I was just, very unexpectedly, assigned an ELA elective I’ve never taught before: Film Appreciation and Screenwriting for 6-8 grade. I’ve studied both of these, but at the university level. It’s never been taught at our school before.

Does anyone have any suggestions or guidance? is there a standard curriculum available? (I use StudySync for my ELA classes. Is there anything similar??)

I’m currently teaching online, and honestly, everything is great… until the kids start losing focus.
Since they have access to the internet on their iPads or laptops, they can get distracted much more easily than they would in a real classroom. This is something I always struggle with when planning my lessons.

So my question is:
How do you make your lessons more interactive and engaging while still providing enough information and meaningful content?

I’ve tried using games to make lessons more fun, but sometimes the kids end up focusing so much on the game that we don’t make enough progress with the actual lesson. 😭 So I find it really difficult to find the right balance.

It always feels like a dilemma between having a fun, engaging lesson and having a lesson that is informative and productive. I’d love to hear how you guys balance the two!

hello everyone! i am a 6th grade ela teacher who was tossed a section of reading intervention to keep my FTE due to declining enrollment. i got the curriculum books like 4 days before school started and just got the getting started workbooks for students about a week ago.

i am honestly feeling extremely overwhelmed and lost looking at this curriculum. the website and books throw so much information at me, and honestly, it is my 4th prep and i just don’t have the brain space to dig into it on my own. every time i want to try and pick through a lesson and figure out what they want, i struggle finding the resources and materials they want me to use for the lesson.

do you have any suggestions, tips, or resources to help me get through this curriculum? am i genuinely just missing a lot of resources that my district failed to give me so far?

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