Serving advanced learners (and their teachers) since 2012.

Arizona ELA Standard: 1.RL.7

Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Comparing Characters’ Bedrooms

Comparing Characters’ Bedrooms

What item’s in a character’s bedroom would reflect their deepest desires? And what if they toured a similar character’s room?

Halloween Emoji Story 🕷️

Halloween Emoji Story 🕷️

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Emoji Stories 🚚

Emoji Stories 🚚

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Emoji Stories 🏰

Emoji Stories 🏰

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Looking Closely at Holiday Photos

Looking Closely at Holiday Photos

Let’s write from multiple perspectives using an old timey holiday photo!

Writing About Art: Chōshi in Shimosha

Writing About Art: Chōshi in Shimosha

Get your students writing some pretty darn impressive poetry based on Japan’s most famous artist.

Writing About Art: Twilight in the Wilderness

Writing About Art: Twilight in the Wilderness

Look closely at Twilight in the Wilderness. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

Inferring With Art: A Man

Inferring With Art: A Man

What’s going on in this painting? Who is that guy? What’s his job? And where’s his other boot?

Inferring With Art: A Couple

Inferring With Art: A Couple

What’s going on in this room? There are shoes everywhere! Are those… oranges? Let’s make some inferences!

Inferring With Art: Two Women

Inferring With Art: Two Women

What are these two women up to? What’s that thing she’s holding? Let’s make some inferences!

Story Starter: A Magical School

Story Starter: A Magical School

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in at a magical school.

Story Starter: Somewhere In Space

Story Starter: Somewhere In Space

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in space!

Characters Dressed as Other Characters for Halloween

Characters Dressed as Other Characters for Halloween

What if one character dressed up as another for Halloween? Would the Cat in the Hat pick Captain Jack Sparrow, because they’re both chaotic yet good-natured people? Would Elsa dress up as The Ice King since they are both lonely?

Virtue or Vice?

Virtue or Vice?

Aristotle noted that positive traits and negative traits are often the same thing, but just in different amounts. The right amount is a virtue, but too much or too little and it’s a vice.

Showing A Character’s Trait

Showing A Character’s Trait

We tell students to ‘show, not tell’ — but that advice is useless until they experience the difference. This lesson makes it click.

Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details

Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details

Get kids focusing on the small, but essential, details of a topic.

Elements of The Fantasy Genre

Elements of The Fantasy Genre

Every fantasy story has patterns hiding underneath the magic. Once your students see the elements, they’ll spot them everywhere — and use them in their own writing.

Introduce Symbolism with Pixel Art

Introduce Symbolism with Pixel Art

Create a pixelated icon that represents the essence of a character!

Add Layers To Direct Instruction

Add Layers To Direct Instruction

For Teachers

Take direction instruction beyond a monotonous practice of the same skill over and over.

Better Stories Part 1: The Big Idea

Better Stories Part 1: The Big Idea

We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.