With a Peer Teaching ComponentAn Alternative to Daily Oral Language 
I'm really excited to share my version of daily language review! I've used this method in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade language arts classes.
This daily language review incorporates peer teaching and was many years in the making:-) I published 24 weeks of this daily language review for 6th grade a few years ago, but didn't share much about it at that time! So, here's the story:-) About 20 years ago, after using Daily Oral Language in a variety of ways in my classroom, I decided that each student needed to become more engaged in our daily language instruction. Many were already engaged...students took turns coming to the board to make corrections and identify parts of speech, but typically, only one student had a turn at any one time. Understanding Why
At that time, my goal was to make sure students understood the reasons for the corrections they were making. Unfortunately, if they tuned out for even a little bit, they missed some information.
So, using the Daily Oral Language sentences, I created a peer teaching method for our daily language, which I'll explain below. ** Note: this daily language review is not the only method I use to teach grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc, but it has been a fantastic supplement to provide continual reinforcement throughout the year.
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Six Tips to Make the Grading Process Faster Grading Papers Quickly and Efficiently
How often have you wished you could just snap your fingers and have all the grading finished??
I don't know about you, but grading papers is definitely an area where I needed to find some ways to make the process faster. Over the years, I found a few little ways to get my grading done more quickly and efficiently. These days, the use of digital assessments can make some grading faster; however, you may not be able to (or want to) use digital assessments all the time. So, for those cases when you're working with paper assessments, I've got six tips for you! Grading Tip #1: Answer Sheets
1) If you're grading multiple choice/true or false (and aren't planning to do any partial credit), design your assessment so students will put their letter answer in a left-hand column.
Or, give them a separate answer sheet with answer spaces in a column. This way, all the letters are in an organized column for you and you can quickly go down the column, comparing the answers to the answer key. End of Class Routines
What are your end of class routines in middle school?
Do you have specific routines? A few weeks ago I wrote about routines to begin class; today I'll touch on routines to end class in middle school. I have to admit, my end-of-class routines often didn't go as smoothly as my beginning-of-class routines:-) Best laid plans, you know.... When it went well, my routine at the end of class would include:
1) Writing homework on the board so students could add it to their assignment books.
I did accomplish this nearly every day:-) Writing the homework was critical. Our team teachers made a point of doing a quick check at the end of class every day, to be sure students were writing their homework down (for some students, this was an accommodation we had to meet - checking the homework book. So, why not quickly scan/check all students' books?) 2) Asking an 'exit' question. I had a "ticket out the door' poster in the classroom that I numbered 1-30. Each student had a class number, so they'd answer the question on a post-it and then put the post-it on their number on the way out of class. I loved this method because:
Graphing Functions Practice with Footloose Task Cards (free download) 
This Graphing Linear Functions post is from my old blog, written in May, 2015, but updated here:-)
Graphing functions hit us in May of this school year. Our state testing had wrapped up and we started working with function tables and graphing function equations, on a pretty basic level. This post is my summary of how I approached practicing the basic idea of graphing linear functions with my 6th grade math students:-) Included is a description of the task card activity I used, which you can download for free at the end of the post. Pi Day Ideas for Middle School Math 
March 14, also known as Pi Day, is coming soon!
Do you have exciting plans for Pi Day activities in your math class? Maybe you have some tried and true favorites, or maybe you're looking for something new. Whether you teach 5th or 6th grade math, elementary math or higher levels of math, Pi Day is a day that can be celebrated and used to explore the concept of Pi - in so many different ways! Pi Day Activity
Have you tried using donuts to have students discover the Pi relationship between the diameter and the circumference? Or maybe cookies?
I tried it with donuts recently.....can be a little messy, but fun! In my pictures, you'll notice I had some donuts with icing and sprinkles....I'd suggest NOT using those if you want to minimize mess:-) Materials for Pi Day activity: 1) Donuts 2) Licorice 'strings' for measuring (if you have tape measures that would be best, but I never had those in my classroom, so I went with the string idea) 3) Ruler |
AuthorHey there! I'm Ellie - here to share math fun, best practices, and engaging, challenging, easy-prep activities ideas! 
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