Today is the day! I am so excited. 

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Using Learning Scales changed how I planned, graded, and assessed my students. I was given the book several years ago by a teacher who was retiring Formative Assessment and Standard Based Grading by Robert Marzano and something about it made so much sense to me. It took me awhile to work through how exactly I could effectively use these strategies in my classroom, but once it clicked, it made a huge difference for me and my students. I better understood how to determine what students needed, and students better understood how to understand where they were at in terms of working toward mastery of a learning target.

Before I go into how exactly I made this work in my Language Arts classroom, I am going to have to give you a crash course in Learning Scales, Standards-Based Grading, and assessment. I will try to keep it brief, though if you purchase Marzano's book, you will get a better and fuller picture of how exactly this works (this is in no way sponsored, I just genuinely got a lot out of this book!)

1. Learning Scales

For lack of a better analogy, think of a Learning Scale like a ladder. At the top of the ladder is whatever criteria would achieve mastery for a particular standard. In effect, this is the Learning Target. This is where you want your students to end up. In order to meet the Learning Target, your students have to start at the bottom of the ladder. If the ladder has four rungs, each rung should represent the next step of achieving mastery (meeting the learning target).

At level 0, the student is brand new to the concept. They have no understanding of it whatsoever. They are standing on the ground looking up at the top of the ladder.

At level 1, students are capable of understanding some basic concepts of the learning target with help from the teacher. In other words, if the teacher is not sitting with the student helping them understand basic vocabulary associated with the learning target, then they are at level 1.

At level 2, students are capable of independently understanding foundational-level concepts related to the learning target. For example, they can recognize and describe relevant academic vocabulary terms and basic concepts.

At level 3, students are capable of independently performing the learning target as prescribed in the learning target.

At level 4, students are capable of independently providing critique, creating their own, or analyzing multiple examples as it relates to the learning target. Note: this level does not mean that a student is working "above grade level," this is simply an extension of the learning target.

Below is an example of a Learning Scale that my school district created for a specific standard in 7th Grade Language Arts:



If you look closely at this scale, it begins at the bottom of the page and works upward toward the learning target, which is "Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text."

At level 1, students can partially achieve level 2 and 3 skills with help.

At level 2, students can independently recognize or describe the relevant academic vocabulary terms such as cite, inference, analysis, explicit, implicit, textual evidence. They can also recognize how it is important to cite evidence when justifying an analysis, explain how to make an inference, draw an inference, and summarize a text.

At level 3, students can independently cite several pieces of evidence to support a specific analysis of a text both explicitly and inferentially.

At level 4, students can independently view choices of evidence chosen by other people and determine their validity and strength in justifying their argument. So at this level, the students are extending their learning by critiquing the citation choices of other people and determine if they were good choices or not, and making suggestions for better ones.

Learning Scales can be created for any learning target. All you have to do is ask yourself what skills are necessary in order for students to achieve mastery of the learning target.

If you are familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy, it is similar:




For the purposes of making a connection between Bloom's (above), and Marzano's Learning Scales, the purple and blue at the bottom would by any foundational-level skills that would go into level 2 on your learning scale. The two green shades would be level 3 skills, showing mastery of the learning target, and the yellow and red at the top of the pyramid would be your level 4 extension skills. You can use Bloom's taxonomy to help you find key words to create your scale.

2. Standard-Based Grading

Most states now have some variation of the Common Core standards, or some other set of learning goals and standards that are prescribed for each grade level. The standard is effectively your Learning Target. You use this target to design instruction that will help your students achieve mastery-level understanding.

Standard-Based grading simply means grading students based on their understanding of the learning target. This means that you are evaluating student work and determining how closely it shows that they understand the learning target. Instead of assigning points values to assignments or questions, standard-based grading only focuses on student understanding. If you read this post, you can read a bit more about standard-based grading and I also have some rubrics available for purchase there.

You have to throw away every notion that you have had as a teacher or a student about grading in order to understand and implement standard-based grading. You have to put yourself in the mindset that the only thing that matters is student understanding. Your job is to ensure that students understand these prescribed standards, and that is what you will focus on. It can be difficult to let go of other grading methodologies, but once you get the hang of standard-based grading, you will see the benefits for your students.

3. Assessment

When we think of assessments, we of the think of tests and assessments. Students sit for 45 minutes in a quiet room and answer 30 multiple-choice questions, each one is worth a certain amount of points, and you give them a grade based upon how many they got right or wrong.

