Poetry Comprehension for grades 6 to 8 focuses on the reading standards for ELA to help your students improve comprehension skills. With this book, students will acquire and apply the skills necessary for analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating poetry. Mark Twain Media Publishing Company specializes in providing engaging supplemental books and decorative resources to complement middle- and upper-grade classrooms. Designed by leading educators, this product line covers a range of subjects including math, science, language arts, social studies, history, government, fine arts, and character.

"As teachers today, everything we teach has to be turbo-charged with skills and the promise of advancing our students academically. Here's the cool thing: poetry can get you there. It is inherently turbo-charged. Poets distill a novel's worth of content and emotion in twenty lines. The literary elements and devices you need to teach are all there, powerful and miniature as a Bonsai tree." -Paul B. Janeczko You'd like to teach poetry with confidence and passion, but let's face it: poetry can be intimidating to both you and your students. Here is the book that takes the fear factor out of poetry and shows you how to use this powerful genre to spark student engagement and meet language arts requirements. Award-winning poet Paul B. Janeczko is the master for creating anthologies for pre-teen and adolescent readers, and here he's chosen 20 contemporary and classic selections with step-by-step, detailed lessons for investigating each poem from the inside out. Kids learn to become active readers of poetry, using graphic organizer worksheets to help them jump over their fear and dive into personal, smart, analytical responses. There's no better genre than poetry for helping students gain perspective on their own identities and their own worlds, and Paul provides a space on each reproducible poem for private thoughts, questions, feelings, and ideas. Your students will discover what each poem means to them. The 20 poems in this collection were chosen for their thought-provoking topics; compelling real-world themes that lead to conversation and collaboration in middle school classrooms. And by showing you how the poems and activities address the common core standards for English Language Arts (complete with a sample chart linking the poems to the standards), Paul provides a clear understanding of how you can "get there" using poetry. You can cultivate a passion for poetry in your classroom. Take the journey with Paul B. Janeczko and grow in confidence with your students, meeting some standards along the way.

Reading: Informational Text Learning Stations is perfect for center activities, whole class instruction, or individual assignments. Topics includes organizational text structure, bias and point of view, citing evidence and more! The Learning Stations series increases student achievement and provides opportunities for inquiry with a variety of learning stations. Aligned to Common Core State Standards, each of the activities included also support Listening, Speaking, and Media/Technology standards. Make learning fun today with Learning Stations!

An NCTE Poetry Notable, The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School (Grades 6-8) is designed to help teachers meet the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in the English Language Arts (ELA). Take 5 teaching tips for each poem provide step-by-step poetry lessons that address curriculum requirements. These 110 poems include examples of many techniques, forms, and elements such as rhyme, repetition, and rhythm; metaphor and simile; personification; onomatopoeia; hyperbole; dramatic irony; and different forms. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School (PFAMS) offers a set of 36 poems (a poem-a-week for the 9 months of the typical school year) for each grade level. This is the Middle School (grades 6-8) Common Core edition; there is also a Middle School (6-8) TEKS edition for Texas (and elementary school editions for K-5). The 110 poems in this book represent the work of 71 of the best poets who are writing for young people today. Those poets are: Joy Acey, Jeannine Atkins, Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Robyn Hood Black, Calef Brown, Joseph Bruchac, Jen Bryant, Leslie Bulion, Stephanie Calmenson, Deborah Chandra, Kate Coombs, Cynthia Cotten, Kristy Dempsey, Margarita Engle, Betsy Franco, Carole Gerber, Charles Ghigna, Joan Bransfield Graham, Nikki Grimes, Lorie Ann Grover, Monica Gunning, Mary Lee Hahn, Avis Harley, David L. Harrison, Terry Webb Harshman, Juanita Havill, Georgia Heard, Stephanie Hemphill, Sara Holbrook, Carol-Ann Hoyte, Patricia Hubbell, Jacqueline Jules, X.J. Kennedy, Linda Kulp, Julie Larios, Irene Latham, Renée M. LaTulippe, Gail Carson Levine, Debbie Levy, J. Patrick Lewis, George Ella Lyon, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Heidi Mordhorst, Marilyn Nelson, Lesléa Newman, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ann Whitford Paul, Jack Prelutsky, Mary Quattlebaum, Heidi Bee Roemer, Michael J. Rosen, Deborah Ruddell, Laura Purdie Salas, Michael Salinger, Ted Scheu, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, Ken Slesarik, Sonya Sones, Eileen Spinelli, Holly Thompson, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Lee Wardlaw, Charles Waters, April Halprin Wayland, Robert Weinstock, Steven Withrow, Allan Wolf, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Janet Wong, and Jane Yolen. See PomeloBooks.com for more info, including "poem movies" and additional curriculum connections.

Centered around Common Core State Standards, Common Core: Elements of Literature is designed to help students understand such complex elements of literature as irony and symbolism. Practice pages, student charts, graphic organizers, research challenges, discussion starters, writing prompts, games, group activities, and recommended reading lists enable students to practice: Pinpointing character, setting, plot, and theme; uncovering common symbols in fiction; detecting similes, metaphors, and other figures of speech; spotting verbal, situational, and dramatic irony; and recognizing allegory, parody, and satire. Mark Twain Media Publishing Company specializes in providing captivating, supplemental books and decorative resources to complement middle- and upper-grade classrooms. Designed by leading educators, the product line covers a range of subjects including mathematics, sciences, language arts, social studies, history, government, fine arts, and character. Mark Twain Media also provides innovative classroom solutions for bulletin boards and interactive whiteboards. Since 1977, Mark Twain Media has remained a reliable source for a wide variety of engaging classroom resources.

STEM Labs for Life Science by Mark Twain includes 26 fun, integrated labs that help students understand concepts such as: -life -human body systems -ecosystems This middle school life science book encourages students to collaborate and communicate to solve real-world problems. The STEM Labs for Life Science book for sixth–eighth grades features introductory materials to explain STEM education concepts and provides materials for instruction and assessment. Correlated to meet current state standards, each lab combines the following essential STEM concepts: -communication -creativity -teamwork -critical thinking The Mark Twain Publishing Company provides classroom decorations and supplemental books for middle-grade and upper-grade classrooms. These products are designed by leading educators and cover science, math, behavior management, history, government, language arts, fine arts, and social studies.