The Sparkly Notebook

Mastering the ELA Standards in Middle School

Common Core Standards

Integrating Historical Content into Writing Activities

Integrating historical content into writing activities can enhance students’ understanding across different subject areas and build their prior knowledge on multiple topics simultaneously.

Although cross-content teaching is not a new concept in middle school education, it is still not as widely practiced as it could be. 

Many teachers continue to work in isolation, following a “closed door” approach where what happens within the classroom remains separate from other disciplines. 

However, this approach is outdated. 

Today, teachers must align their instruction with standards, ensuring students receive a comprehensive education with the necessary skills and resources. 

Collaboration with special education teachers and grade-level teams is now essential to support diverse learning needs effectively.

Despite these collaborative efforts, cross-content teaching is not as common as it should be. 

The Middle School ELA standard RL.9, which involves comparing and contrasting fictional accounts with historical accounts, provides a valuable opportunity to integrate history into your writing curriculum. This standard aligns perfectly with efforts to collaborate with history or social studies teachers, allowing students to engage with both historical content and ELA skills simultaneously.

Using Social Studies Connections in Writing Activities

The RL.9 standard requires students to encounter historical events through literature. To implement this standard effectively, talk with your grade-level social studies teacher to find out what historical events or topics students are currently studying or will soon study.

Then, take that information and identify fictional accounts that align with their social studies curriculum. 

Collaborate with your social studies teacher to integrate activities related to this historical content into writing activities. Then blend those writing activities into their social studies block as well as their ELA block. This approach allows students to explore the same content in two different subject areas, deepening their understanding of historical events while developing their ELA skills. It also demonstrates to students that their teachers are working together to provide a more cohesive and enriching educational experience.

In addition to collaborating with your social studies teacher, consider using RL.9-focused resources to structure your teaching. 

These resources can be used independently or as a supplement to your classroom instruction and collaboration with your social studies counterpart.

For more information about RL.9 and other ELA resources, check out our blog post series on teaching Middle School ELA standards. 

Click the link below to access our detailed blog post on RL.9, where you’ll find additional tips, learning targets, activities, and project ideas to help you plan this unit effectively.

How to Teach RL.9 in Middle School ELA
Blog Post (How to Teach RL.9 in Middle School ELA)

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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Get a Grasp on Teaching Spelling and Punctuation Early in the Year

Do you have a plan? Get a grasp on teaching spelling and punctuation early in the year!

Sometimes, as middle school teachers, we don’t feel like we should have to teach spelling and punctuation as students have been working on these skills for several years by the time we get them as 12-14 year-olds, but unfortunately, that isn’t true.

Especially now that students do so much short writing on their phones and on social media, we have to make sure that they actually know how to use proper spelling and punctuation when it is needed.

The standards say otherwise!

One set of standards that middle school ELA teachers are responsible for teaching, reviewing, and assessing with students is the language standards (along with the Writing, Reading Literature, Nonfiction Reading, and Speaking and Listening standards… I know there are a lot of them).

Many middle school teachers approach these language standards in an immersive way, assuming that the more students are exposed to good writing, the better they’ll naturally become. However, that isn’t effective, and you aren’t clearly explaining your expectations for these skills to students.

Many students who struggle with capitalization, punctuation, and spelling at the beginning of the year will still struggle with it at the end of the year unless they are explicitly taught the skills needed to master these concepts.

In our standards-based language units, we provide a plan for explicitly teaching these standards.

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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Standards-Based Language Units

Each of the language units in our store is based on the specific standards stated for each grade level. Each standard is then broken up into a set of learning targets that we used to create the lessons for that unit. These units cover teaching spelling and punctuation as well as more complicated skills students need as they work on their overall language skills.

By working through the standard this way, you know that the standard is being fully fleshed out and that each learning target is getting the attention it needs.

Although we have complete units for each standard, let’s take a closer look at one of our product descriptions so you can see what you can expect from these resources.

Note: The information about the resource is pulled directly from the product description. You can take a closer look at the 7th grade L.2 resource here or the 8th grade L.2 resource here!

How to teach L.2 in middle school ELA (7th Grade)
7th Grade L.2
How to teach L.2 in middle school ELA (8th Grade)
8th Grade L.2

In addition to the resources above, we’ve also written a blog post specifically about this standard and how to approach it in the middle school ELA classroom. This blog post goes into great detail providing resource and activity suggestions, learning targets, and much more. Click here to read the post!

The 7th-grade L.2 unit is a 52-page focused plan to help teach about the conventions of standard English including teaching spelling and punctuation. Not only does it help you teach and practice the skills, but it also gives you ways to assess for mastery.

With this standards-based resource, students will have access to several instructional resources and activities centered around spelling and grammar for 7th grade.

This resource includes everything you need to check for understanding, including a summative assessment with a rubric. All answer keys and a teacher guide are also included to make implementation even easier.

