Teaching Middle School ELA
by Caitlin Mitchell
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 sc
Episodes
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Episode 466: Beat the Pre-Holiday Slump With a Story Escape Room
This week, we're sharing a fun solution: a Short Story Escape Room using Walter Dean Myers' The Treasure of Lemon Brown! Pat joins me to walk through how to turn close reading into an exciting challenge using our Into, Through, Beyond framework. Students unlock each section of the story by…
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Episode 465: Monday Mindset: Quiet Quitting
This week's Monday Mindset is all about quiet quitting, teacher burnout, and reclaiming control over how we experience our teaching lives. Teaching middle school ELA can be exhausting, but what happens when frustration and burnout start taking away the pride and joy we once felt in the classroom?...
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Episode 464: Words That Won a War: Honoring Veterans and the Code Talkers
Another great Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode! Veterans Day can feel tricky in middle school ELA: you want to honour service in a real way, but you also need a lesson plan that builds reading skills, not just a quick craft. We take on that challenge with a story many of us were never...
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Best of Monday Mindset Episode: Re-Air: What Courage Looks Like in the Classroom (Hint: It’s Not Loud)
When we think of courage, we often picture grand, dramatic moments — standing up to someone, taking a huge leap, or making a bold change. But in today’s Monday Mindset episode, we’re exploring a different kind of courage — the quiet, everyday kind that often goes unseen. Caitlin shares her own...
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Episode 462: A Not-So-Spooky Halloween Activity for Any ELA Skill
The Friday before Halloween can feel like controlled chaos in a middle school ELA classroom! So why not lean into the excitement with a fun review activity that keeps students engaged while still checking their understanding? In this week's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast, we're sharing our...
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Episode 461: Monday Mindset: Be the Reason
Negativity is loud right now, and teaching can sometimes feel like you're carrying more than anyone realizes. But what if one small act of kindness could change someone's entire day? In this week's Monday Mindset, Caitlin shares a personal moment involving a small back-to-school gift for someone…
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Episode 460: Hidden Gems of EB Series: The Best EBW Resources You Might Be Missing
Your writing block doesn’t need more moving parts. It needs fewer repeat questions and better routines! In this week’s episode of the Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast, we’re sharing three hidden gems inside our EBW evidence-based writing approach that can help your students write stronger...
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Episode 459: Monday Mindset: Same Classroom, Completely Different Experience
Some days, teaching feels manageable. Other days, it feels impossible. And the frustrating part? Nothing on your schedule has changed. In this week's Monday Mindset, we're exploring how the world within us shapes the way we experience our classrooms. If you've been dealing with Sunday anxiety,...
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Episode 458: Hidden Gems of EB Series: Skip the Unit Test and Try These Projects Instead
Welcome back. For today's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, we are continuing our Hidden Gems of EB Series. Skip the unit test without skipping the standards. Caitlin and our curriculum writer Pat share three end-of-unit project ideas that feel like a fun weekend for students but…
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Episode 457: Monday Mindset: Get an Accountability Partner
October has a way of humbling even the most prepared middle school ELA teachers, so for today's Monday Mindset episode, we talked about how the planning system you swore you’d follow starts slipping, the “leave by four” boundary gets pushed later and later, and suddenly your weekends are full of...
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Episode 456: Hidden Gems of EB Series: Make the Middle of Your Unit Matter
This week's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, The part of an ELA unit that students remember least is often the part we teach most: the long middle where they’re “doing the reading.” We’re not okay with that, because the during-reading phase is where real comprehension, analysis, and...
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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 bracing for tomorrow’s to-do list. This Monday Mindset…
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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 with any text, even without the EB Teachers ELA portal.…
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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 change. If you’ve been telling yourself, “Once this…
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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 surprisingly rigorous. We’re sharing Connect Three, Word Toss, and Conflict Knockout—games…
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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 lighter. If you’ve been carrying the pressure to do it...
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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 writer, joins me to share the most creative and oddly...
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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 growing—even when we don’t always feel it. Press play for…
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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 attention while you’re trying to teach. Caitlin and…
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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 truth: the regret that sticks is often the choice you...
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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 without becoming overwhelming. We dive into why 5th...
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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 sharing a Monday Mindset that starts with a personal story...
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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 specialist Pat to walk through what actually makes...
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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-time act of thoughtful gratitude can create an immediate 10%...
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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 stop starting from scratch in every unit. That same...
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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 familiar. If you’re a middle school ELA teacher who’s tired of...
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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 purpose, and for a real audience. That’s what drives…
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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 there, we reframe energy as a finite resource and…
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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 write and share a simple three-part framework that helps…
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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 helps students build reading, writing, grammar, and...