We have to stop doing this. This does nothing to determine how much a student understands. Assessments do not mean creating and grading long tests. Assessment simply means that you are determining how much your students have learned and understand. If they are completing something independently, you can assess their understanding! Any assignment can be an assessment if a student completed it independently. So throw away those long tests, you don't need them.

How This All Fits Together in my Classroom

In my classroom, I use Learning Scales as the primary function of everything that I do. I design the progression of learning based on the scale, beginning with foundational-level skills like vocabulary and basic recall of concepts (i.e. what is a theme? what is evidence?). I build from there. When students complete work independently, I assess whether or not they understood the concepts at whatever level we were working at, or the learning scale overall.

One of the first things that I did was determine how I would be grading students using the learning scale. Because we still use letter grades A-F, I had to figure out how those grades would correlate to my learning scales in a way that made sense to both me and my students.

On the left is the post-it where I drafted this grading idea. This post-it is still stuck to the inside of my planner :)

I decided that because we work on. 10-point scale, I wanted to give my students the best advantage at achieving success, so each letter grade increases 1 point from the next letter grade.

Yes, it is difficult for students to get an A. But it's possible, and it pushes them!

Learning Scale Grades:

Level 4 - 100% A
Level 3 - 89% B
Level 2 - 79% C
Level 1 - 69% D
Level 0 - 59% F
Missing work - 50% F

Notice how I never give below a 50%. This is because students should never be able to fall into a hole that they cannot get themselves out of. It isn't fair. My job is to teach students to understand the prescribed standards, and I cannot determine their understanding if I am spending my time being the responsibility police. There are other ways to teach responsibility - letting a student fail with a 40% in your class is not one of them. Failing students doesn't make you a "tough" teacher. Setting high expectations and helping your students rise to the occasion does. *stepping off my high-horse now*

The next step in making learning scales effective in my classroom involved providing students with an easy way to both understand what their grade is, how it correlates to the understanding of the learning target that they showed on the assignment, and also to provide feedback to the student.


I achieved this by using a system of colored post-its! Each color represents a level on the scale. If you look at my draft post-it above, you will see a letter before each level of the scale - those correlated to post-it colors!

Level 4 is green
Level 3 is blue
Level 2 is yellow
Level 1 is orange
Level 0 is pink

When I grade a student's assignment, I stick the post-it to the assignment that correlates with the student's level of understanding that was shown in the assignment. Then, on the post-it I provide relevant feedback. This might be a simple "good job on this assignment! You showed mastery of this learning target" or it might be more details about what the student did or did not understand - it depends on the assignment and what their work looked like. Not only does this let the student understand where they were at on the scale, but it allows for immediate feedback.

Here are some examples:





In these two examples, I was assessing my students' ability to cite evidence to support an analysis of a text using the RACE Strategy. In the second example, I provided a second post-it that had the race strategy printed on it (yes! You can print on Post-its!) so that the student could use it as a guide when re-doing the work. Students should always be allowed to re-do their assignments to show increased understanding after you have worked with them or met with them regarding the assignment and the learning target. I cannot stress this enough. Students should be allowed to redo assignments as many times as it takes for them to show you that they understand the learning target. It takes some kids longer to "get there" than others. Grades cannot be one-and-done.

On the flip side, students also have to learn that just because they filled a page with words does not mean that they showed mastery of a learning target! So often kids think, "I finished that so I must have done a good job," but this isn't the case. It is important for them to learn to be succinct and focused on the learning target. This really helps them to do that!



How this Aides my Instruction:

Not only do these colored post-its help my students to determine their understanding, but they also help me target instruction. By using the colors, I can group students based on their understanding of the learning target. This allows me to pull small groups so that I can target specific concepts and skills that students are struggling with.

Students learn very quickly that they will be pulled into groups based on the color of their post-it when I hand assignments back to them. They will ask each other "who's in the yellow group?" This is a good thing because it doesn't marginalize students who did "poorly" because doing "poorly" isn't a thing. My students understand that the color of post-it they receive only shows their level of understanding at the time that they turned in that assignment. They also know that they will be pulled in a small group to work with me so that they can improve their understanding. They can re-do the assignment at any time for a different color post-it, and essentially, a higher grade. Students do not feel ashamed of their color because they know that it isn't the end! This really promotes self-efficacy big time!

