Middle School ITS ELA

This a great site that will motivate students to write.

Do you need a short clip of video to compliment your activity or lesson? No problem. Browse through one of our subject categories or use our advanced search to find a clip that suits your needs.

A free Website that allows teachers (or students and parents) to enter their own spelling words. The students can then learn the words, play games with the words, and take a test on the words. Now, the site has added a gradebook feature. The site works great with the SMART Board or other interactive whiteboards.

Explore the power of language! This collection of video segments, activities and lesson plans from public television focuses on literacy skills for early childhood readers through high school students.

This is an interactive website designed specifically for students in grades K - 8. Here you will find dozens of interactive games, activities, worksheets, and teacher tools that pinpoint essential skills. MrNussbaum.com was created and developed by a teacher! Many of the activities are color-coded. Red = Grade 1 + Orange = Grade 2+ Yellow = Grade 3+ Green = Grade 4 + Blue = Grade 5+

Wordle is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

"Kidblog.org is designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to provide each student with their own, unique blog. "

"Kidblog.org is designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to provide each student with their own, unique blog. Kidblog's simple, yet powerful tools allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community. Teachers maintain complete control over student blogs. Set up your class with no student email addresses."

A collection of links to a large collection of language arts online activities

Book Adventure is a FREE reading motivation program for children in grades K-8. Children create their own book lists from over 7,000 recommended titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they've read, and earn points and prizes for their literary successes. Book Adventure was created by and is maintained by Sylvan Learning.

Effective TeachingImmersive LearningStudents InteractSubjects and Skills Come Alive

ReadWriteThink is a great site for ELA lesson ideas. All supplemental materials are provided as well and can be downloaded and saved to your personal computer. You can search by grade level and subject area. I have used many lessons from this site with my 7th graders and they have all been high quality.

This provides educators and students access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction through free, Internet-based content.

There are over 20,000 free books in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog. A grand total of over 100,000 titles is available at Project Gutenberg Partners, Affiliates and Resources.

There are over 20

free electronic books (ebooks).

After completing their reporting sheet on Fridays do you report this as a grade? Do you also assess them on their behaviors during this time? We are constantly debating the use and appropriateness of setting aside an SSR time.

Good writing skills are essential for effective communication. Learning to write well takes time and practice. Be sure to leave yourself enough time for all of these steps.

How to write a book report, biography, research paper, term paper, speech, letter, or essay (narrative, descriptive, persuasive, cause/effect, comparison/contrast). Areas about spelling, grammar, and sentence structure.

American Heritage® 
100 Science Words Every College Graduate Should Know Download

Free for all ipods since April 2003 excluding the Shuffle

The Top 10 U.S. Milestone Documents you can download to your iPod, ALL FREE: 

Word Meaning Games and Activities

Phonics activities, printable posters

an adaptive, leveled, nonfiction, reading system for Grades 3-8 that includes software that differentiates instruction, high-interest print materials, and comprehensive teacher resources. ReadAbout begins by assessing a student's reading level, skill ability and interests. The program presents three reading topics that reflect the student's individual needs. Every topic addresses reading achievement by providing anchored instruction, scaffolded reading, informative assessment, and personalized practice.