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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 unreliable, how action creates momentum, and share a simple…
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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 how a simple mini Response to Literature routine can...
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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 struggles are actually connected and share two practical...
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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 actually want? Am I living the way I want to be living?...
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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 ever touch the page. We start with a candid question...
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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: justification (also known as analysis or explanation) and we’re...
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Episode 430: Monday Mindset: Forget What You Think You Need
Another Monday Mindset, The fastest way to feel stuck as a middle school ELA teacher is to believe your peace depends on someone else doing their job differently. If admin were more supportive, if class sizes were smaller, if the district stopped changing everything, then you’d finally feel…
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Episode 429: Is the Reason Your Students Struggle With Writing Simpler Than You Think?
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, watching a class freeze at a blank page is one of the fastest ways to lose your confidence as a writing teacher and it’s also one of the most preventable. I’m breaking down the evidence-based writing approach (EBW) and why it works as a...
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Episode 428: Re-Air: The Best of Writing Episodes: It's Time to Drop the RACE Strategy.
The RACE writing formula simply stands for “restate, answer, cite, and explain”. This is widely used by middle school ELA teachers teaching writing as it makes a great tool to help learners construct their answers in a clear, logical format. However, this formula proves to be challenging when...
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Episode 427: Monday Mindset: Stay Brave
The moment you want to quit is often the moment you are about to grow. I’m sharing a simple phrase that has been sticking with me lately: stay brave. Not “be brave someday” or “become brave when things calm down” but stay brave right now, especially when you feel pulled back toward the familiar…
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Episode 426: If Your Students Only Write One Essay This Year, THIS is the One!
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, Caitlin shares why evidence-based writing is the one writing genre every middle school ELA teacher should prioritize. Discover how focusing on literary analysis can build confident writers, strengthen critical thinking, and create…
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Episode 425: Monday Mindset: The Two Words That Will Save Your Energy This Year
That moment when you open a brutal parent email before sunrise, or realise your admin still doesn’t see how hard you’re working, can hijack your whole day. We’re sharing a simple mindset that cuts through the noise: “Let them.” Two words, but they can change how you carry the job. We talk through...
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Episode 424: How to Cut Your Planning Time in Half Without Cutting Corners
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode. I walked through four concrete ways to cut your lesson planning time in half without cutting corners. First, I talked about building a truly distraction-free planning block so you can get back into deep focus and actually finish. Then I used...
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Episode 423: Two Things to Do This Summer That Will Change Your Entire School Year
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, I tackled the three beliefs that keep middle school ELA teachers stuck: the idea that you cannot plan until you know your students, the fear that batch planning takes too much time up front, and the frustration that schedules always change...
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Episode 422: Monday Mindset: Get Used to Being Uncomfortable
Our Monday Mindset Episode for today is about Discomfort is not your enemy, it’s your evidence. We open with a raw teaching memory: a first day in front of students, every word scripted, terrified of getting it wrong and being exposed. If you’ve ever tried a new lesson, a new routine, or a new...
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Episode 421: The Real Reason You're Still at School at 6 PM (And It's Not Your To-Do List)
If you have ever looked up at the clock and realized you are still in your classroom at 6 PM, we want you to hear this clearly: the real problem is not your to-do list. It is the belief underneath it. I walk through the story so many teachers live, the custodian making rounds while we are still...
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Episode 420: It's Not About How Much Time You Have — It's About What You Do With It
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast episode, I stopped blaming short periods and long blocks and show how a simple daily framework makes any middle school ELA schedule feel doable. I explained why predictable starts and calm endings beat cramming every ELA skill into every day, then...
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Episode 419: Monday Mindset: Stop Waiting to Be Ready
In today's Monday Mindset episode, I talked through the mindset shift that changes the game for teachers and for anyone chasing a bigger life: Ready isn’t a feeling, it’s a Decision. I share what I told a friend who asked how I went from an idea to building EB Academics, and why the real “secret”...
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Episode: 418: You Didn't Become a Teacher to Feel Like This — Here's How to Get Back to Loving It
In today's Teaching Middle School ELA podcast episode, Caitlin gets real about teacher burnout and the challenges middle school educators face every day. She challenges common myths about lesson planning, rigor, and engagement, while sharing practical ways to protect your energy and mindset.…
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Episode 417: The Real Reason Your Students Aren't Retaining What You Teach (And How a Simple Framework Fixes It)
Do your students struggle to retain skills from one unit to the next? You're not alone. In this episode, I explored why standards mastery often feels out of reach for middle school ELA teachers and uncovered the planning habits that may be standing in the way. I discussed three common beliefs…
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About this show
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 sc
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Caitlin Mitchell
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