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3 Middle school bell work activities for ELA students with a middle school aged student in a coral color shirt holding a pencil in their hand

3 Fun and Educational Middle School Bell Work Activities

Looking for engaging middle school bell work activities for your ELA students? Check out these three fun and educational ideas to start your class off on the right foot! Before we jump into the 3 middle school bell work activities, I want to take a moment to answer some popular bell work questions! What are bell ringers for middle school? Middle school bell work activities are typically short writing or collaborative activities used at the start of a class period. Using them consistently at the start of your class yields a ton of benefits:✨ You have a few minutes to take attendance or respond to a quick email✨ Students develop a sense of routine & expectations✨ Students practice sustained & frequent writing (tons of benefits within itself!)✨ Great tool for start-of-class management✨ Prevents the anxiety-inducing

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A brick wall with the text overlayed "The Outsiders. Engaging ideas for in-person, hybrid, or digital."

Teaching The Outsiders

Are you teaching The Outsiders? Read this post for tips and projects to help students analyze literary themes.   The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is a staple of many ELA curriculums. It has plenty of literary merit, but very little diversity. You can change that! Today I’ll share resources to help with teaching The Outsiders that work for distance, hybrid, or classroom learning. In this post you’ll find resources to help students understand and analyze themes in The Outsiders. Plus ways to bring in some more, diverse voices. You can find many more ideas in our full Rethinking The Outsiders resource. Resources for teaching The Outsiders with increased flexibility and inclusivity Explore the theme of Self-Expression In this TED Talk, Kaustav Dey, marketing lead for Tommy Hilfiger in India, delivers several interesting examples of people

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Adaptable Resources to Teach 3 Classics During Distance Learning: The Giver, The Great Gatsby, & The Odyssey

Are you going to teach classics during distance learning like The Giver, The Great Gatsby, and/or The Odyssey? Great choice! Here’s how to make your novel unit even more inclusive and engaging. Teaching Classics During Distance Learning? No matter which text you are working with, below we have provided some resources & strategies to make your unit successful and one to remember! The Giver Considered by many to be a modern classic, The Giver is a brilliant choice for middle-schoolers who will instantly connect with the 12-year-old protagonist, Jonas. Today I’ll be sharing some resources and tips to teach The Giver during distance learning, and also how to bring some diverse voices to the conversation. The ideas and resources I am sharing today were all hand-picked with distance learning in mind, but you’ll find many more ideas for teaching The

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