Versatile Items to Keep On-Hand in Your Middle School Classroom

Throughout my years of teaching, I have found that there are some things in my classroom that I can't live without.  They make my day go easier, and honestly, these things make the students' day go more smoothly as well.
Today, I had a guest-teacher come to my class and I realized the benefits of these things that I take for granted daily.

1. The first thing that is a must for teaching middle school is a timer.  I got my timer at the dollar store and it was about $5. I have had it for about three years and I use it everyday!  I use it to time our free-reading time, to time various sections of class (since my class has different sections for reading time, vocabulary, class time).  I use it to time any type of group activity that we do.  Heck! It helps me keep track of time because, even as a teacher, we can get off-track from time-to-time.

2.  Something that I love about this year's classroom is my word wall. Until this year, I have never done a good job of incorporating a word wall into my daily class interactions.  This year, I have been avidly incorporating it into my class and the students have even been involved in that, which I think is an important aspect of its success.  My students help me put the words up on the wall and they use it daily.  I see them, and it is amazing how much seeing the words help my students. In fact, one day, I took it down to redo it near the beginning of the year, and several students asked me if I was putting it back up. #teacherwin

3. Another item that is a must-have in a middle school classroom is this little black box on my door. It is kind of like the little thing on the outside of each room at a doctor's office so that the nurse can leave the patient's paperwork in it for the doctor.  I love this because I have students put their exit-tickets in it at the end of class.  If we didn't do an exit ticket, we always have something we are working on that we do not get finished before the bell rings and we have to leave.  I can just have students put their papers in this black box on the door on their way out and it doesn't take up any extra time or cause them to create a line that makes them late for their next class.

4.  Another thing that I love to have in my room is giant paper for making anchor charts and some good markers.  This paper is incredible and I like it because I can write the notes on the anchor chart with the students and not before or after.  I used to make anchor charts before to make them neat and clean, but I have learned that this is really not beneficial for the students.  When I make them beforehand, students don't get to take an active role in the creation of the anchor chart.  It is important for them to create it with the teacher, so having this giant pad of paper and some markers on hand is always beneficial and can be worked into virtually any lesson.

5. Sticky notes are some wonderful to incorporate into a lesson as well. It is amazing how a simple sticky note can make an lesson more engaging and fun.  I have used sticky notes to allow students to annotate texts that I don't want them to write in and I have also used sticky notes to allow students to share thoughts quickly on the board.  It is amazing the things you can do with them, so I always keep a ton on-hand.

6.  Something that I have found is beneficial and fun for students (and me) is using old newspapers and magazines.   Old newspapers and magazines are filled with tons of information that could be priceless in an English/language arts classroom if applied correctly.  Currently in my class, I was cleaning through some old cabinets that were given to me and I found an entire set of scope magazines from 2012 with The Beibs on the front cover.  I'll be honest: I almost trashed these. But is was a whole set, surely there was something I could use it for.  As I sifted through the magazine, I found a little article about celebrities and whether or not they are under too much stress from the paparazzi.  The article was geared towards argumentation and I was actually teaching that to my 8th graders.  So, I decided it would be a nice little add-in to my lesson. We used the magazines and the 8th graders actually loved it.  They laughed because some of them don't like Justin Beiber anymore.  We then went on to write an argumentative paragraph where they took a side on whether or not the paparazzi should be allowed to photograph celebrities.  They had some pretty good points and some meaningful discussions all from those old scope magazines.  This just goes to show that good use can come from old materials if it is applied correctly.
Another way I have used old newspapers is to search for strong sentences throughout and then have students explain why the sentence was a mentor for them.  These can be fun activities for when you are away and need meaningful assignments for students to do independently, but they can also be used when you are there.  They are also generic and can be used alongside many different lessons.

Reading Bell Ringers & Reading Raffles

Reading is so important for the ELA classroom and I incorporate it everyday into my classroom.  This year, I am using something called a Reading Snapshot to help my students stay accountable for their reading.  This helps them set and track goals and it also helps them keep track of what happened in each of the books they read.  Since I teach middle school, it is easy for students to switch around to different books without finishing them and that is not really helping them in understanding the text and it means that they are not enjoying it either.  This makes my heart sad, and I have been trying to find ways to help them love reading as much as I do.

One year, I had students do something that we called Reading Responses and it seemed to work well for awhile. I have almost decided that students need change after about 9 weeks of something because they get comfortable with it and begin to be more relaxed, which makes them not do it as completely and thoughtfully as I'd like.  The reading response was a sheet that had 9 activities on it.  Each one was something pretty easy and it allowed (or forced) them to interact with their book.  However, many students realized that we only did them on Fridays; so, they would "fake read" Monday through Thursday and then actually read on Friday enough to do the assignment.  

So, this year, I have been having them do the Reading Snapshot and it is going ok, but I am still not sure that they are enjoying reading time.  I think I give them too much time to read in class now (trying to overcompensate, I guess), so I am cutting it back to 15 minutes of reading time now.  We just started this this week, so more updates on that later.  The Reading Snapshot is a quick way that they have to kind of list certain aspects of the book.  For example on the Fiction one, they have to list the BME of the plot.  On Non-fiction ones, they have to list some key vocabulary words that they learned or that are key to the topic.

This 9 weeks, I have incorporated a poetry one and am having them read at least one poem as one of their snapshots.  They kind of like that (probably because a poem is short. Ha!).

The snapshots are easy and make them accountable, but I am still searching for some ideas that are more engaging and fun.
This week, I am trying to give my middle school students a task to do immediately after reading that they are accountable for to remind them to stay focused.  I have made a PowerPoint to use like bell ringers and that is how we start the day.  I saw some ideas on a friend's page and I have implemented those along with some others.  Some ideas we did this week are:
Moody Monday: After reading, describe the mood and give at least 2 examples that illustrate this particular mood.
Try it Tuesday: After reading, answer the following on an index card:
One sentence summary.
Your rating so far and why.
When finished, we shared these with a partner (that we already had set up) and this helped with accountability.
Word Wall Wednesday: After reading, write one word on an index card that you do not know or is a challenging word.Then, look it up and create a definition in your own words.  When done, we shared these aloud.
I think if students think they have to share something, they will do it because they don't want to appear left out when the rest of the kids are doing it.  Positive peer pressure.

These are the snapshots that I use each 9 weeks for middle school.

Reading Raffle
Another trick I am trying this 9 weeks is to assign students to read 20 minutes at home each night.  While they were already assigned this before, I am sure many of them did not do it.  However, this time, I have found a fun method of bribery.  Ha!
I have created a little sheet that has raffle tickets on it.  For each night, Monday through Sunday, if students read at home and have their parents sign off on it, they can bring the slip to school daily and enter it in a raffle that will happen at the end of the 9 weeks.  The more you read, the more entries you get to win.  At the end of the 9 weeks, I will buy a $20 gift card and raffle one off.  They are SO excited about this.  Many have already reminded me to get the raffle forms for next week ready.  Excitement=happy me.  I know they are really only excited about the money, but if they are reading they will eventually realize how much they love it.