When I pull a small group, if it is a pink, orange, or yellow group, I first ask students what they struggled with.  We go from there. Typically, they are all struggling with the same part of the standard (hence, why they received the same color!). If I pull students who got green post-its, meaning they showed mastery of a standard, then we work on extending their learning so that they can reach level 4. Any students who achieved a level 4 and received a blue post-it do not get pulled into a small group. They continue to work on the independent work that I have assigned based on the new standard that we are working on, or some other assignment - OR they can redo older assignments that they did not achieve a level 4 on. There is always plenty to do.

When students re-do assignments, the only rule that I have is that they must wait until they have worked in a small group with me to re-do the assignment. They must turn in both the new assignment and the old one attached to it. When I re-grade it and determine that they have achieved a higher level of understanding, they get a new post-it. They are so proud of their work when they receive a new color! If they do not show better understanding the second time (which is pretty rare), then I know that that is a student who needs some one-on-one instruction time.

Students who do not turn in assignments do not get a post-it and do not get pulled for small groups. They can still turn in the assignment, but if they wait until after I have pulled small groups, they do not get the benefit of further instruction to better their understanding. I found that it only took a few go-rounds for students to understand this, and I stopped having loads of missing assignments. When you build an environment where students want to succeed, they will turn in their work.

If you have tried using learning scales, or you have questions, please leave a comment below! How did they help to improve your classroom environment?

Thanks for reading!

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With the new school year nearly upon us (can you believe that summer is almost over already?), I am beginning to plan how I want this school year to unfold. This year, my 7th graders will be 1:1, meaning that each student will be issued a laptop that they will be responsible for carrying to and from school. I have had a good amount of laptops in my classroom the last few years, so my students have had ample access to the plethora of digital resources available online, but this year I will be able to really put some of them to good, consistent use.

I love anything digital, I am a total sucker for a good resource that can be used on a computer. Not only does it make grading easier for me as the teacher, but it reduces the number of copies that I have to make, the amount of waste that my classroom is producing, it keeps my students engaged, and it makes everything portable to and from the classroom.

So in light of this, I thought that I would share some of my favorite digital resources. Some of these are Language Arts specific, and some of them can be used for any subject area, any grade level, and any classroom. All of these are user-friendly and offer tons of positives for your classroom!

1. CommonLit. 

Website Address: http://www.CommonLit.org 

Price for use: 100% Free to use, run by a non-profit!

What is it: CommonLit is a digital reading catalogue full of thousands of fiction non-fiction, and poetry resources. It is standards-based, organized by standard and grade-level, and searching for texts that target specific standards and skills is simple to do. I can create a class and input my students into an online classroom, assign articles to the whole glass, groups, or individual students. They answer standards-based multiple-choice questions and short response questions that I can grade and give feedback on. The teacher dashboard keeps track of all kinds of data, including how students are performing on specific standards so that I know what to target. You can also send articles back to students after they have turned them in to "try again" after you give feedback.

Features I Love: There is a vocabulary function where students can highlight unknown words and get a definition. There is also a translate function that will translate single words to Spanish, which is excellent for my ESOL students. There is also a highlighting function that students can use to annotate. My favorite feature is the guided reading mode where only a portion of the text is revealed at a time and students have to answer a question about that portion of text before the next portion is revealed. This encourages students to read with purpose. In the teacher dashboard, it tells you how many attempts each student took to answer the guided reading questions so if you have a student took 3 attempts to answer, then you know that particular student needs to slow down or perhaps has some other reading dilemma hindering their success!

How I use it: In my classroom, CommonLit is our bread and butter. If I am targeting a specific standard, let's say Central Idea for example, I can search the database for an article - fiction or non-fiction - with this target in mind, pull a text to read with the class doing guided instruction as a mentor text, and then afterwords I can assign a different article that has the same focus to the whole class for them to work on independently. The data screen in the teacher dashboard gives me instant feedback and I can monitor how students are performing on the standard. I can then use this data to form small groups for reteaching or to pull certain kids who seem to be struggling.


2. NewsELA

Website Address: http://www.NewsELA.com

Price for Use: 100% Free

What is it: NewsELA functions in a lot of ways just like CommonLit, except it focuses on non-fiction news articles on a variety of topics. Articles can be organized and searched by standard, subject, event, or topic. They can also be leveled by grade-level. They offer a variety of text sets that are themed, which can be great if you are planning a themed unit.