This resource includes both a printable and digital version ready for Google Classroom and other distance learning platforms. You can hand out physical copies of the activities to students or assign them digitally. 

You can use this resource: 

  • For extra writing practice
  • For classwork, center rotations
  • For assessments and test prep
  • As a whole or in parts as needed

How does this resource help teachers?

  • Easily assess where students are in their understanding of this standard
  • Encourage students to self-assess their own growth
  • Ensure standard mastery by assessing each objective within the standard

This 7.L.2  resource includes:

  • Teacher Guide with Digital Version Access 
  • L2 Defined Poster 
  • I CAN Poster 
  • Standard Self-Assessment 
  • Adjectives
    • Instructional Guide
    • Coordinate Adjectives Guide
    • Mystery Object Activity
    • Oxford Comma Guide
    • Practice Worksheet
    • Paragraph Practice
  • Spelling
    • General Rules
    • Vowel, Suffix/Dropping Letter, Prefix, Doubling Letter Patterns
    • Word Ladders Activity Guide
    • Write to Your Audience Instructional Guide
    • Homophones, Homographs, Homonyms Guide and Practice
  • Punctuation
    • Basic Review
    • 10 Comma Rules
    • Comma Check
    • Quotation Mark Rules
    • Colon & Semi-Colon Rules
    • Quotation Mark, Colon, and Semi-Colon Check
    • Around the World Game with Practice Cards
  • L2 Summative Assessment with Rubric
  • Answer Keys

When you help students get a grasp on spelling and punctuation early in the year, you are setting clear expectations for them as they continue to do more writing in your class.

To make sure you are covering the standards in full, check out all of our standards-based language standards by clicking on the links and images below!

Full 7th Grade Language Standards Bundle

Full 8th Grade Language Standards Bundle

7th Grade Standards-Based Learning Language Bundle
7th Grade Language Bundle
8th Grade Standards-based Learning Language Bundle
8th Grade Language Bundle

Delegate Your Writing Instruction this Year with These Standards-Based Writing Activities

Work smarter not harder when you delegate your writing instruction this year with these standards-based writing activities.

Sometimes, as teachers, there are things that you just really don’t like to do. For many Middle School ELA teachers, that is teaching writing. 

Writing instruction includes so many different details, such as citing sources, punctuation and language skills, capitalization, using good descriptions, and having the correct parts of an essay.

To be completely honest, those things can kind of be sucky to teach.

Luckily, you can delegate your writing instruction this year with the help of these standards-based products.

7th Grade Standards-Based Learning Bundle (Every ELA Standard)
7th Grade Bundle
8th Grade Standards-Based Learning Bundle (Every ELA Standard)
8th Grade Bundle

Make Teaching Writing Easier

Often, teachers try to meet the writing standards by simply having students create essays with very little background instruction to help support them in this process.

We assume that with the technology and resources that are accessible to them, including AI tools, citation apps, and even parents who want to be way too involved in their kids’ success, students are miraculously going to learn how to write effectively over time. 

But this is not true.

Students have to be explicitly taught how to write.

Explicit Writing Instruction in Middle School ELA

The more formal the writing, the more explicitly it needs to be taught.

In fact, in a society where students have access to so many different tools and people to help them with their writing, explicit instruction within the classroom is even more important.

Why?

Because this may be one of the only times that students are asked to write on their own without tools or other people impeding their learning. Yes, I said impeding because when students depend on tools and other people to help them with their writing, they don’t get the opportunity to learn what good writing is supposed to be or what makes good writing different from bad writing.

For example, for the average ELA teacher reading this post, it is probably driving you nuts that I’m starting sentences with conjunctions, not writing full paragraphs, and breaking many grammar rules that ELA teachers know.

BUT, you also know that in this context (blogging), a relaxed, natural way of writing is more acceptable, and therefore, the rules don’t have to be followed as strictly.

If your students never learn the rules and have to apply them without the help of their tools or other resources, they won’t have any idea how to write in different contexts. They won’t know what good writing actually is, or even when the tool or person helping them isn’t a good tool/teacher.

Over the last several years, the ELA teachers behind The Sparkly Notebook have been creating a standards-based product line that explicitly teaches each standard within the Middle School Ela curriculum.

These standard’s-based products go into great detail. Each product breaks one standard down into its individual learning targets and then provides instruction, tutorials, handouts, posters, and assessments that teachers can use to make sure students are getting explicit instructions on the skills associated with that standard.

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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Because these standards-based writing activities are so robust and provide so many additional tutorials and handouts, teachers can use these resources to delegate their writing instruction. Using video tutorials and ready-to-go writing activities and lessons, writing instruction is much easier and more purposeful.

