this strategy. The sample essays you write can be used for years to come, and you also get to practice your writing skills while you're at it.
  • [20:20] If you're interested in learning more about our writing program, you may visit www.ebwritingprogram.com.

Click here to listen now!

Subscribe & Review in iTunes

Are you subscribed to our podcast? If you’re not, we want to encourage you to do that today. We don’t want you to miss a single episode. We add a brand-new episode every week, and if you’re not subscribed, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on those. Click here to subscribe in iTunes!

Now if you’re feeling extra awesome today, we would be super grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find our podcast, and they’re also so much fun for us to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let us know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

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Teaching Middle School ELA - Monday Mindset: Comparison

Monday Mindset: Comparison

Teaching Middle School ELA

play

10/24/22 • 3 min

I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "Comparison is the thief of joy" more times that you care to.

I know I have ...

However, I'd invite you to sit down and consider what this really could mean for you in your life.

This happened to me just last week when I went to my first yoga class in over two years.

Let's just say yoga is an area where I get to improve quite a bit. (I can barely touch my toes let alone get into some of those poses and HOLD them. 😬)

And as I looked around at how much better everyone else was in the class, I started to feel myself put pressure on my performance.

And when I did that, it completely stole from my experience. I was so focused on not being good enough that I didn't give myself the credit that I deserved.

What I could have done instead was acknowledge myself and my body for being present to what it is capable of. For what it is able to do.

Doing this has the power to shift your whole world because what we tell ourselves actually freaking matters!

The world of teaching can be so incredibly similar.

We see all kinds of things on social media that can make us feel less than. That has us questioning whether we're actually good at our jobs (spoiler alert: you are!).

So I invite you to catch yourself the next time you're in a moment of comparison.

Ask yourself how that thought is really serving you, and what thought you could offer to your brain instead.

Just some food for thought as we work to be the best version of who WE are.

To another week, living intentionally,

Caitlin

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On this episode of the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, we dissect the anatomy of a successful lesson plan — a captivating beginning, a standards-focused middle, and an impactful conclusion. This framework not only ensures your lessons flow effectively but also significantly cuts down planning time, allowing you to leave work at work and actually take back your personal time outside the classroom.

After we cover the components of a successful lesson, we spend time guiding you in the steps to take to effectively string together those lessons throughout your entire academic year. We call this process developing your scope and sequence. Once you follow this process and nail down your scope and sequence, you'll find that everything else seems to fall into place extremely easily. You'll even hear from an EB Teacher who tells us how she was able to actually "Kiss the Sunday Scaries goodbye!"

Of course, we want this feeling for every single middle school ELA teacher!

Tune in to this episode to hear more details about how you can easily begin building your scope and sequence now so that you don't have to spend your summer with the weight of back to school on your shoulders!

FREE RESOURCE: Curious about trying Batch Planning this summer? Simply click the link below to grab our 10 Tips to Get Started Batch Planning and take a look at how easy it can be to begin!

https://www.ebteacher.com/free-10-tips-for-Batch-Planning

Batch Planning is the ONE thing you can do now that will have the biggest impact on your entire school year!

BIG NEWS: The EB Teachers' ELA Portal will officially be open for enrollment this summer! If having access to ALL of the items below sounds helpful to you, then we invite you to take a quick moment to add your name to our priority list today! Are you ready for:

  • Hundreds of ready-to-go ELA lessons
  • A robust Core ELA Curriculum that includes reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary covering all of the ELA standards
  • Innovative digital lesson planning software
  • Hours of on-demand PD videos
  • A community of thousands of supportive ELA teachers from around the world

Pretty incredible, right? Click the link below to add your name to the priority list today:

https://www.ebteacher.com/ebtc-priority-list

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In today’s episode, Jessica shares the model text that changed the way she taught narratives. She discusses her experience using the short story, Up North at the Cabin, to help her students structure their own narratives and hone their figurative language and transition writing skills. Jessica even shares her favorite way to publish students; finished narratives and guess what? It’s online-friendly, too!

Links mentioned in this episode:

https://www.amazon.com/North-Cabin-Marsha-Wilson-Chall/dp/0688097324

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Figurative-Language-Cheat-Sheet-2146679

Are you enjoying the podcast?
Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to!

Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review!

Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom!

Other episodes you might enjoy:

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In this episode, our guest Neill Williams shares the BEST practices you can habitually apply to improve your work week and personal schedule while increasing your productivity and creativity. Caitlin’s personal friend and life coach, Neill, was once the girl who was focused on climbing up the corporate ladder which compelled her to work 50 to 60 hours a week, believing that if she worked more hours then she could accomplish more.

Are you enjoying the podcast? Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to!

Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review!

Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom!

