This document provides tips and strategies for parents to help their 6th-8th grade children improve their English/language arts skills in reading comprehension, writing fluency, and grammar. It includes recommendations for reading with children at home, asking questions about texts, having children summarize what they read, and editing their writing. Resources for parents and students are also listed.

1. English/Language Arts
Workshop for 6th
-8th
Grades
By: Shirleen Schofield
(ELA Title Intervention Teacher)

2. Tips For Retaining Information
 Read Summary of Informational Text before reading the
section
 Read the Bold Print and Titles before reading the section
 Read the section after reading summary, bold print and
titles

3. Tips for Reading Comprehension
 Have your child read at least 20 minutes a day
 Choose books that interest your child
 Have your child use sticky notes to write down
questions they have
 Use sticky notes or write down words that your child
does not understand
 Have your child use sticky notes when they make
connections to what they are reading (text to text,
text to movies, text to real life situations/experiences)
 Help your child with the pronunciations of words (Use
a dictionary to help with those pronunciations)
 Have your child write or tell you a summary about
what they are reading

4. Tips for Reading Comprehension
Continued
 Ask your child to make predictions of what the book is going
to be about from the title and pictures from the book
 Encourage your child to ask questions through out the book
that they are reading
 Have your child to make inferences through out the book
(An inference is using your background knowledge and the
book’s text to come up with conclusions/reasons for better
understanding of what is going on in the book)

5. Tips to Increase Fluency in Writing
 Have your child write an authority list (a list of topics that
they are experts in-Example: How to play certain sports?
How to play an instrument? Etc.)
 Have your child showing versus telling in their writing
(Example: He smiled and jumped for joy, instead of he was
happy)
 Read their writing and edit for your child (If you are unable
to do this, have them wait 20 minutes to 30 minutes or
longer to reread their work and edit it themselves)
 Have your child use their 5 senses (touch, hear, sight,
taste, and smell)

6. Tips to Increase Fluency in Writing
Continued
 Have your child use a dictionary for the correct
spelling
 Make sure your child uses the correct form of a word
(Example: their-possessive, there-where/place,
they’re-contraction for they are)
 Have your child read their sentences 2 or 3 times out
loud to you to see if the sentence makes sense
 Have your child use strong words in their writing
(Example: instead of bad use horrible, instead of said
use yelling, scream, whispered)
 Have your child use the same tense in their writing
(Example: past tense, present tense, or future tense)
 Have your child avoid using “you” when explaining
how to do something or when writing a story

7. Tips to Increase Fluency in Writing
Continued
 Have your child make sure that their paragraphs
connect/flow with each other (Example: That the last
sentence of their paragraph leads into their next
paragraph)
 Make sure your child has introduction/beginning,
body/supporting paragraphs, and conclusion/ending
 Make sure your child uses the 5 senses when
describing the setting of the story (Setting- where
and when a story takes place)
 When writing a research paper, make sure your child
is citing/documenting where they got their
information

8. Tips for Grammar
 Verb- an action word (jump, ran, etc,)
 Linking verb- state of being (be, are, were, is, was,
and am)
 Helping verbs- help the main verb tell what someone
or something does (have, has, had)
 Predicate- tells what the subject is doing (running,
being, etc.)
 Adverbs- describes the verb & normally ends in “ly”
(softly, quickly, slowly, etc)
 Noun- person, place, thing, or idea (dog, Tom,
Detroit, etc.)
 Proper Noun- special names of persons, places,
things and they are always capitalized (Mary, Mount
Rushmore, German Shepherd, etc)

9. Tips for Grammar
Continued
Common Noun – general name (dog, table, etc.)
 Subject – tells who or what the sentence is about
 Pronouns – words that take the place of nouns (he, she,
they, etc.)
 Adjectives – describes a noun (three, blue, birthday, etc.)
 Comparative endings – comparing 2 things using “er” or
“more” (deeper, more softly, etc.)
 Superlative endings – comparing more than 2 things
(super/big amount) using “est” or “most”
 Gerunds – a verb form that ends in “ing” and is used as a
noun (cooking, working, etc.)
 Gerund phrase – is a group of words that includes a gerund
and the other words that complete its meaning

10. Figures of Speech
 Simile- a comparison of 2 unlike things using the
words like or as (The row of trees stood along the
driveway, like soldiers at attention.
 Metaphor – a comparison of 2 unlike things without
using like or as. (The buttercups were a colorful
blanket spread across the yard.
 Personification- means to give human characteristics
to animals or objects (The sun winked slyly at the
moon just before it sank below the horizon)
 Idioms – a group of words that mean something other
than what they appear to mean
 Analogies – shows a relationship between 2 pairs of
words (Bored is to excited as wide is to narrow)

11. The Following Website Provides the Core
Curriculum Standards for English/Language
Arts:
- http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/6-8_ELA_357703_7.pdf
 Resources/Games for Parents & Students
 http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/grammar/verbs.htm
 http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/getskill_s.cgi?A1=selects&A2=la&A4=0&A7=0
 http://www.softschools.com/language_arts/
 http://www.teachervision.fen.com/reading-and-language-arts/games/5831.html
 http://www.internet4classrooms.com/lang_mid.htm
 http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/la-grammar.html
 http://www.time4learning.com/homepage2012.html
 http://www.studyisland.com

12. Parent and Teachers Working as a
Team
 The following website is a tool for parents to utilize on how to communicate
effectively with your child’s school and teacher
 http://powerparentinguonline.com/parent/