Delegating Writing Instruction to Substitute Teachers

One of the biggest benefits of using these standards-based writing activities to help teach writing is how easy they are to delegate to subs. Now, this is true for most of the standards in this product line, but especially with the writing standards. 

Using these writing resources, you can delegate your writing instruction to substitute teachers with ease. 

The resources include detailed activities that a sub can use as they work with students (including answer keys). They also include several tutorial videos that substitute teachers can show as they’re working on writing with students.

Our goal is always to make instruction easier and more organized for middle school ELA teachers. If we can help you delegate your writing instruction this year, we are happy to do that.

Click on the links below for more information on the resources and suggestions for each of the middle school writing standards!

4 Ways to Use Our Standards Product Line

Save a whole lot of planning time with these 4 ways to use our standards product line in your middle school classroom.

Planning and preparing for middle school ELA is not easy. It takes a lot of time, resources,  and creativity to put together a plan that will not only teach students everything they need to know to master the middle school ELA standards but also to do it in a way in which they will be engaged and on task.

 As a group of middle school teachers, we know how difficult it is to put all the pieces together to create a cohesive plan for the school year. 

That is why we have spent a good amount of time creating a full unit of study for each of the middle school ELA standards. Today, we’re talking about 4 ways to use our standards product line in your middle school classroom.

4 Ways to Use Our Standards Product Line 

#1 | Weekly Units of Study

First, you can use the standard-based product line to create weekly units of study. 

To begin, pick out the standard that you want to work on during a given week of school, and then dig into the unit designed for that standard and pull out the resources that you would like to use as you review with your students. 

Each of the standards-based resources has the standard broken down into different learning targets, and these learning targets will be the focus of your instruction for that particular week.

Going with this weekly unit of study plan will help you to ensure that each standard is covered fully and that students are given time to learn, review, and be assessed on each standard throughout the school year.

Note:  Some of the units are not as long as others and can be combined.

#2 | Activities to Supplement Class Novels

If your school already has certain novels or certain units that they intend for you to teach in a given class, these resources can also be used as supplemental materials. 

If you notice that a certain student is having trouble figuring out a specific topic, you can pull the resources or activities that you need from that standard to use with them for practice. 

You can also pull out the activities that you enjoy the most and apply them directly to the novels or other units that you’re already planning to teach in the class.

Although these resources are designed as full units, each has several activities and handouts that can be used or implemented within other units of study.

7th Grade Standards-Based Learning Bundle (Every ELA Standard)
7th Grade Bundle
8th Grade Standards-Based Learning Bundle (Every ELA Standard)
8th Grade Bundle

#3 | Pull Activities to Spiral Standards Review

Another topic we like to talk about a lot is spiraling standards. 

Spiraling standards means that you are incorporating different standards into the curriculum throughout the year so that students get ongoing practice even when a particular standard is not the focus of instruction.

By spiraling instruction, teachers are able to give students an opportunity to review content so that it does not become stale or forgotten.

Teachers can use the standards-based resources as supplemental materials that they can spiral in throughout the year. This could look like bringing in activity from one of the units each week as an exit ticket or bell ringer.

#4 | To Create Student Resource Notes/Posters

Lastly, the standards-based resources can be used as reference materials. 

In addition to providing learning targets, standard breakdowns, activities, and assessments, these resources also include posters and handouts that can be combined to provide students with reference materials they can keep with them as they continue to learn about different topics.

Teachers can use these reference materials to create posters, design bulletin boards, or create packets that their students can use for notes or review.

As you decide how you can use these standard space resources throughout the year, know that they were built with the intent to save teachers time and bring some additional creativity to their lessons while still focusing on the standards that need to be taught at the middle school level. 

As you consider these four ways to use our standards product line, we hope that you will feel empowered and confident that you will be able to teach, review, and assess the standards in a way that your students will be able to master them by the end of the year! 

We have written blog posts about EVERY middle school ELA standard. Each blog post includes learning targets, project ideas, resource suggestions, and more! Below we have linked each post so that you may easily choose the standard that you want to focus on first!

Writing Standards (for Middle School)

Reading Literature

Reading Informative Texts

Language Standards

Speaking and Listening Standards

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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Activities for Comparing and Contrasting Author’s Voice/Purpose

Today, we’re providing 4 activities for comparing and contrasting the author’s voice/purpose.

Authors write for various reasons. Depending on their topic, authors might be trying to convince a reader to do something or spread a message to a wider audience through their work.

No matter what their purpose is, part of our job as educators is to help students identify the author’s purpose, analyze an author’s voice, and figure out why the author is trying to share that information with us.

The author’s purpose varies depending on the type of text being written.

Sometimes, an author is trying to entertain, persuade, or provide information on a topic. Other times, an author is not talking about a specific topic but rather trying to open our eyes to a specific theme or cultural issue that they want to address.

