Middle school ELA teacher here and just discovered MCP. I only have about 5-6 weeks of instruction left and want to try out with MCP for the end of the year and maybe incorporate some end-of-grade prep in there as well. What ideas do you have for me? - Experimenting in English

Dear Experimenting,

What a perfect time of year to try out MCP in the ELA classroom! I would definitely encourage you to run a low-stakes unit 0 (introduction to the model) for one of the weeks so that learners can get acclimated to the systems of blended instruction, self-pacing, and mastery checks. Low stakes here is key - perhaps you could do this with test-taking strategies or a short story/reading comprehension micro-unit that all learners would have success in.

I love the idea of end-of-grade prep here as well. I’m imagining you could build two self-paced units (one for reading subtests and one for writing) and organize the learning activities by subtest topics. For example, in an 8th-grade EOG reading-prep unit, you might have a 6-8 lesson unit (running 2 weeks) with teaching points and mastery checks on literal comprehension strategies, inferential comprehension strategies, using context to solve for word meaning, main idea v. theme, author’s craft, and summary. The summative assessment for that unit could be a sample reading test. You could design a similar unit for writing-prep and vocabulary.

If you’d rather forego test prep, I think the end of the year is a great time to play with high-interest activities like virtual escape rooms! I liked to design them around literature studies like this educator did with Macbeth. This article gives a good overview of using escape rooms with literature instruction.

There is incredible power with this model in the ELA classroom! Whatever you decide, pick something that will give you and your learners energy to end the year in a positive and empowering way!

Emily Dia
Partnerships Manager

Emily Dia worked as a classroom teacher and instructional coach for the last 20 years. Her grounding purpose is to create equitable access to transformative teaching for all children. She is passionate about culturally responsive + relevant practice, assessment + grading reform, and dynamic curriculum design. As the Partner Transformation Manager for the Modern Classrooms Project, she spends her days supporting educators, schools, and districts in reimagining instruction with the Modern Classrooms model. Emily holds a bachelor's degree from Wake Forest University and a Master’s degree in Learning & Instruction from Northeastern University. When she's not thinking about creating paths and systems for all to students succeed, she dreams about reading a book on a beach and enjoying time with her family and dog Buffy, slayer of vampires.

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