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Teaching Middle School ELA

Welcome to the Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast, where we help English Language Arts teachers create dynamic, engaging lessons while balancing the everyday responsibilities of teaching middle school.

I’m Caitlin Mitchell, a longtime ELA educator and curriculum creator, and I know firsthand how challenging it can be to manage grading, planning, and student needs—while still trying to have a life outside the classroom. That’s why every Tuesday and Thursday, I bring you practical strategies, curriculum inspiration, and innovative teaching ideas to help you feel confident, prepared, and energized.

Whether you’re looking to revamp your writing instruction, streamline your planning process, or engage even the most reluctant readers and writers, you’ll find actionable support here. You’ll also hear real classroom stories, fresh lesson ideas, and occasional interviews with other passionate educators.

If you teach reading and writing to middle schoolers and want to stay inspired and up-to-date with best practices in ELA education, you’re in the right place. Tune in every week and let’s transform your teaching—together.

Latest Episodes:

Episode 462: A Not-So-Spooky Halloween Activity for Any ELA Skill Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

The Friday before Halloween can feel like controlled chaos in a middle school ELA classroom! So why not lean into the excitement with a fun review activity that keeps students engaged while still checking their understanding?

In this week's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast, we're sharing our Not-So-Spooky House Design Pronouns Review Activity—a creative drawing challenge that doubles as a meaningful ELA skills check. Students answer questions, follow the drawing direction connected to their chosen answer, and watch their pictures come to life. When they compare their finished houses with the answer key, the differences spark conversations that get students explaining their thinking, defending their answers, and reviewing grammar in a way that feels more like fun than another worksheet.

We'll walk you through exactly how to set up the activity, from creating a simple house outline to adding about ten question boxes, three answer choices per question, and a different drawing option for each choice. It's a simple structure you can use to turn a regular review into an engaging, interactive lesson—even on one of the most energetic days of the school year!

And the best part? You can use this strategy for so much more than pronouns! We'll show you how to adapt it for grammar, figurative language, literary devices, spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. We'll also share easy seasonal alternatives if your school doesn't celebrate Halloween, so you can keep the same engaging format going throughout the year.

If you're looking for a creative way to review important ELA skills without sacrificing engagement or academic purpose, this episode is for you!

Want to be the first to hear about upcoming EB Academics trainings, events, and opportunities?

Join our priority list here: https://www.ebteacher.com/portal

If you try this activity, share it with an ELA teammate who could use a fresh review idea! Don't forget to subscribe to the Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast and leave a review to help more middle school teachers discover practical, time-saving classroom strategies.

Episode 461: Monday Mindset: Be the Reason Oct 26, 2026

Show notes

Negativity is loud right now, and teaching can sometimes feel like you're carrying more than anyone realizes. But what if one small act of kindness could change someone's entire day?

In this week's Monday Mindset, Caitlin shares a personal moment involving a small back-to-school gift for someone at her son's school and the emotional reaction she never expected. It was a powerful reminder of how much it means to feel seen, appreciated, and cared for—especially in school communities where so many people are running on empty.

Not through forced positivity or pretending teaching isn't hard, but by choosing to lead with good energy, show up with intention, and, as her dad says, “operate from peace.”

Your Monday Mindset challenge: What's one small act of generosity you can offer someone this week?

Want to stay in the loop with EB Academics? Join our priority list to be among the first to hear about upcoming trainings, events, and opportunities!

Get on the list here: https://www.ebteacher.com/portal

If this episode resonates with you, subscribe so you don't miss a Monday Mindset, share it with a teacher friend who could use a reset, and leave a review to help more ELA teachers find the support they need.

Episode 460: Hidden Gems of EB Series: The Best EBW Resources You Might Be Missing Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

Your writing block doesn’t need more moving parts. It needs fewer repeat questions and better routines!

In this week’s episode of the Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast, we’re sharing three hidden gems inside our EBW evidence-based writing approach that can help your students write stronger Response to Literature paragraphs with clearer claims, stronger text evidence, and more thoughtful justification—without you having to reteach the same skills all period.

