A Less Painful Essay Writing Process: Part 3 Polishing

As I wrote in part 1 and part 2 of this blog series on a less painful essay process, after class after class, and year after year of teaching students about text dependent analysis writing (you might call it a literary analysis essay), I feel confident in the process I have designed for myself and my students.  

I know where students will struggle and I have developed the supports that students will need to avoid or correct those struggles. From start to finish, the essay writing process has become a much less painful one.

In the first blog post in this series, I discussed the steps I follow during the pre-writing process, and in the second blog post in this series, I focused on how I guide students through the drafting process. In this final blog post in this series, I am sharing what the revision and editing process looks like for my students.

A Less Painful Essay Writing Process: Part 2 Drafting

As I wrote in part 1 of this blog series on a less painful essay process, after five years of teaching students to write a literary analysis essay, also known as text dependent analysis writing in my neck of the woods, I’ve gotten the hang of how to make the best of it for me and my students.

Writing an essay isn’t easy and neither is teaching students how to write one. Over time I have fine-tuned the supports, structures, and examples I provide my students during the essay writing process.

While the first blog post in this series outlined steps I take during the pre-writing process for a less painful essay process, this blog post focuses on what I do during the drafting stage to make the essay process smoother for myself and my students.

A Less Painful Essay Writing Process: Part 1 Pre-writing

This is my fifth year teaching text dependent analysis writing to sixth graders, otherwise known as a literary analysis essay, and I’ve gotten to the point where it is a pretty painless process. 

It wasn’t aways that way. Students struggled with brainstorming examples and identifying text evidence. I struggled to teach writing skills as explicitly as students needed them to be taught. As a former high school teacher moving down to middle school, I didn’t always have accurate expectations of students’ writing capabilities. Students needed more support, more structure, more examples.

Much of making the essay process less painful is getting off to a good start. Here are a few things I do during the prewriting stage to make the essay process smoother for myself and my students.

3 Ways to Introduce Students to Books for Independent Reading

In the first week of school, one of the most important things I do is introduce my students to our classroom library and make sure that they have a book that they love for our daily independent reading. If students are enthusiastic about reading at the start of the year, it so much easier to maintain that enthusiasm rather than trying to create it as the year goes on. 

Some of the activities I use to introduce students to the organization of my classroom library during the first week of school are activities like genre circles, a book sort, and book speed dating as well as a variety of book spine activities.

A few other possibilities for getting books into students' hands are using a book scavenger hunt, hosting a book tasting, and holding a first line face off. What I love about these three activities, all described below, is that they can be used at the start of the school year to get students excited about choice reading, but can also be repeated or used later in the school year when your choice reading routine needs to be reinvigorated.

My Approach to Teaching Grammar in Middle School: Reviewing The Basics

My view of teaching grammar has changed dramatically over the years and I am on a mission to make it fun and enjoyable (as opposed to serious and tedious as it too often is). To teach grammar in a way that is both engaging and meaningful, I balance examining mentor texts,  going over “rules” of usage, and having students experiment with concepts in shorter and longer writing exercises. You can read more about the key elements of my grammar instruction here.

At the start of the year, we jump right into grammar by reviewing the basics: nouns, verbs, and adjectives with a choice writing piece called “Where I’m From,” inspired by a lesson from Linda Christensen’s book, Reading, Writing, and Rising Up. I usually introduce this lesson the very first week of school.

My Approach to Teaching Grammar in Middle School

Grammar has always been an area of weakness for me. I was never formally taught it in school, which has made me uncomfortable teaching it to others. As an avid reader, I have always had a “natural” understanding of writing structures and techniques so it was easy to tell myself it would come naturally to others. There’s always so much to do in an ELA class period; grammar was one less thing to squeeze in.

After reading two of Jeff Anderson’s books (Mechanically Inclined and Everyday Editing), I began to think of teaching grammar differently. Practicing grammar through different writing exercises and choice writing assignments could be fun and enjoyable. In Anderson’s books, he uses the most basic terms for grammar and outlines lessons in which his students have opportunities to imitate and play with writing. 