Features I Love: I love that this website offers current events. While CommonLit focuses on generalized non-fiction, NewsELA offers real news stories. Students can read on current events and learn about the world around them. The teacher function allows you to create and manage classes and assign articles to students, however, the teacher data dashboard is not thorough like CommonLit, so it is not a reliable progress monitoring tool.

How I use it: I use NewsELA if there are articles that pair with other things that we are reading. For example, I do a unit every year on Mount Everest (my kids love this, I will be writing about unit building soon!), so I can search NewsELA for current news stories about things happening on Mount Everest currently, like the garbage crisis, or the overcrowding on the mountain. This website provides great supplemental reading.


3. NearPod

Website Address: http://www.nearpod.com

Price for Use: Free to use, some features require a Gold Membership for 50 students of $120/year and up to 75 students for $349/year, If you sign up for the Webinar class and become a Nearpod Certified teacher, you will get 6 months of the Gold membership for free. This is worth it and I recommend doing it!

What is it: Nearpod is a presentation program that allows you to great interactive lessons. You can create slides, quizzes, discussion boards, insert videos, pictures, and digital 360 field-trips to destinations all over the world. Students log in and join the lesson and you control the lesson as it progress through the lesson activities. At the end of the lesson, you an download the lesson data including scores for quizzes, discussion board responses, and polls. Lessons are saved on your dashboard, so you can use them year after year.

Features I love: Interactive field trips using 360 imaging students can zoom in and "travel" through many destinations all over the world. Quizzes with immediate feedback, polls, discussion boards, videos, pictures... this program has literally everything.

How I use it: I LOVE LOVE LOVE this program. I have created digital lessons alongside mentor texts that students have in front of them and Can use as part of the lesson. I have taken my students on digital field trips to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the tomb of Abraham Lincoln, Fords Theater, and may other places! I love the interactive-ness of this platform and my students are 100% engaged at all times. Their favorite function is the discussion board which allows them to respond to a question, post it to the board, and everyone else can see and read the responses and "like" them just like a social media platform. This encourages quieter students to participate in a class discussion because there is that level of security that you have behind a keyboard (keyboard warriors?). They also like to receive "likes" on their posts from their classmates. The discussion board also incorporates Google Images so they can search for pictures, which I love because my ELL Students have trouble sometimes expressing their thoughts so being able to associate with pictures allows them to participate in the discussion too! This program is 100% worth paying for the membership.

4. Edulastic

Website Address: http://www.edulastic.com

Price for Use: Free to use, the Premium membership is $100/year, but honestly the free edition is all you need!

What is it: Edulastic is an assessment platform that can be used for any subject area. This program allows you to input your students into an online class, you can create interactive assessments, assign them, and students can complete them in class or at home.

Features I Love: My absolute favorite thing about this program is that you can get LIVE feedback as students are taking an assessment. They have their computers open taking the assessment, and you can have your teacher dashboard open and as they answer questions, you can see their answers in live time. I love this because if a student is rushing, playing around, answering every question wrong, etc. I can go see what's going on and stop them before they do any more damage. This also keeps track of questions by standard so you get standard-based feedback. Another wonderful feature is that there is a database of assessments organized by state standards that you can pull from that other teachers in your state have created! This was wonderful last year for me because some wonderful teacher here in Florida took the time to input our practice state assessment and I was able to assign it to my students when we were preparing for state assessment.

How I use it: I use this as a formative and summative assessment tool. This definitely beats paper-based assessments, and it keeps track of standard-based data that I refer to when making instructional decisions. It also allows me to have students re-do assessments as many times as I want, which I love.  I have not paid for the premium membership, and I haven't needed to.



5. Quizlet

Website Address: http://www.Quizlet.com

Price for Use: Free to use, Premium membership is $35.99/year and allows you to create classes to keep track of student progress. I have only ever used the free option.

What is it: Quizlet is a study tool that is amazing. I used it myself when I was studying for my certification exams. Quizlet allows you to put vocabulary sets together for students to study. There are several interactive study tools.

Features I Love: I love that it is so easy to create a study set. They have a dictionary attached to the program, so you don't have to look up definitions and type them. All you do is type in the word and their database finds it. They also have a photo database so you can do picture associations as well. Students can use the study set as flashcards, there is a matching game (my students always love this), a game called Gravity where they have to type in the word before the definition rock falls to the ground, the program will read out loud to students so they can hear the words and definitions - it's amazing.