Join us LIVE for our FREE EB Writing Live Workshop on October 24!

Want to strengthen your writing instruction and learn practical strategies to help your students become more confident writers? Come join us live! Register for free here:

https://www.ebteacher.com/eb-writing-live

Want to be the first to hear about what's coming next at EB Academics?

Join our priority list to stay in the loop on upcoming trainings, events, and opportunities!

Get on the list here: https://www.ebteacher.com/portal

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast for more practical classroom ideas, share it with an ELA teammate, and leave a quick review to help more middle school teachers find us!

Episode 459: Monday Mindset: Same Classroom, Completely Different Experience Oct 19, 2026

Show notes

Some days, teaching feels manageable. Other days, it feels impossible. And the frustrating part? Nothing on your schedule has changed.

In this week's Monday Mindset, we're exploring how the world within us shapes the way we experience our classrooms. If you've been dealing with Sunday anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, or constantly wondering how you're supposed to fit everything in, this episode is for you.

Plus, join us for a FREE live EB Writing Live workshop on October 24!

If you're ready to strengthen your writing instruction and discover practical strategies you can bring into your classroom, we'd love to have you join us live.

Register here: https://www.ebteacher.com/eb-writing-live

Want to be first to hear about what's coming to EB Academics? Join our priority list to stay in the loop!

Get on the list here: https://www.ebteacher.com/portal

If this episode resonates with you, subscribe so you don't miss a Monday Mindset, share it with an ELA teacher who could use a reset, and leave a review to help more middle school teachers find the support they need.

Episode 458: Hidden Gems of EB Series: Skip the Unit Test and Try These Projects Instead Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back. For today's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, we are continuing our Hidden Gems of EB Series.

Skip the unit test without skipping the standards. Caitlin and our curriculum writer Pat share three end-of-unit project ideas that feel like a fun weekend for students but function as a rigorous, evidence-based assessment for you.
First, we break down a classroom “drive-in movie” built around The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. Students rotate through stations where each “movie title” is a topic, then they turn that topic into a real theme statement as a movie tagline. The best part is the built-in accountability: students explain and justify their theme with text evidence, so you can finally move them past one-word “themes” and into universal messages.
Next, we pitch a Fish Cheeks inspired film festival where groups create a short film (or a live performance if you want to skip the tech) that shows at least two themes from your unit text.

Finally, we wrap with a Raymond’s Run style game night where students design board games and question cards that assess literary elements like theme, conflict, character, and plot. You’ll leave with practical ways to adapt every idea to any short story or novel, plus easy options for individual assessment.
Subscribe for more middle school ELA lesson ideas, share this with a teacher friend, and leave a review so more ELA teachers can find the show.

Episode 457: Monday Mindset: Get an Accountability Partner Oct 12, 2026

Show notes

October has a way of humbling even the most prepared middle school ELA teachers, so for today's Monday Mindset episode, we talked about how the planning system you swore you’d follow starts slipping, the “leave by four” boundary gets pushed later and later, and suddenly your weekends are full of grading again. We don’t think it’s because you don’t care. We think it’s because you’re trying to make hard change alone.

When you’re surrounded by teachers who live the habits you want, those habits feel possible, practical, and real. That’s one reason professional learning communities can be so powerful: teachers come for curriculum and planning tools, but they stay because they finally find their people.
Press play, choose one change you want most right now, and decide who you’ll invite into it. If this helps, subscribe, share it with a teacher friend, and leave a review so more ELA teachers can get their time back.

