It’s time for the annual LIT Lessons Novel Study Giveaway! Year-over-year students grow and change, and those changes are often most pronounced when a new school year begins. It’s a fresh start and a restart. The message of Restart by Gordon Korman captures the spirit of new beginnings, evolving identity, and the universal experience of growing older.

Many ELA question stem resources provide vague sentence starters or surface level prompts to encourage students to engage with a text. Oftentimes, these resources lack true depth and rigor, which means students are not being adequately challenged to critically think about a text.

Middle grades historical fiction novels have come a long way from the books available ‘decades’ ago. In fact, this growing genre is now bursting with fantastic, inspiring, and insightful novels. It comes as no surprise that these books are finding their way into middle school ELA curricula…

Reading comprehension is a foundational skill students need to be successful in any class, especially English Language Arts. Yet, as students approach upper elementary grades and middle school, they must develop a new skill set when engaging with fiction texts.

Summative assessment creation is an integral part of curriculum development, backwards planning, and measuring student learning. Crafting effective tests is a helpful feedback tool for your instructional practice and will help you become a better instructional leader in the classroom.

Novel studies are one of the best teaching tools middle school ELA educators can utilize. Comprehensive novel studies engage students in shared reading, build class community, provide unique perspectives, and create opportunities for challenging, rigorous work.