Often, students think that all literature, whether it is a poem, a piece of music, a book, an article in a newspaper, or even a blog post, is simply meant to entertain people and is up to the interpretation of the audience member,  but that is rarely the case.

Instead, most pieces of literature are written with a specific intent or purpose in mind, and we must be detectives as we try to figure out what hidden information, or sometimes even completely obvious information, the author is trying to share with us.

Today, we will explore activities for comparing and contrasting an author’s voice/purpose and provide different directions you can take as you work through this skill with your middle school ELA students.

4 Activities for Comparing and Contrasting Author’s Voice/Purpose

Activity #1 | Paired Passages

One direction I like to go when working with an author’s voice or an author’s purpose is to use paired passages written by the same person.  In The Sparkly Notebook Store, we have dozens of paired passages written by the same person on a variety of topics. Any one of these paired passage resources could be used as a way for students to analyze an author’s voice on a particular topic.

In addition to the passage being written by the same person, each paired passage set focuses both passages on the same topic. This opens up conversations for students to discuss the different ways that the author is framing the information in order to have a specific intent or purpose.

Students can use these passages to discuss and/or write about how the author uses the information, word choice, or examples to make their point.

Activity #2 | Informational Texts vs. Literature Texts

Another way to approach activities for comparing and contrasting authors’ voices/purposes is to break down how this looks different depending on whether the text is informational or literature-based. 

One of the best ways to broach this topic is to look at the way the standards for the author’s voice/purpose are written.

For each of these standards, we have developed a full unit study that teachers can use as they work through the author’s voice and the author’s purpose with their students. These units are fully built out and grade-level appropriate, so students can learn, review, and be assessed on the author’s intent, whether it is in the context of an informational text or a literature-based text. Click on the images below to learn more about each standard-based unit.

RI.6.6
RI.6.9
RI.7.6
RI.7.9
8.RI.6
8.RI.9

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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Activity #3 | Author’s Purpose Similar Topics

Another activity you can try when working with an author’s purpose is to examine different authors’ purposes across a similar topic. 

An easy way to do this in modern times is to look at blog posts. Pull four blog posts on the same topic, all with different authors. 

Give students some time to read each, discuss what information is included in each, discuss what information is not included in each, and then spend some time discussing why the author may or may not have included the information they did. What was the author’s goal with this blog post? What was their purpose?

Another way to do the same activity is to look at news outlets covering the same major event. Choose an event that students would have some interest in. For example, you could choose an event that is taking place in sports, the Olympics, politics, or even music or gaming. Give students time to review the text or news reports and discuss how the author’s intent or purpose affected the way that the information was presented. 

Activity #4 | Same Author Different Texts

The last of our activities for comparing and contrasting an author’s voice/purpose involves looking at how the same author writes within different contexts. This can include reading two novels by the same author, two blog posts by the same author, or any other type of text in which the author writes about two different topics entirely.

Does the author have a way of writing that is consistent across the different topics? 

Do they have a specific type of topic that they prefer to write about? 

How does their intent or purpose change with the topic they are writing on?

Do they tend to write on the same themes or with the same amount of passion, no matter the topic?

The more students can understand how an author’s purpose can change the interpretation of a text, the less likely they are to be easily swayed by a singular interpretation of an event. 

Likewise, they will also begin to understand that words are rarely just words. Words are often filled with nuance and meaning, and it takes a skilled eye to truly understand the message that someone is trying to spread through their writing.

Hopefully, these activities for comparing and contrasting authors’ voices/purposes will inspire you to approach this topic with an open mind and creativity!

Master BOTH Sets of Reading Standards (Informational and Literature) in Middle School ELA

Help your students master both sets of reading standards with this breakdown of the Reading Literature and Informational Reading standards for middle school ELA.

Sometimes, it feels like ELA teachers get the short end of the stick when it comes to standards. 

Not only are there a lot of ELA standards, but they are also super vague at times, making them hard to assess and hard to plan for. We have to plan, review, and assess nine Reading Literature Standards, nine Informational Reading Standards, nine Writing Standards, five Language Standards, and five Speaking and Listening Standards.

Many of them also have to be assessed through longer writing assignments…which is not usually very much fun, especially when you have 130+ students.

Luckily, most of the standards work well together. For example, we can practice writing about our analysis of informational reading material or speak about the books we’re reading as part of our literature units.

Thank goodness we are able to practice these many standards together.

Mastering these ELA standards is difficult, though, as many ELA teachers have a preference for one or two of these standards groups over the others. For example, some teachers really like nonfiction and informational literature, while others love reading and analyzing novels. 

Today, in an effort to make planning easier, we are going to discuss the major differences between the Reading Literature Standards and the Reading Information Standards in middle school ELA.

RL Standards vs. RI Standards

We’ve written a dedicated blog post for each of the RL and RI standards. If there is a specific standard you’d like to look into and learn about in more detail, click on the appropriate link below.

