ELA Weekly Assessments: Make Morning Work Successful

Morning work is an easy way to set your students up for success! I love morning work because it gives my students and I a structured beginning to the day. Routine is so important for children (and adults!). Once students have turned in their homework and unpacked their backpacks, put away their lunch boxes, and shaken the snow off their boots (just kidding – I live in Florida☀️), what’s next?

Why morning work?

Morning work helps create routines and rhythms in the classroom. Kids love routines. Adults love routines. They know what they are expected to do. This small window of time is also crucial to get in review and some skills that you may not even have time to cover throughout the year. (I’m looking at you, grammar!)

I used both the Math and ELA morning work in my classroom. While students are working quietly at their seats, they’re getting their little brains warmed up and settling for the day. And YOU have time to take attendance, collect forms, permission slips, etc. and of course, put out any fires that will inevitably happen. The ELA weekly assessment is a bonus and helps you assess the skills int he morning work.

ELA Morning Work

The ELA morning work focuses on reading comprehension skills, vocabulary, grammar, language, and spelling. I have a blog dedicated to ELA morning work for you to explore, Tips for an Effective Morning Routine (which includes a free download), and/or you may want to check out my resources on ELA Morning Work.

After using the ELA Morning Work, many teachers specifically asked for a way to assess the weekly morning work. So I created the ELA Weekly Assessments, which is currently available for grades 2-8.

ELA Weekly Assessments

In 3rd grade, we focus on 3rd-grade learners with language standards, vocabulary practice, and reading comprehension skills. Each day of the week has a different focus to keep the material organized throughout the week. There are monthly resources available with four weeks of material each, or you can get the whole 3rd-grade bundle of ELA morning work. At the end of the week, you can deliver an ELA weekly assessment to help plan for future lessons.

Monday is Meaningful Monday, where the idea is to find meaning. The focus is synonyms, antonyms, vocabulary words, context clues, and reading comprehension of short paragraphs.

Text Structure Tuesday begins with a paragraph for students to read. After they’ve read it, students get to identify the text structure, main idea, key details, and author’s perspective.

On Wednesday, we focus on words. Wordy Wednesday contains tasks for students relating to words, their meanings, homophones, or a short writing task.

Thursday is Throwback Thursday to review past grammar use and conventions lessons to remind students of what they’ve learned before.

Figurative Friday is all about figurative language, including similes, metaphors, idioms, and all those fun parts of figurative language our students need to learn but get confused by.

Practice and review are essential to our students learning and retaining information, so having ELA morning work helps to keep the information present and not lost behind all the new information you’re teaching in class.

The ELA weekly assessments fit into your ELA morning work by providing a quiz for your students at the end of the week. You can use the quiz to see how well your students remember and understand the concepts you are teaching in your ELA lessons throughout the week. It is also a great way to see what students struggle with and what lessons need to be reviewed or retaught. I’ve got you covered for ELA weekly assessments in 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade.

Do I need ELA morning work and assessments in my classroom?

My answer? A resounding yes. Some form of morning work in your classroom will help keep you, and your students organized first thing in the morning. It will help your day start off with a purpose, and your students know exactly what to do and what is expected of them. The more routine you can facilitate at one of the busiest times of the school day, the better. We all thrive on established rhythms.

Using ELA morning work in your classroom is an excellent idea for reviewing and practicing of material you are already teaching. By using the ELA weekly assessments, you are only helping yourself out. You get to easily see how well your students remember and understand the material you already have to teach.

So, do you need morning work and ELA weekly assessments in your classroom? Probably not, but they certainly do make your life easier!