Writing

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

‘Add more variety!’ teachers say. But how? This lesson gives students actual techniques instead of vague advice.

Blow up a paragraph into individual sentences. Now reassemble it. The clues hiding in each sentence will surprise you.

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

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about rain clouds back into the correct order?

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

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

What if Kylo Ren wrote a love letter to Abe Lincoln or the Sahara Desert wrote one to the Moon?

What if we rewrote a story’s climax into a totally different genre?

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

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!?

A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We’ll be using antonyms to describe the same topic!

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place at the zoo.

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

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

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.

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about earthquakes back into the correct order?

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.

Repeating words can be what you want, if what you want is an interesting effect. (Psst, that’s an example of anadiplosis!)

A passage from “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

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

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.

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about trains back into the correct order?

Read three pieces of writing from three different robots about the same beautiful painting of a volcano. Who wrote it best?

Your students’ sentences all start the same way. Here are three techniques that fix that overnight.

What if we started a sentence with the simile?

A passage from The Jungle Book to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

An intriguing passage from Anne of Green Gables to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

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

Let’s write the cleverest Mother’s Day cards you’ve ever seen!

One painting of ruins. Three robots. Three pieces of writing. Who wrote it best?

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

Your youngest students will learn to write Japanese Haiku poetry.

What happens when a pronoun could refer to more than one noun? Big problems!

A passage from “Peter Pan” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Let’s see how propaganda techniques can make even something great seem bad.

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…

Wouldn’t some holidays be better on a certain day of the week? Should Thanksgiving have a set date?

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.

A passage from White Fang to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

We’ll show students how to add more variety to their writing by starting sentences with a reason, a prepositional phrase, and a simile.

A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We’ll be contrasting two ideas using synonyms.

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

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

Pi can go beyond circles! What if you wrote using the digits of pi as your guide?

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.

In this lesson, students will not just fix passive sentences, but break active sentences as they learn to put the star of the sentence first.

Poetry and Prose meet at a party. What would they say to each other? How would they feel about each other’s style?

Can you write directions so clear that a group of kids can put a toy together with no illustrations?

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

Three paragraphs about wolverines. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.

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?

Students use 12 random phrases to write a story that takes place in at an amusement park.

A passage from “The Fall of the House of Usher” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about great sloths back into the correct order?

Put a grumpy character next to a joyful one and they make each other stand out even more. Opposites are powerful!

What if your students rewrote Dickens in the style of Hemingway and vice versa?

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

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about the coral reef back into the correct order?

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

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!

Three paragraphs about tomatoes. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about The Great Sphinx back into the correct order?

Did you ever notice that the structure of an essay is very similar to the structure of a paragraph? Hmm…

Let’s write a holiday song about order and chaos!

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about The Moon back into the correct order?

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

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.

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!

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about Pluto back into the correct order?

What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?

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

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?

Let’s take a classic Christmas poem and remix it to work with another holiday!

What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?

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

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.

A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

One painting of a bridge. Three robots. Who wrote it best?

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.

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

How would real people feel about the legends that have been created about them?

Upgrade compare and contrast writing with just a couple of key words.

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

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

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.

Let’s make this simile about a strong uncle even more specific.

Three paragraphs about cucumbers. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.

Starting with an old-timey photo, students will write from a particular item’s point of view.

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

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

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

Let’s go roller skating in a Halloween costume! What could possibly go wrong?

An old photograph. A holiday scene. Pick one object in the picture and write from its point of view.

Let’s start with “As cold as fire.”

A passage from White Fang to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

What if… Edgar Allen Poe wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?

When I see a quote, I often think, “That’s not quite right!”

Ready to push kids beyond the boring, old ABAB rhyme scheme and into something a bit more complex?

Let’s write a summary. A very short summary. With VERY strict rules.

What is bobbing for apples like… for an apple?

Can your students help The Bard? We’ll fix five Shakespearean run-ons in three different ways.

Let’s help William Shakespeare with his use of repetition.

A passage from Moby Dick to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about automobiles back into the correct order?

A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Three paragraphs about baseball. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.

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

Let’s take a starting phrase about St. Patrick’s Day and get specific. No, even more specific!

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.

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

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

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

What if a capybara and a kangaroo rat switched homes? Would their adaptations be helpful at all?

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

A passage from The Wind in the Willows to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

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

A passage from The Velveteen Rabbit to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Look closely at Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

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

Students pick from 12 random phrases to create a story about an incident in a restaurant.

These sentences about Washington, DC got scrambled. Can you put them back in order using nothing but context clues?

Three paragraphs about the Empire State Building. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.

How does a drink’s packaging affect us emotionally and logically?

Look closely at Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

Read three pieces of writing from three different robots based on a beautiful painting and decide who wins!

When we try to solve a problem, sometimes we end up creating new problems. Which lead to new solutions. Which lead to new problems.

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

A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We’ll be writing sentences with three dependent clauses.

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

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

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.