Other episodes you might enjoy:

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Teaching Middle School ELA - Episode 284: Team EB's Favorite Grading Hacks
play

05/14/24 • 28 min

On this episode of the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, we're diving into a very opinionated topic: Grading.

The majority of the team members that make up the behind-the-scenes of EB Academics were once educators themselves at a variety of different grade levels. So we thought it would be perfect to "poll the team" and gather their most helpful tips for managing the demands of grading work in the ELA classroom.

We breakdown the tips below and more:

Use TeacherMade or Google Forms to turn those hard copies digital and foster faster grading

Allow students to select which in-class essay they most want you to grade

Allow students to revise essays for a higher grade but only after they've met for a 1:1 conference with you

Staggering your units between classes so your grading doesn't pile up at once

Grading as you go through a unit or essay

Resist the urge to grade the full essay; focus on improvements in a specific part of their essay

-Randomly select items that will be graded rather than grading every piece of work

Lock your door during grading sessions to prevent interruptions

Shake the guilt of not grading everything

Always use rubrics and even consider letting students self-grade

Batch Plan so your prep periods can be used for grading instead of planning

After listening in, you're sure to have a few tips to add to your routine to shave off those very valuable minutes you spend grading!

Get ready for an incredibly practical and helpful episode!

BIG NEWS: The EB Teachers' ELA Portal will officially be open for enrollment this summer! If having access to ALL of the below sounds helpful to you, then we invite you to take a quick moment to add your name to our priority list today! Are you ready for:

  • Hundreds of ready-to-go ELA lessons
  • A robust Core ELA Curriculum that includes reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary covering all of the ELA standards
  • Innovative digital lesson planning software
  • Hours of on-demand PD videos
  • A community of thousands of supportive ELA teachers from around the world

Pretty incredible, right?Click the link below to add your name to the priority list today:

https://www.ebteacher.com/ebtc-priority-list

Are you enjoying the podcast?

Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave us a review! To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE by scrolling down our show page, selecting a star rating, and tapping “Write a review.” Let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom!

bookmark
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share episode

In today’s episode, Jessica and I share our approach to narrative writing. Not unlike our approach to almost all Language Arts content, we recommend a spiral approach. I know that I certainly can’t remember something if I’m taught it once and then never practice it again. The same is true for our middle schoolers! 

Today we share our best tips for incorporating narrative writing throughout your school year--and no, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming! Plus, we explain our favorite narrative writing game, and how to adapt it for online distance learning.

Are you enjoying the podcast?
Tag us @ebacademics and let us know which episode you're listening to!

Make sure to Subscribe and leave us a Review!

Your review helps us reach even more middle school ELA teachers just like you! It would mean so much to us. To leave a review in iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Rating and Reviews. Click on "Write a Review" and let us know how this podcast is helping you in your ELA classroom!

Other episodes you might enjoy:

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In this episode of The Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast, Caitlin, Megan, and Jessica continue their Science of Reading series by tackling phonological awareness, a key component of the Word Recognition section of Scarborough’s Reading Rope. Join your hosts as they demystify phonological awareness for middle school teachers, explaining why it's vital for older students and how it can tie into the study of poetry. You'll walk away with ten simple, creative strategies to help students develop their phonological awareness through sound patterns, rhymes, and more. Whether you're new to the concept or looking to deepen your understanding, this episode is filled with practical ideas that you can use in your classroom tomorrow!

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Join host Megan in this insightful episode as she welcomes back Dr. Deonna Smith, an inspiring advocate for educational equity. With experience as both a teacher and an administrator, Dr. Smith now collaborates with educators and school leaders to build vibrant, inclusive learning environments that support students from all backgrounds, especially those who are often marginalized. In today’s conversation, she shares practical tips on bringing culturally responsive teaching into your classroom and teaching in ways that are joyful, inclusive, and impactful. Don’t miss this chance to learn how to elevate your teaching and student engagement!

Click here for a special JOY Freebie: https://purple-tiger-24284.myflodesk.com/kvrdy0ou0g

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FAQ

How many episodes does Teaching Middle School ELA have?

Teaching Middle School ELA currently has 458 episodes available.

What topics does Teaching Middle School ELA cover?

The podcast is about Podcasts and Education.

What is the most popular episode on Teaching Middle School ELA?

The episode title 'Episode 241: This Will Be Your New Favorite Back to School Activity' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Teaching Middle School ELA?

The average episode length on Teaching Middle School ELA is 16 minutes.

How often are episodes of Teaching Middle School ELA released?

Episodes of Teaching Middle School ELA are typically released every 6 days.

When was the first episode of Teaching Middle School ELA?

The first episode of Teaching Middle School ELA was released on Apr 1, 2019.

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