Reading Literature Posts

Reading Informational Standard Posts

At their most basic level, the RL standards deal with fictional writing, and the RI standards focus on nonfiction or informational writing. Each covers a variety of different types of literature that fall into those categories.

For example, the RL standards can be practiced using poetry, short stories, dramas, novels, etc. Likewise, RI standards can be practiced using newspaper articles, journal articles, nonfiction books, reference texts, etc.

Let’s go through each standard set and discuss its similarities and differences. For this exercise, we’ll focus on the 7th-grade standards, as these fall right in the middle of the middle school experience.

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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Standard 1 

  • RL.1 – Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences drawn from the text.
  • RI.1 – Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences drawn from the text.

As you can see, these standards are exactly the same. This means that we just need to make sure students practice citing textual evidence from both literature and informational texts, and we should be good!

Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!

How to Teach RL.1 in Middle School ELA
How to Teach RI.1 in Middle School ELA

Standard 2

  • RL.2 – Determine a theme and/or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
  • RI.2 – Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text

The main difference between these standards is that we don’t use the word theme in relation to informational texts. Knowing this difference could build a great speaking and listening practice opportunity around why this might be. Why would “theme” not be used with informational texts? It is a key part of the reading literature standards.

Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!

How to Teach RL.2 in Middle School ELA
How to Teach RI.2 in Middle School ELA

Standard 3

  • RL.3 – Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how settings shape the characters or plot).
  • RI.3 – Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events or how individuals influence ideas or events).

This is where the standards start to differ quite a bit. In the Reading Literature standards, standard 3 is focused on the elements of a story. This is when we start busting out the story element lists and discussing how dramas are created and performed.

On the other hand, the Informational Reading Standard focuses on how informational texts might use the interactions between people, events, and ideas to influence readers. Obviously, these are very different, and each one needs to be taught exclusively. In our RI. 3 unit resource and our RL.3 unit resource, we have handouts, activities, and assessments for each of these incredibly different standards.

Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!

How to Teach RL.3 in Middle School ELA
How to Teach RI.3 in Middle School ELA

Standard 4

  • RL.4 – Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama
  • RI.4 – Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.

Now, the 4th standard includes a little bit of the same and some very key differences. 

For example, both standards focus on determining the meaning of words and phrases, but the informational standard specifically mentions technical meanings, so you’ll definitely need to pull out some examples of technical meanings while studying informational texts. 

Additionally, the reading literature standard also has a heavy focus on poetry or verse writing, mentioning rhyme and sound repetition. This will be a lesson that you’ll focus on while studying literature, but you won’t need to focus on when reading informational texts.

Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!

How to Teach RL.4 in Middle School ELA
How to Teach RI.4 in Middle School ELA

Standard 5

  • RL.5 – Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.
  • RI.5 – Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.

Standard 5 is all about structure, but obviously, the structure is going to change based on the type of reading you’re doing. If you’re reading a passage from a reference book, you’ll see more headings and subheadings, but if you’re reading from a blog post, you’ll see other types of structure.

The reading literature standard here specifically focuses on poetry in 7th grade, so there is a big difference in how you’ll teach each of these standards.

Again, we have units built out for EVERY ELA middle school standard, so you’ll want to click on the images below to learn more about these units and how our resources can help you teach them in a way that will help your students master them!

Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!

How to Teach RL.5 in Middle School ELA
How to Teach RI.5 in Middle School ELA

Standard 6

  • RL.6 – Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.
  • RI. 6 – Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes their position from that of others.

Standard 6 is all about the authors’ choices in both informational texts and when reading literature, but we use different terms to discuss these. 

In the Reading Literature standard, students are asked to look more deeply into the point of view of the characters; however, the Informational Reading standard is all about determining the author’s purpose and how they use their purpose to present the information/position.

Again, these are very different, so you’ll want to read the blog posts below to learn more about how we’ve broken these units down.

Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!

How to Teach RL.6 in Middle School ELA
How to Teach RI.6 in Middle School ELA

Standard 7

  • RL.7 – Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film)
  • RI. 7 – Compare and contrast a text to an audio, video, or multimedia version of the text, analyzing each medium’s portrayal of the subject (e.g., how the delivery of a speech affects the impact of the words).

Although the words used in this standard are very different from RL to RI, they are actually asking for the same thing. They ask students to view the same piece or topic in multiple ways to see how the different versions of the story or the events compare and contrast. 

Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!

How to Teach RL.7 in Middle School ELA
How to Teach RI.7 in Middle School ELA

Standard 8

  • RL.8 – Reading Standard is not applicable to literature
  • RI. 8 – Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.

Standard 8 is not applicable to literature, so in this situation, the Informational Reading standard stands on its own!

Read the full blog posts about this standard by clicking on the images below!

