Notice, Wonder: Dazzle

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Power and Symbols

When does a simple symbol have more power than a word?

Parts of Speech Party – Care

How many different ways can we use the word “care”? Let’s find out in this Parts of Speech Party!

Super Specific Similes – Slimy Broccoli

Start with a basic simile. Now make it more specific. Now even more. Watch how much better writing gets with each round.

Super Specific Similes: Quick Baby

Let’s make this simile about a quick baby even more specific.

Super Specific Similes: Loud Class

Let’s make this simile about a loud class super specific!

Super Specific Similes: Stinky Seaweed

Start with a basic simile. Now make it more specific. Now even more. Watch how much better writing gets with each round.

Notice, Wonder: Sombrero

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Notice, Wonder: Silver Torch

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Writing About Art: Impression, Sunrise

Look closely at Impression, Sunrise. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

Notice, Wonder: Bloom

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Fancier Figurative Language: Use the Opposite

Let’s start with “As cold as fire.”

Writing About Art: The Scream

Your students will turn the iconic painting The Scream into a vivid, sensory poem.

Ambiguous Sentences

Rather than just demand that students “write clearly,” we’ll explore the hazards of poorly written sentences… and maybe create one of our own!

What’s In My Brain: May vs May

The word “may” can be used for possibility or permission. It’s a modal auxiliary verb!

Fancier Figurative Language: Advanced Repetition

Is your students’ use of repetition limited to, “The girl was very, very, very fast.”? Let’s borrow some ideas from Shakespeare!

Advanced Alliteration and Consonance

When students learn about alliteration, it’s hard to steer them away from goofy tongue-twisters. Certainly, there must be more powerful and practical ways of using alliteration. In this lesson, I draw on delicious examples from Shakespeare to show how a very advanced writer used alliteration. Then, I break those ideas down so students can try them out.

Notice, Wonder: The Cliff

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

More Specific than “Smart”

When students are told that they’re “smart”, what does this word actually mean to them? (Psst. It isn’t what we intended.)

Fancier Figurative Language: Start with a Cliche

We’ll start with the cliché “as cold as ice” and go somewhere much more interesting.