Welcome to the Middle School Cafe! Why have I called my site a cafe? Well, if you know me as well as my students do, you'll understand one very important thing about me - I LOVE coffee! I call it froo-froo coffee (mocha's, latte's, skinny, nonfat, extra shot, well you get the picture), the fancier the better. Unlike many who visit the coffee house, I don't have just one specialty drink I ...
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Latest from the Cafe
Ways to Restock your Classroom Library
Summertime is a great time to restock and refresh your classroom library. I want my classroom library to always be up to date with what students want to read. At the end of each year, I go through my library and pull books students are no longer reading. I haven’t actually done this since June ...
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Strategies for Better Reading Conferences
I’ll admit that when I first started implementing Reader’s Workshop conferring was the most difficult aspect to grasp - not because I don't like talking to my students but because it sounds like something more official, more structured than what it turned out to be.
I thought I had to know ...
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Show off your love of reading – Building a Culture of Reading in Class
If someone were to walk into your classroom, would they know how much you value reading? Have you created a culture of reading within the four walls of your classroom?
Even before someone walks into my classroom, they get a sense that this classroom values reading. I've posted reading ...
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Get to Know your Students as Readers
We often assume that because we teach secondary ELA that students come to us with a rich history of reading. After all, don’t they require reading in elementary school?
I know this is what I believed when I started teaching all those many years ago! What I discovered, however, was ...
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5 Important things to Remember when Launching Reader’s Workshop
Are you looking to start Reader’s Workshop with your secondary ELA students? Whether you are starting at the beginning of the year or somewhere in the middle, I encourage you to take the time needed to purposefully launch each part of the reading strategy.
While there is no one ...
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Getting Students to Fall in Love with Reading
What if your students came to class everyday asking, “Do we get to read today?” I promise you, this can and does happen all the time. What’s the key to having students beg for more reading time? Simple – student choice! When students read the books they want to read, they fall in love ...
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