How I use it: I start a lesson with 15 minutes of Quizlet. Students log-in with a partner and practice a set of vocabulary words that pertains specifically to the text that we will be examining. After 15 minutes, I give students a paper-based matching quiz and they have 2 minutes to match as many correctly as they can. The partners that have the most correct get a little prize. I have had huge success doing this at the start of a new text! I also use this for students to practice academic vocabulary as a station or a study tool.

6. ESLVideo

Website Address: http://www.eslvideo.com

Price to use: Free!

What is it: This website has tons of videos that they pull from YouTube - clips from TV shows, movies, music videos, cartoons, you name it - for the purpose of practicing listening. Each video has questions that have to be answered as students listen. The music videos require students to fill-in-the-blanks with the missing lyrics.

Features I love: I use this mostly with my ESOL students to practice listening in English, but this is a great tool for all students to practice listening.

How I use it: I assign these to students by putting the link address in our online classroom. They listen to the video and answer the questions and keep track of their scores on a data sheet. This is typically a station assignment because the videos are pretty short. Students can complete more than one video in a single rotation. They enjoy this because they get to watch videos. I assign a lot of current music videos so they appreciate that. There are also some Mr. Bean videos that are hilarious and they love those! Sometimes if we have some extra time, we will do one as a whole class and they really get into it!

7. ListenWise

Website Address: http://www.ListenWise.com

Price to Use: Free to use the database, $299/year for premium with includes the ability to create classes and keep track of progress.

What is it: Listenwise is a database for listening activities. Students listen to audio and answer questions about it.

Features I Love: The database is enormous and you can find audio clips on just about anything. I love that students have to answer questions about the audio and practice active listening. This is great for ESOL students, but all students benefit from active listening practice. This is another great activity for stations because the audio clips aren't long.

How I use it: I use ListenWise as a station activity and assign audio clips that students must complete. They keep track of their progress on data sheets.





8. Khan Academy

Website Address: http://www.KhanAcademy.com

Price to Use: Free!

What is it: Khan Academy provides free video lessons that students can watch on a variety of topics with quizzes and practice for students to complete. Khan Academy is excellent for math, but I use this for Grammar.

Features I Love: In Khan Academy, I can create a class and assign activities for students to complete. Students can view the video lesson as many times as they want and answer questions or practice. I love that there are so many grammar lessons because it provides video-based direct instruction that students can engage in without me. We don't always have as much time for grammar as I would like, so this is a wonderful activity to assign at a station so that students are being exposed to grammar-based direct instruction with practice.

How I use it: Sometimes we will do a Khan Academy video whole-group. Typically I do the lessons on coordinate adjectives and DOSASCOMP because this is one of the big 7th grade Language standards in Florida and it accompanies the Cornell Notes that we take on this skill beautifully. Otherwise, this is another great activity for students to be engaged in at a station.

9. Freckle

Website Address: http://www.freckle.com

Price to Use: Free! There is a Premium level, but it is intended for whole-school or whole-district instruction. For teachers it is free.

What is it: Freckle is a program for math, ELA, science, and social studies that allows teachers to assign lessons and texts to students that are on their level. How this works is that students take an assessment that determines their reading level or skill level and then you as the teacher assign a text and students will receive that same text on their own level. So essentially, the students in one classroom will be reading the same text but it will be differentiated for them. These also include standard-based questions!

Features I Love: I love that this program differentiates for you. I teach ESOL, so my students in one class can be on severely different reading levels and this program takes care of the differentiation for me. There are tons of texts on lots of different topics that you can assign to students.

How I use it: Again, this is another great tool for stations. Students can log-on and work independently. This, of course, would come after direct instruction from me using a similar mentor text. My students like Freckle because it gives them the ability to feel successful regardless of their reading level.


10. ReadWorks

Website Address: http://www.readworks.com

Price to Use: Free!

What is it: ReadWorks is similar to CommonLit and NewsELA where you can search and assign texts to students accompanied by standard-based questions. The difference is that ReadWorks gives you the ability to assign and/or print texts on different levels, which allows for excellent differentiation.

Features I Love: I love the leveled readers for differentiation, and I love that there are themed text sets that you can assign to students so they work through an entire text set with similar skills and topics instead of just assigning a singular article. The self-pacing that this allows for is great for students who work at different paces!