9 No Prep, No Stress Ideas For Your First Day Of School

The pressure to do just the right activity on the first day of school is overrated. You’ll likely have some first day jitters whether it is your first year of teaching or your twenty first. There will be some hiccup with the schedule or new students being processed. It’s not the day to do something complicated or introduce anything that will matter.

Instead I plan a series of no prep getting to know you activities. It doesn’t matter if one period is shorter or longer than another and I don’t get through all of the activities (my school often does an extended homeroom on the first day which means that first class has less time with me than classes later in the day). I also don’t end up prepping any materials or make copies of anything I might not get to use. I want day one to be all about getting to know students and helping them feel comfortable in the classroom without me feeling rushed or stressed out.

Introducing Students to Your Classroom Library With Book Spine Activities

Getting my independent reading routine started is a priority for me in my first week of school. To introduce students to the organization of my classroom library, on those first days of school I do activities like genre circles, a book sort, and book speed dating. You can read about all three in this blog post.

But those aren't the only activities I do to have students see and put their hands on as many books in my classroom library as possible, especially ones they might not normally gravitate toward. Having students create book spine poetry is a great way to do this because students are looking at books’ titles, rather than immediately evaluating whether or not the books are ones they’d like to read or not. 

3 Activities To Expose Your Students To Books On The First Days Of School

If you are anything like me, you want each of your students to have a book in their hands by the end of that first week of school so you can jump right in to your independent reading routine. My classroom library is overflowing with amazing titles I know my students will love, but before they begin to find those amazing books, they need to understand how my classroom library is organized so they will know where to look.

Read on for the details about 3 different activities I use (and you can too!) during the first week and even on the first day of school so my students are exposed to the books in my classroom library and can explore how my classroom library is organized.

How I Organize My Middle School Classroom Library

My classroom library is the heart of my classroom, it is my pride and joy, it is what makes students and sometimes even other teachers stop and say, wow, this is where the magic happens. With close to 1500 books, my classroom library took time to build up, but is a necessity because my school was built without a library. Because of its size and because it is the only place my students can access books within the school building, the organization of my library is something I've given a lot of thought.

As you are thinking about your own classroom library, whether you are just getting it started or you are looking to overhaul your current organization system, keep in mind that you want to do what is going to work best for you and your students. The organization of your classroom library should be manageable, sustainable, and help your students find books they are interested in reading. What works for me or another teacher may not work for or be best for you or your students.

7 Things I Tried This School Year

It hasn't been easy to try new things in the classroom in the past few years related to classroom management. Because of pandemic restrictions and all of the shifts in delivering instruction, there's been things I just couldn't do or didn't have the mental space to think about. This year, with restrictions fully lifted and a return to traditional instruction, I had the ability and mental space to try out some different things related to how I run my classroom. Some were successes, but some still need work.

11 Books to Increase Disability Representation in Your Classroom Library

Disability Pride Month is celebrated every July to mark the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, landmark legislation that broke down barriers to inclusion in society. But although nearly all of us will experience some type of disability in our lives, barriers still exist and people with disabilities are often marginalized and misunderstood.

One way to acknowledge, honor, and respect disabilities and the people who identify as having a disability is during the celebration of Disability Pride Month. Below you'll find books featuring characters with disabilities, both visible and invisible, recommended by middle and high school ELA teachers, for you to feature in your classroom library. 

16 Titles To Spotlight During Pride Month and Beyond

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month is currently celebrated in June each year to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, which was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. The purpose of this commemorative month is to acknowledge the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally.

With over half of book bans targeting books with LGBTQ themes, it is more important than ever that these books have a presence in our classroom libraries, both as windows and mirrors for our students. Below you'll find books featuring queer characters (many of them written by queer authors), recommended by middle and high school ELA teachers, for you to feature in your classroom library. 