How to Teach RI.8 in Middle School ELA
Blog Post (How to Teach RI.8 in Middle School ELA)

Standard 9

  • RL.9 – Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history
  • RI. 9 – Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing the different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.

Standard 9 is another place where the RL and RI standards differ greatly, and each needs to be addressed as their own units. 

Both standards discuss how authors can frame a topic to meet the needs of their writing, but they do it in very different ways depending on whether they are writing a piece of fiction or an informational piece.

Read the full blog posts about each of these standards by clicking on the images below!

How to Teach RL.9 in Middle School ELA
How to teach RI.9 in middle school ELA.

Reading Standard Resource Bundles

As you consider how you’ll teach the Reading Literature and Informational Reading Standards this year and do it in a way that your students will master both sets of reading standards, you may find yourself needing some help.

If you want to take the guesswork out of teaching reading this year, check out our full 6th, 7th and 8th grade reading literature and information bundles in our Tpt Store! Each is fully built out and includes EVERY standard listed for that category!

Happy Planning!

Checklists for Planning Your Middle School ELA Curriculum This School Year

Check out these checklists for planning your middle school ELA curriculum this school year!

Planning for your classes can be really difficult as there are so many different standards to focus on. 

One key resource we like to use, whether we are working with new or seasoned teachers, is checklists.

The Value of a Checklist

Checklists give us a clearly defined list of things to think about. 

Although some people like a checklist for checking off tasks that get done, I am all about freeing up some headspace.

Checklists help to declutter the brain and bring focus to the tasks we need to get done.

Checklists are also good for referring back to throughout the year and editing as needed. 

For example, once your state testing days are set, you may find yourself going back to the checklist to make sure your timeline will still work and that students have had the time to learn all the standards and review them before state testing begins.

Checkout this blog post about using these checklists to make sure students are prepared for standardized tests!

Preparing students for standardized tests with

Standards-Based Checklists for ELA Teachers

Standards-based checklists, like the ones we use, list the standards, suggest key terms to focus on regarding each standard, and provide space to write about how/where the standard is being taught, reviewed, and assessed throughout the year. 

The first tab of the checklists lets you look at the standards in terms of which quarter of the year you’re working on them. The second tab gives you space to consider when they are being taught and to put in dates or months for when they will be spiraled back into the curriculum.

Finally, the third tab lays out the standard next to the same standard from the previous grade level. So, if you’re looking at the 6th grade standards, then on this final tab, you’ll be able to see the 5th and 6th grade standards side-by-side.

When you use these checklists to plan your curriculum this year, you not only get a chance to make a plan but also some headspace back, as you will have a clear picture of what needs to be taught and how it compares to the grade level that came before it.

Available Checklist for ELA Teachers

We have a bunch of standards checklists available to help you save an enormous amount of time finding, typing out, and organizing all the standards yourself. Just click on the links below to see the details of what each checklist has to offer!

K-5 ELA Common Core Standards Checklist Bundle

K-5th Grade ELA Common Core Checklist Bundle

K-12 Standards Breakdown and Checklists Bundle – Common Core

Common Core Bundle (Checklists)

5th Grade ELA Common Core Checklist

5th Grade ELA Common Core Checklist

6th Grade ELA Common Core Checklist

Preparing Middle School Students for standardized tests: 6th grade standards checklist
6th Grade Checklist

7th Grade ELA Common Core Checklist

Preparing Middle School Students for Standardized Tests: (7th Grade Standards Checklist)
7th Grade Checklist

8th Grade ELA Common Core Checklist

8th Grade Standards Checklist
8th Grade Checklist

As you begin planning your middle school ELA curriculum this year, you may find it helpful to check out all of our additional Sparkly Notebook Checklists Here!  We have several different versions and grade levels to make your planning process easier!

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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3 Products Middle School ELA Teachers Should Have Ready to Go for Back-to-School

Today we’re presenting a toolbox of products middle school ELA teachers should have ready to go for back-to-school to make planning and prep so much easier!

Although I’ve taught for a long time, it seems that every year is a brand new year where things change, and I have to figure out how everything on my middle school ELA teacher mental checklist is going to get done.

Now, we totally get it. You’re a professional, you already know the standards, and you have some ideas for lessons, but sometimes it’s nice to have something sitting in your back pocket, ready to go, just in case. 

  • In case you end up with a super-short class period.
  • Just in case you get sick in the middle of the night and you don’t want to have to come up with a new lesson plan.
  • Just in case you’re feeling brain dead, and the ideas are not flowing around one standard or another.
  • Just in case you suddenly realize there is a standard you haven’t addressed…like at all!

That is why having the right resources ready to go is important to both your organization and your mental strength. So today, we’re going to get really specific about the 3 products middle school ELA teachers should have ready to go for back-to-school. These products were all made by middle school ELA teachers, based on middle school ELA standards, and designed to fit into a middle school schedule.