Episode 456: Hidden Gems of EB Series: Make the Middle of Your Unit Matter Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

This week's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, The part of an ELA unit that students remember least is often the part we teach most: the long middle where they’re “doing the reading.” We’re not okay with that, because the during-reading phase is where real comprehension, analysis, and confidence get built or lost. So we’re sharing three practical “hidden gems” that make the middle of a text feel active, purposeful, and genuinely engaging for students.
First up: emoji annotations. We walk you through a simple icon key that turns annotation into a visual scavenger hunt for character, figurative language, theme or main idea, personal connections, shock moments, opinions, and lingering questions. It works for short stories and novel study, and we also talk through easy swaps like sticky notes or an annotation log when kids can’t write in books.
Then we shift into discussion stations, a flexible station rotation that replaces the same old whole-class chapter talk. Four stations, three questions each, clear focus at every stop, plus sentence stems that help students actually respond to each other with evidence. Finally, we share six-word memoir trading cards, a creative but rigorous character activity that doubles as a mid-novel checkpoint and an end-of-book reflection, perfect for tracking character arc changes over time.
If you want during reading activities that boost student engagement and strengthen literary analysis, hit play, then subscribe, share with a fellow ELA teacher, and leave a review so more teachers can find the show.

Episode 455: Monday Mindset: Your Life Is Already Happening Oct 05, 2026

Show notes

Life doesn’t usually fall apart in the big moments, it frays in the tiny ones we never feel. We’re talking directly to middle school ELA teachers who are moving fast, carrying a lot, and living in their heads, replaying yesterday’s lesson or bracing for tomorrow’s to-do list. This Monday Mindset is a teacher mindset reset built around one idea that sounds almost too simple: romanticize the mundane.
I share what changed for me after an injury and surgery that took away the basics I used to rush past. Standing in my kitchen again, pain-free, holding a cup of coffee while the sun came up, hit like a wave of gratitude because I genuinely didn’t know if I’d ever have that moment back. That experience reshaped how I see “normal” mornings, and it’s a perspective that translates straight into teacher wellness, burnout prevention, and better work-life balance without adding one more thing to your plate.
You’ll leave with a practical challenge: choose one moment every day you normally rush through, put your phone away, and fully be there. If this resonates, subscribe, share it with a teacher friend who needs a breath, and leave a review so more ELA teachers can find the support.

Here's to another week of living interntionally.

Episode 454: Hidden Gems of EB Series: “Hook” Lessons That Do the Heavy Lifting Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

We share three hook lessons that build background knowledge and activate student thinking so novels feel easier to enter and discussions get better fast. We break down exactly how to run each activity and how to recreate the same structures with any text, even without the EB Teachers ELA portal.
• the EB Into, Through, Beyond planning framework and why Into lessons matter
• a classroom timeline wall to teach historical context and key vocabulary before reading
• a reusable process for making timeline cards and a student organizer for any time period
• YOUtopia community design to surface individualism versus conformity before dystopian texts
• class debate prompts that reveal how utopias can slide into dystopias
• Anticipation Stations as a silent rotation focused on themes rather than background
• a before and after reflection that forces evidence based thinking changes after reading
• simple ways to adapt all three hooks for any novel or short story
Join our priority list to know more, www.ebteacher.com/portal

Subscribe & Review in iTunes
Are you subscribed to our podcast? If you’re not, we want to encourage you to do that today. We don’t want you to miss a single episode. We add a brand-new episode every week, and if you’re not subscribed, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on those. Click here to subscribe in iTunes!
Now if you’re feeling extra awesome today, we would be super grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find our podcast, and they’re also so much fun for us to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let us know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

Episode 453: Monday Mindset: Seasons Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

When your usual teacher energy disappears, it can feel scary, embarrassing, or like you’re doing something wrong. We sit with that reality and name it for what it often is: psychological exhaustion after a long stretch of stress, loss, and change. If you’ve been telling yourself, “Once this passes, then I’ll be okay,” this Monday Mindset offers a kinder, more honest way to move forward.
We talk about the hidden emotional weight so many middle school ELA teachers carry while still planning lessons, supporting students, and trying to keep life afloat outside school. You’ll hear a reframing that hits home: winter is not a sign you failed at summer. Winter is part of the cycle. Sometimes you are not meant to be visibly productive or endlessly upbeat. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is accept the season you’re in, stop judging yourself for being tired, and allow rest and rebuilding to do their work.
If this resonates, subscribe, share this with a teacher friend who needs it, and leave a quick review so more educators can find the show.

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