Serious thinking was happening in the Martin Innovative Middle School hall today, as sixth-grade English Language Arts students in Mrs. Danyel Moose’s class took a more active approach to analyzing text.
After reading an excerpt from The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, students were challenged to think about how a character responded to changes and difficulties within the passage.
But instead of simply discussing the question from their seats, Mrs. Moose turned the classroom into an interactive learning space. Words that may—or may not—have described the character’s response were posted around the room. In small groups, students moved from station to station, discussing each possibility before choosing the word they believed best fit the character’s response.
Then the class came back together to compare choices, explain their reasoning, and dig even deeper into the text.
It may look like a simple activity, but there’s a lot happening here: movement, conversation, collaboration, critical thinking, and evidence-based reasoning.
Taking that hands-on, active road to understanding isn’t just a practice—it’s a key identifier of a Martin Innovative Middle School classroom.