#1 | Standards-Based Checklists

You have to ensure you’re hitting the standards, and if you are missing something, you need to know sooner rather than later.

Using these standards-based checklists at the beginning and throughout the year as you fine-tune lessons and plans will help you be certain that everything that needs to be covered is being taken care of.

Preparing Middle School Students for standardized tests: 6th grade standards checklist
6th Grade Checklist
Preparing Middle School Students for Standardized Tests: (7th Grade Standards Checklist)
7th Grade Checklist
8th Grade Standards Checklist
8th Grade Checklist

#2 | Get the Standards-Based Resource Line

We have developed a full resource line that includes a full unit on EVERY ELA standard for 7th and 8th grade and some 6th-grade standards.

These units are completely built out with learning targets, standard breakdowns, posters, projects, handouts, answer keys, and assessments for EVERY middle school ELA standard. 

If you want to learn more, we have also written blog posts on these standards-based units, simply click on the standard you want to learn more about from the list below and you’ll go directly to a blog post all about that resource.

Writing Standards (for Middle School)

Reading Literature

Reading Informative Texts

Language Standards

Speaking and Listening Standards

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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#3 | Paired Passages

Paired passages are a middle school ELA teacher’s secret weapon.

The paired passages themselves are awesome lessons if you need a quick sub plan, or if you need a passage for students to practice a skill on. Still, they are also awesome for citing sources, practicing using context clues, seeking out parts of speech or sentence patterns, and so much more. With two passages written on every topic and the topics focusing on high-interest topics for middle school students, you will have a bunch of content that you can use as is or mix and match into other units throughout the year.

4th-5th Grade Paired Passage Bundle

6th-7th Grade Paired Passage Bundle

8th-9th Grade Paired Passage Bundle

BONUS Resource | Digital Escape Rooms

Although these are not one of the 3 products middle school ELA teachers SHOULD have ready to go for back to school, they are definitely a product that makes life a whole lot easier and quite a bit more fun.

Digital Escape Rooms, like those in The Sparkly Notebook store, are all about practicing ELA skills in an engaging and thought-provoking way.

Many of our Digital Escape Rooms are based on holiday or seasonal themes and are a great way to add in some seasonal fun without getting too far away from standards-based review.

Digital Escape Room Bundle

When you invest in these 3 products, middle school teachers should be ready to go for back-to-school. You get back a lot of time spent organizing and creating new resources. By picking up just these 3 resources, you’ll have enough content to last the whole year, and you’ll know students are covering, reviewing, and being assessed on all the standards as well!

Revamp your Socratic Seminar Lessons Next Year with our SL Standard Products

Revamp your Socratic Seminar lessons next year by explicitly teaching students how to do a Socratic Seminar correctly.

Socratic Seminars are not new, although I do remember about the time they started to make a pretty big impact on education.

My favorite part about doing Socratic Seminars with students is seeing how they approach the conversation once their nosy teacher (i.e., me) gets out of the way and lets them get to work.

That is probably the best part…Socratic Seminars give students agency and ownership over the conversation.

The only problem with discussions this way in middle school is that students are not naturally good at leading and participating in discussions.

They need practice…lots and lots of practice.

Since we saw the need for teachers to have resources to help work with students on Socratic Seminars as well as on other speaking and listening skills, we created resources for both 7th and 8th grade, completely covering the SL.1-3 standards.

Check out this blog post for a thorough run-down on the SL.1-3 standards, learning targets, resources and more!

How to teach SL.1-3

Revamping Your Socratic Seminar Lessons

The Sparkly Notebook SL.1-3 resources provide teacher tips for Socratic Seminars, including the following suggestions.

  • Choose a topic and give students time to prepare.
  • Sit somewhere away from the seminar circle and observe from a distance.
  • Allow students to have their seminar without your interference. Yes, this may mean that the conversation could have awkward pauses. Yes, this could mean that your students will stop and stare at you for direction at different times. Yes, the conversation may not go the way you had planned. But this is all okay. Let the students move the conversation forward. The sooner they learn that they can in fact engage with each other about educational topics without you, the better!
  • Try to refrain from shifting the conversation in any way. At most, remind the students of the conversation tactic questions that they can use to move the conversation forward or regain focus.
  • Observe all students, not just the speakers. Your role is to offer feedback and assess students in both the speaking and listening roles of the seminar.
  • Although you are assessing multiple children at one time, try to offer at least one piece of useful feedback per student.

Unlike a lot of Socratic seminar resources where the focus is on the content and not actually on the speaking and listening practice and skills, this SL.1-3 resource is solely focused on getting your students ready to have quality conversations on a variety of topics.

We reiterate over and over that the seminar should be a “genuine discussion.”

We don’t want our Socratic Seminars to feel staged or too educational. We want them to be real conversations between students without teacher interference or redirection.