16 Books to Feature During Black History Month & All Year Long

Black History Month is a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in shaping U.S. history and a celebration of an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans —from activists and civil rights pioneers to leaders in industry, politics, science, culture and more. 

Below you'll find books by Black authors, recommended by middle and high school ELA teachers, for you to feature in your classroom library. There are stories about diversity, but most focus on Black families, friendships, joy and love.

13 Novels in Verse To Introduce The Wonder of Poetry

National Poetry Month in April is a time for celebrating the expressiveness, and pure delight of poetry. There's no better way to celebrate this month in your classroom than by introducing your students to the joy of verse novels. 

In addition to the appeal of a change of format from the typical prose novel, verse novels can seem less daunting to read and are the perfect solution to getting out of a reading rut. Just like traditional fiction, verse novels cover a range of subjects such as immigration, family, death, disabilities, imprisonment, bullying, and more.

13 Stories That Celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Voices

May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, also known as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. 24 million people in the United States identify as Asian with 1.6 million identifying as Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander or a combination. This month is a time to honor their rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to recognize their important contributions to the United States.

Below you'll find books by Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander authors, recommended by middle and high school ELA teachers, for you to feature in your classroom library. 

17 Titles To Share During Women’s History Month & Beyond

There was a time when most books published and required for reading in schools featured a male protagonist, but that is definitely not true any longer. There are so many middle grade and young adult books featuring fierce female protagonists in both fiction and nonfiction.

Below you'll find books by and about women and girls, recommended by middle and high school ELA teachers, for you to feature in your classroom library. These books are perfect for featuring in March during Women's History Month and International Women's Day on March 8.

Daily Do Now Routine: Frequently Asked Questions

After noticing gaps in students' learning that my curriculum was not addressing, I wanted to create a set of Do Nows (also known as bell work or warm ups) to use in my sixth grade classroom. My hope was that returning to using bell work at the start of class would settle students down in a way that starting class with independent reading wasn't.

I then decided on a theme for each day of the week that would remain consistent from week to week, so my first step was to determine what those daily themes would focus on. Monday would be defining unknown word parts, Tuesday would be sentence structure, Wednesday would be literary terms, Thursday would be writing and grammar concepts, and Friday would be word parts. If you missed my blog post with all of the details about these Do Nows, you'll want to read that first. If you've read that and still have questions, read on.

Build and Reinforce ELA Skills with a Daily Do Now Routine

Last summer my big project was to create a set of Do Nows (also known as bell work or warm ups) to use in my sixth grade classroom. My routine of starting class with independent reading just wasn’t settling my students down as they came into class and there were some gaps in my curriculum that I wanted to fill. I knew that I wanted to have a theme for each day of the week that would remain consistent from week to week, so my first step was to determine what those daily themes would focus on. 

16 Titles To Expand Jewish Representation in your Classroom Library

After scanning the shelves of my classroom library, I realized that almost all of the books by Jewish authors or featuring Jewish protagonists were connected to the Holocaust (similarly, a lower grades teacher might find that their books are all connected to the Jewish holidays). Since that realization, I have been working to expand the representation of Jewish experiences in my classroom library.

Below you'll find books by Jewish authors, recommended by middle and high school ELA teachers, for you to feature in your classroom library. Click on the Instagram handle of the person recommending the book to read their recommendation.

Themed Literature Circles: Facing Fear

Literature circles are a wonderful way to diversify the texts you are using in your classroom and incorporate student choice. Even just offering two choices instead of a whole class novel can be a nice change of pace. Literature circle texts can be chosen based on theme (growing up, testing friendships), genre (fantasy, memoir), or even an event in history (the Industrial Revolution, the Civil Rights Movement). When selecting texts, you’ll want to consider the number of choices you feel comfortable managing in your classroom. Once you’ve decided on a number, you’ll want to offer a range of reading levels, lengths and identities and experiences of the characters in the books. Below are the texts I’ve used in my sixth grade classroom with success for the theme of “facing fear.”