Back to School for Middle School Teachers, Middle School Language Arts, Middle School Reading, Middle School Writing

Back to School: Selecting the First of Your Units of Study

Linda Asaro
August 18, 2023

This is the fifth part of a mini-series on back-to-school tips with a focus on selecting the first of your units of study.

If you are reading this, your year is either about to start or has maybe already begun. You might be in a bit of a quandary as to what would be the most effective and meaningful way to start your instruction. You might have your year dictated to you through your district, but maybe you have some say as to how it goes. Read here for tips on what to consider when selecting the first of your middle school language arts units of study.

blog post on back to school with a focus on units of study for language arts — Read here for tips to select the best starting point in your middle school language arts class.

Ideal Start for Units of Study

There is a lot that will go into this decision of what to do as your first unit and the first lesson that you do. You might have this dictated to you. If that is the case, focus your reading to get some tips for the actual teaching because I will be mentioning a lot of methodology and pedagogy as well as the actual first unit that I recommend. So let’s dive in!

As I go through this, I am going to talk about your ideal start. I’m not talking about that very first and maybe second day of school. This is when you are doing ice-breaking activities and setting expectations. I’m talking about your first actual unit of study. In my school, I was lucky enough (or unlucky enough, depending on how you look at it) to develop the curriculum for 6th-grade language arts. A lot went into this, as you can imagine.

What to Consider for the First of Your Units of Study

There are four things I considered when making this decision. I’m going to first list them, and then I’ll go into detail on the unit of study I chose. I’ll show you how it fits in with these 4 components.

Engaging – I want my students, obviously to be engaged from the get-go. That means, for me, I’m not starting with something like, say, an essay.
Not overly difficult – Although we always want our kids to be challenged, I am a 6th-grade teacher. This is their first year of middle school, and my kids come in very nervous in my district. For the most part, they want to do well. So this isn’t the time for the most difficult of my units of study.
Teach the skills needed for the year – This is really so important to me, as I teach with a reading/writing workshop model. Whatever your model of learning, you want this first unit to actually teach not only the unit itself, but skills and expectations that you have for kids. I’ll get more into detail with this when I give my example.
Success for kids– This means keeping it streamlined and setting clear expectations. I’m not suggesting giving watered-down assessments here. What I am suggesting is that if the kids do the work, they should be able to be met with success. You don’t want them feeling defeated at the beginning. They might label language arts and you as a teacher that are just too hard for them.

My Ideal for Units of Study

So what unit did I choose that would fit these four criteria? After doing some research and digging deep into how I wanted the year to run, I felt that starting with a reading workshop unit was the way to go. As an FYI, I alternate between reading and writing. I understand that many of you may not. But I would highly recommend starting with just reading for the first 2-3 weeks, or however much time you’d like to spend. Here’s how it fits the criteria:

1. Engaging Units of Study

Book clubs are used throughout the year. Kids get to choose their own books, we do a class novel at the beginning of the year. This way, I can be sure to pick something that is highly engaging for them.

In a reading/writing workshop model, you do a mini lesson, and then give kids some time to read. Before sending them off to read in this unit, however, I read some of it aloud to them. This really helps point out the skill that we are learning that day.

Reading aloud also shows kids my love of reading and how I hope they will approach books that they will choose in the coming year. I am shocked that some middle school teachers think that kids don’t like to be read to. It simply is not true. You are missing such a valuable time to point out skills and your love of reading. It is also really is a bonding time. I actually have a rug in my room (you can check out my blog on setting up your library for tips on this). We gather there for read-alouds. It really does make even the most cynical child feel secure and relaxed.

You want to choose a book that kids will be able to discuss easily, so you might want to choose something that has a main character that is about their age. Discussion is not always easy, and boy do I know that.

2. Not Overly Difficult

I like the idea of starting with reading instead of writing because I know there are a lot of kids who come in either thinking writing is hard, they are not excited about it, or they have had negative experiences with writing.

Like I said, I choose the first novel to launch the idea of what workshop is, and so I chose a novella, which is a short novel, called Mick Harte was Here by Barbara Park. For one thing, I actually had a class set that I inherited. Although the topic is serious (her brother has died in a bike accident), it is not graphic, and the main character is super relatable and in middle school.

Because it’s a novella, it’s short, and the individual chapters are also short. But just because it’s short, it doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. It is chock full of important skills, which I’ll get to in a moment. All of my kids can easily handle this book, and like I said, I read some of it aloud.

If you do go with a class novel to start, look for a book that is on the shorter side but with a relatable main character. I also really love Freak the Mighty, but it is a bit longer, and I don’t want my first unit running too long because it really is a launch unit.

3. Teaches Skills Needed All Year

Our first unit has to set the tone of the year as well as introduce some basic knowledge for the year. Let’s take a look.

Skills for Workshop

This book can be used to teach the skills needed for a workshop model throughout the year. First of all, I do a lesson on starting workshop and their expectations. I go over what the workshop model is, and what their expectations are. When I say expectations, I don’t only mean how I’ll grade them (which is of course important as well). This means what they will actually do during workshop, where they will sit, how they will have a partner, how much homework to expect, what they can expect from me in the way I will support them, etc.

Kids need to know how to use their reading notebooks and my expectations for what a good entry would entail. This is a big topic and probably something I could do a whole blog post on, but suffice it to say now that I give clear examples of entries and show them how to cite text evidence properly so that they are set for the year on this.

Basic Conceptual Skills for the Year

This unit also must set up some skills that they are expected to carry with them and apply throughout the year. I always begin with a literary terms and plot lesson after we go over all of those expectations. This lesson is so key, because it is something that I not only go over as a class as a mini-lesson, but it is put on their Google Classroom™ for the year. Kids are expected to know it for the year. I also print a copy for their actual writers notebook, because I have kids use a composition book for notes and activities as well as a digital platform.

And you are in luck because I have a free lesson on literary terms and plot structure. You definitely, definitely want to grab this one. Your kids can refer to it not only for reading workshop, but for when they are in a writing unit as well.

free literary terms and plot structure lesson for middle school — This is a paid product, but is free to my subscribers.

4. Easily Met with Success

The last of the criteria is that the first of your units of study be relatively easy to met with success. I definitely recommend some sort of assessment. I would do a formative assessment, like grading their reading notebook entries. This would be a lower-stakes grade, and maybe count less as it is used to help them get better at your expectations for their work for the year.

A final assessment could be something like a test on literary terms and how it applies to the novel that you used. But I would give kids plenty of practice and do some active study in class. Kids don’t really know how to actively study. If you tell them you are giving a test on a novel, they don’t really know what to do. So, I would do this in class for a couple of days.

Centers and Games for Active Study

Centers

Here’s an example: On the first day, I would ask them to decide a way to help them study their literary terms. But I would be very explicit on some tangible ideas. I would suggest putting them on index cards or making their own online cards on something like quizlet (free online study cards), etc. Let them do this in class.

Then, I might make some literary terms stations, where kids have different things to do like play a recall game, or create their own plot line of the story, create their own version of the main character with all of her traits, etc. Do anything that would really guide them to the test.

I have a whole line of reading center activities; check them out!

plot structure reading centers for middle school

Games

Kahoot is a great option. It is a free, online game and kids can compete. It’s very interactive and they love it. I made a kahoot with different multiple-choice questions about the book, such as which person is the book written, an example of the rising action, etc.

With these methods in place I am not only helping them to do well on the first test (because they really don’t know what to expect from test), but to set them up with how to study in the future.

That’s a Wrap!

I hope these suggestions were helpful. Giving some time to plan out your first unit can really set you and your kids up for success for the entire year.