We are giving the reins to the students and letting them figure out how to steer.

Setting the Stage

In addition to teacher tips, we also take time to talk about setting the stage for a good professional discussion…going as far as to suggest that every discussion should begin with a handshake (or, in this post-pandemic world, a wave or elbow bump).

Acknowledging and showing appreciation for the other people in the discussion is often way outside the norm for students, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be the expectation and act as a reminder that this isn’t a conversation happening in the hallway or at a friend’s house. It is a formal conversation, and even though we want it to be genuine, it also still needs to be professional, and everyone who is a part of it should be treated with respect.

Reframing the Conversation – Student Led

There is a good chance that throughout the discussion, students will encounter awkward silences. 

Maybe the same person continues to state the same perspective over and over again. 

Maybe the conversation has gone down a rabbit hole of off-topic discussion. 

Either way, you’ll want your students to know what to do when a reframe is needed. In our SL.1-3 resource, we address this concern with a list of reframing questions to help students get back on track.

We don’t want students to wait for the teacher to step in when there is a lull in the conversation. Instead, we take the time to teach our students how to handle the moment.

We teach them to recognize these situations and find a way to refocus the conversation or continue to move the conversation forward.

If you’re looking for a good revamp of your Socratic Seminar lessons next year, then the SL.1-3 resources are a must-have! They are thorough, provide the handouts and posters you need to make sure your students can learn the skills and include assessments of the skills.

Click on the images below to learn more.

How to teach SL.1-3 in Middle School ELA (7th Grade)
How to teach SL.1-3 in Middle School ELA (8th Grade)

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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Review the ELA Middle School Standards…have your students learned all of them?

With the end of the year, we know it is time to review the ELA middle school standards, and really think about what you need to teach, reteach, or review as we head into the fourth quarter.

We all know that teaching is like juggling a million things at once, and every once in a while, we drop one of the things we’re trying to keep in the air.

Sometimes, those things we drop are the standards.

If we don’t have a good system in place, despite our best efforts, we may lose track of whether our students are truly hitting the mark when it comes to the ELA middle school standards.

However, if we have a good plan to review the ELA middle school standards (in an organized and purposeful fashion, of course!), we can be sure that we are on the right track!

Getting to Know the Middle School ELA Standards

The middle school ELA standards are like the GPS for our teaching journey. They map out what our students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade level.

But like a GPS, there are usually many different routes you can take to get students to know the skills outlined in the standards. This is where we, as middle school ELA teachers, get to add in our own flair and fun. 

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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How to Review the Middle School ELA Standards in a Purposeful Way

The best way that I know to review the middle school ELA standards in a purposeful way is through a checklist.

I break down every standard into a list in an Excel document and then make a plan for when I will introduce, review, and assess each standard.

In the middle of the year, during review, I make sure that I’ve followed my plan or take note of anything I’ve missed.

This checklist can take a long time to set up, but once I have it set up, I can revisit it over and over. 

Our Standards-Based Checklists

To make it easier for our teachers to review the ELA middle school standards, we’ve created standard checklists for teachers in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. 

These checklists have all of the standards for each grade level and a comparison chart so that you can see how the standard compares to the previous grade. 

I love the comparison charts because I can see how the standard is just a little different at each level…or not.

Click on the images below to see each checklist in more detail.

Preparing Middle School Students for standardized tests: 6th grade standards checklist
6th Grade Checklist
Preparing Middle School Students for Standardized Tests: (7th Grade Standards Checklist)
7th Grade Checklist
8th Grade Standards Checklist
8th Grade Checklist

Spotting the Gaps

As you work through the checklists, look for places where you may be introducing the standard, but you aren’t reviewing it. Or maybe you’re introducing it and reviewing it, but you are not formally assessing it.

Maybe there is a part of the standard that you’re hitting but a part that you’re not.

In this blog post, we go over how to break the standards down into learning targets and then make a plan for the year. These learning targets give us a checklist of manageable tasks that we can focus on to ensure the standard is being fully taught.

In each of our blog posts on the middle school ELA standards, we’ve broken the standard we’re discussing into learning targets. Click on the posts below to read more about the standards you feel you need to cover in more detail.

Resources and Blog Posts for Each Standard

Note: We also have a resource for each standard. In the resource, we’ve broken the standard down into learning targets and then developed lessons for each! We’ve written a blog post about each of these standards and our resources for them. Click on the links below to take a closer look at the standard your students need more work on!

Writing Standards (for Middle School)

Reading Literature

Reading Informative Texts

Language Standards

Speaking and Listening Standards

When you review the ELA Middle School Standards, it doesn’t have to be a stress-inducing ordeal. 

You just need a plan or checklist that you can follow along with and refer back to as you move through the school year. Hopefully, this blog post has provided you with plenty of both to make this process one you can ease into!

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