Not just writing correctly, but writing interestingly!
We tell students to "show, not tell" in their writing, but this advice isn't effective until they experience the difference. In this video, we'll put a famous character (of students' choosing) into a mundane situation and develop a fun scene to show off their main traits.
"Add more variety!" I'd say to my class. But I never really knew what this actually meant. Suprise! This bad advice never improved students' writing. In these videos, students learn nine specific ways to add variety just by changing the beginning of their sentences. This was easily one of my students' favorite writing tools - because it actually helped them.
Want students to understand how a paragraph fits together? Explode one and make them reassemble it using the clues in each sentence! I even wrote a little app to bust a paragraph up for you.
We'll start with the cliché "as cold as ice" and go somewhere much more interesting.
Want something to do during the holiday season that is both fun and involves thinking? Get students writing about what a snowman would think about Halloween or what a ghost would think about Thanksgiving.
We'll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.
Context clues lessons can be a disaster. Here, we expose students to a delightful classic packed with nonsense words ("Jabberwocky") and ask them to decipher the meanings and parts of speech. Then, it's only natural for students to write their own nonsense poems.
Are students' characters a bit flat? Archetypes give them a strong foundation on which to build their own characters as well as a tool to analyze existing stories.
Your students will turn the iconic painting The Scream into a vivid, sensory poem.
Ever ask students to create research questions? Were their ideas a bit… blah? My own students had a very hard time writing questions they didn't already know the answer to! This video is how I solved that problem: upgrade research questions with depth and complexity.
Sure, Dr. Seuss wrote for young students, but can older students analyze his writing and learn to mimic his style? THEN, they can produce Seuss-style poetry about any topic: Ancient China, the electromagnetic spectrum, Pride and Prejudice, and (yes) fraction division!
What if an inanimate object could express thanks for a special person in your life? What would it write?
What if... Edgar Allen Poe wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?
In a sentence, punctuation may seem meek when compared to those mighty words, but punctuation has incredible power over the meaning of a sentence. Students will try re-punctuating sentences to find new meanings - without changing a single word!
Let's take a classic Christmas poem and remix it to work with another holiday!
A typical student narrative includes plot and characters but lacks a larger idea to hold it all together. This is where a lesson on themes comes in…
Ever read a student's story that was just event after event after event and then a very sudden ending? They lack an understanding of a plot's structure. With the help of Finding Nemo, I break down how to set up a well-structured plot.
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.
Pi can go beyond circles! What if you wrote using the digits of pi as your guide?
What if I told you that an elephant weighed a back-breaking 176,000? Could you figure out the unit I'm using? But… how many corgis would that be?
Let's see how propaganda techniques can make even something great seem bad.
Upgrade compare and contrast writing with just a couple of key words.
Did you ever notice that the structure of an essay is very similar to the structure of a paragraph? Hmm…
Let's write from multiple perspectives using an old timey holiday photo!
"Add more variety!" I'd say to my class. But I never really knew what this actually meant. Suprise! This bad advice never improved students' writing. In these videos, students learn nine specific ways to add variety just by changing the beginning of their sentences. This was easily one of my students' favorite writing tools - because it actually helped them.
What if Kylo Ren wrote a love letter to Abe Lincoln or the Sahara Desert wrote one to the Moon?
Can your students come up with a one-syllable word to sum up their time away from school? And then rewrite The Beatles' song Help!?
What happens when a pronoun could refer to more than one noun? Big problems!
If your students' stories are packed with endless ninja fights or arguments between frenemies, it's time to expose them to a wider range of conflicts.
Can you write directions so clear that a group of kids can put a toy together with no illustrations?
What happens when we switch out a "but" with a "so"? An "and" with a "for"? How can such tiny words make such big differences?
Click up an interesting, visual writing prompt suitable for any grade or purpose.
Let's go roller skating in a Halloween costume! What could possibly go wrong?
Rather than just demand that students "write clearly," we'll explore the hazards of poorly written sentences… and maybe create one of our own!
Ready to push kids beyond the boring, old ABAB rhyme scheme and into something a bit more complex?
"Add more variety!" I'd say to my class. But I never really knew what this actually meant. Suprise! This bad advice never improved students' writing. In these videos, students learn nine specific ways to add variety just by changing the beginning of their sentences. This was easily one of my students' favorite writing tools - because it actually helped them.
Put a grumpy character next to a joyful one and they make each other stand out even more. Opposites are powerful!
Students will read three paragraphs about the same topic, decide what makes each one different, and then create a super-paragraph!
Starting with an old-timey photo, students will write from a particular item's point of view.
Let's start with "As cold as fire."
Can your students help The Bard? We'll fix five Shakespearean run-ons in three different ways.
n this lesson, students will not just fix passive sentences, but break active sentences as they learn to put the star of the sentence first.
Imagine that Poetry and Prose meet for the first time at a party? What would they say to each other? How would they feel? In this video, I guide kids through the process of writing a script in which these two forms of writing interact.
What if we started a sentence with the simile?
Get your students writing some pretty darn impressive poetry based on Japan's most famous artist.
Students will look closely at a piece of art and then write a structured poem about it.
Students will read three paragraphs about the same topic, decide what makes each one different, and then create a super-paragraph!
A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We'll be contrasting two ideas using synonyms.
Students will read three paragraphs about the same topic, decide what makes each one different, and then create a super-paragraph!
A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We'll be writing sentences with three dependent clauses.
Students will create a surprisingly good poem based on Monet's Impression, Sunrise.
Students will write about a beautiful painting from Frederic Edwin Church.
A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We'll be using antonyms to describe the same topic!
Students will look closely at this old image and write a short, structured poem.
Is your students' use of repetition limited to, "The girl was very, very, very fast."? Let's borrow some ideas from Shakespeare!
Read three pieces of writing from three different robots based on a beautiful painting and decide who wins!
What is bobbing for apples like… for an apple?
Repeating words can be what you want, if what you want is an interesting effect. (Psst, that's an example of anadiplosis!)
Have students mastered the art of anadiplosis: ending one sentence with the beginning of the next? Now it's time to take it to the next level!
Students will read three paragraphs about the same topic, decide what makes each one different, and then create a super-paragraph!
Read three pieces of writing from three different robots based on a beautiful painting and decide who wins!
Students will read three paragraphs about the same topic, decide what makes each one different, and then create a super-paragraph!
Let's make this simile even more specific.
Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about earthquakes back into the correct order?
What if your students rewrote Dickens in the style of Hemingway and vice versa?
Let's make this simile even more specific.
Students will make their similes super specific.
Read three pieces of writing from three different robots based on a beautiful painting and decide who wins!
Let's make that simile even more specific!
Students will create a pretty darn interesting poem about Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons.
Read three pieces of writing from three different robots based on a beautiful painting and decide who wins!
Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about automobiles back into the correct order?
Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about trains back into the correct order?
Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about Washington, DC back into the correct order?
Let's make this simile even more specific.