How I use it: I use ReadWorks most with my ESOL students because I can print texts at different levels and work with students in small groups to do vocabulary and practice fluency. I use this mostly in small group instruction when I work with students at a "teacher instruction" station.

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If you are anything like me, then you are beginning to create a plan for the upcoming school year. Though the content never changes, it seems that every year the plan of attack looks a little different. Although our students will be different and have different needs and strengths, there are some things that we already know students are going to struggle with.

For my students, one of these things is figurative language. Because my students are new learners of English, learning figurative language is exceptionally difficult for them. I spend a great deal of time focusing on the foundations for this skill and having students use various activities to practice using figurative language.

I begin my lessons, of course, with some note taking using my Cornell Notes student and teacher pages. Further down this post you will find a link for a FREE download of the Cornell Notes page from my Cornell Notes bundle, so keep reading!

I give my students tons of examples of different kinds of figurative language, and we practice identifying why a simile is a simile, or why a hyperbole is a hyperbole. We also spend a lot of time practicing saying "hyperbole." :)

For this post, I am excited to be teaming up with Education.com to bring you a free practice sheet for figurative language. I have many times needed a great activity or homework assignment in a pinch and ended up browsing resources on education.com and I am never disappointed. They have tons of themed worksheets and activities for all subjects.


Crossword puzzles are fun activities to reinforce vocabulary as students are acquiring it in the classroom. This crossword puzzle from education.com provides students with the definition of types of figurative language and they have to fill in the puzzle with the name of the type. This would be a great opportunity for students to use their Cornell Notes to guide them through completion of this activity independently. You might even use this as a homework assignment, or an assignment to leave with a substitute on a day that you were going to be away from class. You could even extend this activity by having students give an example of each type of figurative language on the back of the sheet or in the margins.

If you would like a copy of this activity, links will be provided below!

Another great Figurative Language activity that my students really enjoy is a version of the game Head's Up! For this game, all you need is a stack of index cards.

Have students work in groups of 3-5. On index cards, write the names of the types of figurative language. One type on each card. Shuffle the cards. Having students take turns, whoever's turn it is will draw a card, and without looking at it, they will hold the card against their forehead so that the others in the group can see the card. The other students in the group have to read the type of figurative language and then say examples out loud. The student holding the card has to then guess which type of figurative language is written on the card.

The only rule is that they have to give examples, not define the word. So if the student is holding a card that says "alteration," then the other group members could say "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers!" but they could not define alliteration. I let my students use their notes when they play this game, but they can only use the examples from their notes ONE time.




I honestly thought my students might think this was lame, being that they are big, mature 7th graders who don't play kiddie games (lol!), but they loved this game so much and we had so much fun practicing figurative language. They got a lot out of it, and it wasn't flashy or fancy at all. Below you can see some pictures of my students playing this game and using their Cornell Notes as a guide! I created this by printing and laminating the cards... but I'm a masochist and also a crazy perfectionist, it's not necessary to do that in order for this game to be effective! :)

[student faces redacted to protect their privacy!]






Before students can begin to analyze figurative language in a text and explain how that language contributes to the overall meaning of the text, or explain why the author chose to use that language, they have to first understand how to identify figurative language. This skill is often more difficult than teaching analysis, so I spend a lot of time focusing on this.

I use a lot of poetry, which I find mostly on poetry.com or in song lyrics. Last year I used "Always Remember Us This Way" from the movie A Star is Born, and that song has tons of figurative language in it. After reading and annotating the figurative language, we discussed why she chose to use those specific ones, what they meant, and how they give deeper meaning to the song. You can use any song for this!



Now - on to those freebies!! Click the links below to retrieve the freebie activities, and I would like to give education.com a special thank you for giving my readers such a cool resource for free! Figurative language is key to understanding more advanced writing, and your students will love testing their figurative language knowledge in this fun crossword. For more language arts resources, visit Education.com.

Click Here to download the Student Page Crossword Puzzle

Click Here to download the Teacher Answer Key

Click Here to download the Figurative Language Cornell Notes Page

What other Figurative Language activities do you use in your classroom? Sound off in the comments!

This is a progress monitoring/data sheet for students to keep track of their grades and scores on different assessments that we use in Reading class throughout the year. Students should always be able to see their progress in real-time.



This data sheet pertains to our Florida FSA standardized exam, and we always give students a copy of their scores from the previous year so that they know what "growth" they are expected to achieve in the current year.



