Middle School Resources

Use this forum item to share your best resources--unit plans, lesson plans, writing invitations, or other ideas that have worked for you in a middle school setting.

Just reply to this discussion item with a brief description of your resource (e.g., Hatchet Unit Plan) and then attach any files that go along with it. Ideally, we'll have a rich archive for new and veteran teachers alike. Be sure to include your name, and be sure to credit any resources you use from this site.

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Permalink Reply by Julia Holdsworth on April 21, 2011 at 4:31pm

Hey guys!

My name is Julia Holdsworth and I just recently created a unit plan compressed into two weeks. My unit plan is based around the book The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I created this unit for a seventh grade classroom and think it would fit well within it. I imagined my classroom to be that of mostly Hispanic ethnicity in the Miami area of Florida. The main focus of my unit plan is based around the connection and relatability for students. I feel students are growing up through puberty as Esperanza is in this novel. I think students could connect and love this book forever. I also based many of my lessons around the structure of this novel--how it is written, the style, etc. Overall, I think students will take a lot from this novel and hopefully from my unit plan.

Enjoy! :)

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Permalink Reply by Cami DenHartigh on April 21, 2011 at 9:36pm
Hey guys, I'm Cami DenHartigh and I wanted to do my Conceptual Unit on a Young Adult novel that middle school students would enjoy, relate to, and learn from so I chose to do a 10 day unit plan based on Tangerine by Edward Bloor, a book about a middle school boy who becomes legally blind after an accident he had as a younger boy. He doesn't remember what happened and his parents and brother never tell him the truth until the end of the book. Throughout the book he encounters many other obsticles that kids his age could relate to. That appealed to me because while teaching the basic literature concepts my students would be able to have fun reading and learn to compare/contrast, pick out the main themes and develop critical thinking.
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Permalink Reply by Katlin Freiberg on April 25, 2011 at 9:41am

Hello! This is a conceptual unit for the book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.  It is intended for an eighth grade English class.  The students will be involved in the text through several opportunities to respond to discussion questions and be involved in activities related to the text. 

 

The main focus of the text is for the students to address conformity and find commonalities amongst their classmates.  I think the reading materials offers many opportunities for the students to think beyond the text and address issues in their own life.  

 

If you have any questions about the unit, feel free to contact me! Enjoy.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Simmons on April 17, 2012 at 2:59pm

My conceptual unit plan consists of ten lesson plans that will cover two weeks of classes for an 8th grade English class. This unit covers the horror genre of literature and will expose students to the essential elements of the genre such as creating an effective atmosphere and inducing fear and terror within the reader/audience. Students will discover the works of horror pioneers such as Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King. Students will also examine a horror-themed poem, and write their own horror-themed piece of poetry. The final project for this unit will incorporate technology by having students record, edit, and upload their own video of a horror scene they have written and created with a small group. This two week unit consists of ten lesson plans, a rubric for the final assignment, mentor texts, and activity sheets. Throughout the unit, group discussions will be held as well as individual journaling. This is a perfect unit for Halloween season.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa VanZee on April 19, 2012 at 6:31am

This is an uploaded pedagogy project for an ENG 311 class at Grand Valley State University. It is meant for an eighth grade class learning about the Holocaust. It incorporates both the book and film version of "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas".

I want to be a teacher who gets students to really love reading, and encourages them to learn through what the text can teach, not what we can squeeze out of a text. So my unit may seem like a bunch of different ideas rolled into one, because it is! I think that novels do not teach just one element of reading or writing and you (and the students) can miss many important teachings if it is not done this way, especially for this book and the subject matter it covers.

Have questions? Ask away! 

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Permalink Reply by Andria Barberi on April 19, 2012 at 11:41am

Hi,

My name is Andria Barberi, and you can find my conceptual unit on mythology using The Lightning Thief here.

 

The role of mythology in American culture is prominent not only through words and symbols, but in current popular art, such as television shows, movies and video games.  Taking advantage of mythology’s current popularity, Rick Riordan has written a wonderful young adult novel that mingles Greek mythology with a coming of age tale that resonates with middle school students.  The lesson plan I’ve created is meant to utilize Riordan’s book to teach mythology while integrating themes that are important to middle school students and the technology that has become a part of their everyday lives.

 

This plan includes activities for the students to gauge the power hierarchy within the major Greek gods, a wiki project where students apply to Camp Half-Blood, and a trading card activity based on the characters of the novel.

Permalink Reply by Kory Heerspink on December 6, 2012 at 1:02pm


Hey everyone. I am uploading my pedagogy project for ENG 311 at GVSU. Its a unit plan all about diversity using the book Seedfolks as the main text and bringing in other shorter stories for supplementation.  Ideally this is for a sixth or seventh grade.  The main purpose of the unit is to teach students about diversity and why it is important.

Let me know if you have any comments or concerns on it. Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Olivia Nieder on April 17, 2013 at 4:42pm

Hello everyone! I'm uploading my Unit Plan project for ENG 311 class at Grand Valley State University. I chose two genres, instead of a book, mythology and folklore. I treated this as a "filler" unit plan for Middle School students. If you found yourself a spare two weeks (I know how impossible this sounds), then this is the unit plan for you! 

This unit includes text heavy lessons, but NO tests/quizes, creative avenues for students to participate in, and a final project that will put you into the mythical and folklore world! 

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Permalink Reply by Erin Kuhn on April 17, 2013 at 5:34pm

Hola todos!

My conceptual unit plan focuses on a single text, Holes by Lois Sachar, as a means for students to explore the notions of identity and relationships with themselves, others, and their societies. The unit is designed for seventh grade. This unit uses reader response approach to learning as it encourages students to organically respond to readings through writing and discussion. It also fits nicely with the theme of identity. Though this unit, I’m hoping that students will learn more about themselves as individuals as well as themselves as readers and writers while they follow the main character, Stanley Yelnats, though his personal journey of self-discovery.

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Permalink Reply by Ashleigh Bowne on April 20, 2013 at 12:09pm

This is my 2 week long poetry unit plan from my ENG 311 course. This unit plan was designed for an 8th grade ELA classroom. It has an emphasis on poetry's ability to connect with student's lives and for them to be able to use poetry to express feelings or experiences they've had. There is a heavy emphasis on the performance of poetry and how that affects the overall meaning of the poem. The unit ends with students performing one of their own original pieces for the class and explaining the process that went into the creation of their poem and a brief description of why the poem is important to them.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy O'Neil on April 24, 2013 at 3:54pm

This is my 3ish week long mini unit on bullying through the novel Ender's Game. This unit plan was designed to explore a literary text while also teaching about social justice through understanding what bullying is and how to prevent it. The unit only covers the first few chapters of the novel and leans heavily on online resources. It started as a plan for a 7th grade classroom but could easily be used (and probably should be used) with older students. This was something I realized part way through and didn't quite have the time to go back and adjust.

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