Middle School Café - Empowering Secondary ELA Teachers
Are you an ELA teacher striving to help your middle and high school students become confident, capable readers and writers? Middle School Cafe is your go-to podcast for practical strategies, proven methods, and inspiration to close the reading gap and unlock every student's potential.
In each episode, I will share real-world insights and actionable tips drawn from years of classroom experience to help you meet students where they are and guide them toward growth. From implementing the workshop model to fostering student ownership of learning, you'll discover ideas and strategies that make a real impact.
Join the community of educators working to create classrooms where every student thrives. Visit www.middleschoolcafe.com to learn more and start building the readers and writers we know your students can be.
Middle School Café - Empowering Secondary ELA Teachers
Using Reading Challenges to Engage and Stretch Student Readers
Independent reading doesn’t have to disappear just because your district moved to a canned curriculum. In this episode, I share how reading challenges can be a flexible, low-pressure way to keep middle and high-level readers engaged—even when you’re teaching from a required program.
You’ll hear practical ideas for making reading challenges work in a busy classroom, suggestions for creating prompts that connect to your curriculum themes, and ways to recognize student effort without relying on rewards or prizes. I also share small classroom roles that give students voice and ownership in the classroom reading routine.
Whether you’re already using independent reading or looking for a manageable way to reintroduce it, this episode offers strategies that honor student choice and help you keep reading meaningful—all while sticking to your district pacing guide.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- What a reading challenge really is (and isn’t)
- Why this approach works well for your mid to stronger readers
- Creative ways to build connections between challenges and curriculum themes
- How to give students voice through small classroom roles
- Ideas for recognizing effort and reflection (and no, it's not candy!)
Mentioned in this episode:
- Episode 45: Why Independent Reading Still Matters—Even with a Canned Curriculum
Middle School ELA Summit – Attend for Free
Join me this summer at these free PD events: Annotated ELA, MSELA, and Joyful Reading. Click the link below for more details!
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