This is a goal setting sheet that I do at the beginning of the school year with my students. By adding it to their notebooks, they have direct and easy access to it all year for reflection and a reminder of the high goals that they set for themselves at the beginning of the year.



The next pages are bell ringer pages, and in a notebook this is what they look like! The entire week is on one spread so students can see the week in one glance. You can get a copy of this bell ringer document here.



Next, are my Cornell Notes pages. I printed these so that the front side of each page was a Cornell Notes page, and the back side of the page was lined so that we could take extra notes, keep track of other information, stick in a foldable or use post-its, or whatever else we ended up adding.


I also included 5 blank Cornell Notes pages at the end just in case something gets added throughout the year, we need clarification on something, a new skill needs to be introduced for whatever reason, etc. It is always good to have a backup!


Overall, I am pleased with how these notebooks turned out, and I am looking forward to using them with my students next year. I think that tightening up the routines and helping students be more organized will result in less wasted time and far less frustration for me! Also the data sheets provide for more accountability and allows for students to see when they are successful.

These resources are available on this website if you are interested in exploring a similar option in your own classroom. You do not have to use a binder to make notebooks, as a 3-prong folder will likely work just as effectively (especially the plastic-ish ones). I am a little nutty about things being the same and organized... if you do not have that insanity in your brain, then I envy you :)

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below or shoot me an email at kailysimpson@gmail.com 

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Let's talk about Bell Ringers, folks!

I have to admit that I haven't always been great with consistency when it comes to doing Bell Ringers in my classroom. There was a really big push at my school a few years back for all classrooms to have bell ringers, or start-ups, at the beginning of each class. During this time I made several attempts, and hated all of them.

But, I did learn some things from these epic failures!

First of all, the entire concept of bell ringers is based on the idea of creating routines and expectations in your classroom. If students are expected to complete something as soon as they walk in the door, they are less likely to run around, making it more difficult to reign in the class to start for the day. In theory, I really liked this... but in practice, I found it to be more difficult. Bell Ringers are often random tasks that students are asked to do based on whatever you're covering in class or whatever power point lessons someone created to cover grammar or mechanics. In this way, the only real routine is that they were required to do something at the beginning of class. I felt that this created more chaos than it resolved, with students often unclear on what they were supposed to do.

What if the process didn't have to be like that? What if it were consistent? What if it were interesting? Would students be more inclined to do the bell ringer if they were actually engaged in it? What if it were valuable outside of your daily lessons?



So I experimented over the last few school years, and I have created two different Bell Ringer methodologies that are routine and interesting. I will outline them both below, and you will have the opportunity to purchase the materials for whichever methodology you jive with! Both of these have been successful in my classroom, and I definitely recommend them. I personally have a favorite of the two, but we will get to that later :)


1. Weekly Bell Ringer PowerPoint and Response Sheet



This one is exactly as it sounds. You use a PowerPoint template each week that includes the activity for the day on each slide. There are 5 activities, and they never change. You would have to edit this document each week to change the content, but the task would never change.





The tasks are:

Mondays - analyze a famous quote

Tuesdays - edit a paragraph for errors. I use Every Day Edits from Education World's website for these, just copy and paste into the page.

Wednesdays - Photo Analysis - any photo will do. Have students describe the photo using sensory information, and then make inferences about what is happening in the photo based on that information.

Thursdays - Weekly Skill Check. This is where you would ask them to recall something from the lessons that week or simply explain what something is or means, or what they have learned.

Friday - Weekly Reflection (this one was my students' favorite) - they will write 1 thing they learned in class that week, 2 kind things they did for others, and 3 things they can do next week to have an even better week. Reflective writing is good practice!

Each day has a little day-of-the-week meme and and editable date box. Each week, I spent about 15 minutes editing this file for the week.

Students use a Response sheet to keep track of their responses, and because the tasks don't change, each week students just need a new copy of the response sheet. They are responsible for keeping it in their notebooks all week to be turned in on Fridays.

I score their response sheet 10 points per day for a total of 50 points. If a student is absent, I have them write ABSENT in the space for that day, and I do not take credit from them for that day. Bell ringers should be positive experiences based on solid routines, not lessons in responsibility.

