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.
Episodes
603 episodes
Episode 455: Monday Mindset: Your Life Is Already Happening
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 br...
Episode 454: Hidden Gems of EB Series: “Hook” Lessons That Do the Heavy Lifting
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 wit...
Episode 453: Monday Mindset: Seasons
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 chan...
Episode 452: Hidden Gems of EB Series: The Best Games You Didn't Know You Had
Welcome to the Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast! In today’s episode, Caitlin and Pat kick off a new series, Hidden Gems of EB, featuring three low-prep classroom games that are fun, repeatable, and surpris...
Episode 451: Monday Mindset: You're Not Good at Everything
Our favorite, Monday Mindset! In today's episode, we’re talking about how perfectionism fuels teacher burnout, why being coachable matters more than always being “right,” and how leaning into your strengths can make teaching feel a whole lot li...
Episode 450: Wait…That’s a Classroom Job?! Genius Jobs From Our EB Teachers
You know that moment when you finish giving crystal-clear directions and a hand shoots up three seconds later asking, “Wait, what are we doing?” We found a classroom job that solves it instantly, and it’s called “Alexa.” Pat, our curriculum wri...
Re-Air Episode 408: Monday Mindset: Creating Evidence for Yourself
Today's Monday Mindset episode is a special re-air, but it’s one worth revisiting! 💛 In “Creating Evidence for Yourself,” we’re reminded to recognize our progress, trust our abilities, and pay attention to the small wins that prove we’re...
Episode 448: Stop Doing Everything: Classroom Jobs That Make Your Day Easier
This week's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode: The fastest way to feel less overwhelmed in your middle school ELA classroom is not a new curriculum or a stricter rule. It’s a better system for all the tiny tasks that steal your attenti...
Episode 447: Monday Mindset: You'll Regret What You Didn't Do
You know that feeling when you’re weighing a decision and every option seems loaded? That tense, looping thought of “What if I make the wrong choice?” Today, Caitlin shares a story that cuts straight through that noise and lands on a simple tru...
Episode 446: Word Study Across the Grades (5th Grade Foundations + Scaling in 6th–8th)
In Part 2 of this behind-the-scenes conversation, we sit down with EB Academics curriculum writer Pat to break down what effective word study looks like from 5th through 8th grade and how to build a system that becomes more rigorous each year w...
Episode 445: Monday Mindset: Let Go of Expectations
That sinking feeling when something doesn’t work out the way you pictured it can hit hard, especially in teaching. You plan the lesson, you see it in your head, you walk in ready, and then the room goes quiet in the worst way. Today we’re shari...
Episode 444: The Truth About Word Study: Behind the Scenes with Our Curriculum Writer
Memorising vocabulary lists can look like “rigor,” but we’ve all watched it evaporate the moment the quiz ends. We want word learning that transfers into real reading and real writing, so we brought back our curriculum writer and word study spe...
Episode 443: Monday Mindset: The Good Stuff!
Another Monday Mindset today! We talk about a small but powerful gratitude practice that fits into real teacher life, plus the positive psychology research that explains why it works. A statistic shared from Happify highlights how a one-ti...
Episode 442: How to Weave EB Materials into Your District-Mandated Curriculum
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, We start with Genevieve’s non-negotiable: teach a writing and thinking framework first. When students learn how to make a claim, back it with evidence, and justify their reasoning, they sto...
Episode 441: Monday Mindset: Change Starts from Within
Another inspiring Monday Mindset eipisode, We walk into a new school year with fresh notebooks, a new seating chart, and a quiet hope that this year will finally feel lighter, only to realize a few weeks later that the stress feels famili...
Episode 440: Breakthroughs in Grammar Instruction: The 3 Must-Have Elements (Part 2)
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, Grammar shouldn’t live on a worksheet and die on a quiz. We want middle school writers who can actually use conventions, sentence structure, and punctuation to communicate clearly, with pur...
Episode 439: Monday Mindset: You Are Valuable
We start August with a Monday Mindset that pulls the focus back where it belongs, on you as a human being with limited energy. We walk through a simple but uncomfortable question: who got the best of you last year, and who got the scraps? From ...
Episode 438: Breakthroughs in Grammar Instruction: The 3 Must-Have Elements (Part 1)
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, we're tackling one of the most common classroom frustrations: teaching grammar in a way that actually sticks. We discuss why students often forget grammar rules when it comes time to...
Episode 437: Why Your Bell Ringers Aren't Working (And What to Do Instead)
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, we're talking all about bell ringers—and why so many of them end up feeling like busy work instead of meaningful learning. Curriculum writer Pat shares a simple weekly framework that...
Episode 436: Monday Mindset: It's All About Your Mood
What if the only thing standing between you and a productive week is waiting until you "feel like it"? This Monday Mindset episode is a reminder that your mood doesn't get to dictate your movement. We talk about why motivation is unrelia...
Episode 435: Get Your Students to Rock their Text-Dependent Paragraphs with this Strategy
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, we're talking about one of the biggest challenges in teaching literary analysis: helping students write strong evidence-based responses before they tackle a full essay. You'll learn ...
Episode 434: Increase Students Writing Scores in 30 Minutes or Less
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, we're diving into one of the biggest challenges middle school ELA teachers face: finding enough time to teach writing without spending hours grading. We'll explore why these two stru...
Episode 433: Monday Mindset: Go to a Dark Room
Your life gets loud fast: notifications, inbox urgency, endless content, and the constant pressure to keep up. Then a real moment hits and suddenly the only questions that matter rise to the surface: What am I doing with my life? What do I actu...
Episode 432: Are You Making This Mistake with Your Student Writing Samples?
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, Your next writing unit might not be “too hard” or “too time-consuming” at all. The real problem could be the way we use model essays and the way we test our writing prompts before students ...
Episode 431: Get Your Students Actually Enjoying Writing with this FUN Activity
Another Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, Most students can pull a quote. The hard part is explaining why that quote proves anything. We’re tackling the #1 skill gap middle school ELA teachers keep naming again and again: justificatio...