I give students 10 minutes from the time the bell rings to complete this activity. When the 10 minute timer is up, we go over the activity together for about 5 minutes. This gives students the opportunity to share their thoughts and responses, and it gives that extra few minutes for slower kids to catch up :)

Overall, using this Bell Ringer was a positive experience for my students and after a few weeks, the routine was set and they always know what to do. I tried to find interesting quotes and photos to incite discussion and thought, and I often found photos of historical significance so that students were learning something new and interesting as well. A favorite photo was of the Hindenburg explosion - I had to forcefully end the discussion about that one!

If this Bell Ringer routine jives with your teaching sensibilities, then you can purchase the whole pack with the PowerPoint already ready to go and the Bell Ringer Response sheet PDF ready to be printed. This is $9.99 and is available via PayPal through the link below.

If you have any troubles with the PayPal link, the file download, or anything else - please immediately email me at help@teach-101.com and I will resolve the issue immediately.

(If you have previously purchased Cornell Notes from me and had trouble with the redirect, I discovered the problem and fixed it. It was related to a third party website that I was using for the redirect page, and I have since cut ties with that company due to the ongoing issues.)






2. Creative Writing Bell Ringer Book

I am one who subscribes to the idea that we do not do enough Creative Writing in Language Arts classrooms anymore. The push for text-based writing has made it nearly impossible to fit a lot of creativity into the curriculum. Two years ago, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and create a Creative Writing Bell Ringer book.

This book includes one short creative writing prompt for each day of the school year and a space for students to write.

These prompts are really all over the place and include things like "write an ode to a cheeseburger" (a submission from a former student), "write 10 similes to describe today's weather," and "what would you be willing to fight and die for?" There are prompts that challenge their thinking on social issues, like "what does freedom of speech mean to you? Does it also mean freedom from consequence?" There are also famous quotes peppered throughout the year for students to consider and analyze.


The book is laid-out so that Monday - Wednesday are one one page, and Thursday and Friday are on another page. There is also a "weekly reflection" box where students can write about what they learned that week to keep track of their own learning.






There are 40 total weeks of writing prompts in this book.

This is my favorite bell ringer activity because students already have their book, they know what they are supposed to do, and having 10-15 minutes of quite thinking and creative writing is a fantastic way to start a class period.

When students are writing, I wait about 5 minutes and then I go around with a stamp and stamp the box of students who are actively engaged in their writing. At the end of the week, I go around and for each stamp, students get 10 points for a total of 50 points for the week.

I have a binding machine that I bought on Amazon, so the last few years I have created books to house their bell ringer books, however, you can just as easily use a 3-prong folder to bind this into a book.

Next year, I will be combining this bell ringer book with my Cornell Notes and some data sheets and binding them all together into one ultimate Language Arts Notebook. I will be writing about this on the blog soon! :)


Another feature that this book has is monthly calendar pages for each month of the school year. This includes a mini calendar where students can write the days, keep track of school closures or important information. It also includes a "doodle box" where students can doodle their thoughts and ideas, and a "reflection" box where students can write about different things - the one to the left says "list the things that you are grateful for." My student often go back to these pages if they finish their daily box early.

This is also a good place to keep track of important information for your class like exams, project due dates, etc.

I have a lot of doodlers, so I encourage them to use this page for their creative doodles instead of their weekly writing boxes.

So far, this has been my most productive and most engaging bell ringer method, and I will continue to use this in my classroom. The cool thing is that I can just re-print the same book year after year because the prompts are always going to be relevant. Creating this took forever, but it was a great investment of my time because I get a lot of use out of it.

If this is a methodology that you are interested in trying in your own classroom, I am making this file available for you. It is not in color, so it will be easy to reproduce (I don't know about your school, but mine does not have color copying available!). You can use it year after year. You can easily bind these in a 3-prong folder, and if you use the plastic folders, they will last all year. This would be a good first-week activity for students - have them punch and bring their bell-ringer books!

This file is $15.00. It is 91 pages (which is only about 46 pages if you copy it front-and-back) and spans 40 school weeks. You can use the link below to purchase this file via my online store.

If you have any troubles with PayPal, the file download, or anything else - please immediately email me at help@teach-101.com and I will resolve the issue immediately.

(If you have previously purchased Cornell Notes from me and had trouble with the redirect, I discovered the problem and fixed it. It was related to a third party website that I was using for the redirect page, and I have since cut ties with that company due to the ongoing issues.)


Is there a Bell Ringer methodology that you have struck gold with in your classroom? Share in the comments!