Part 1 of Ways To Start Sentences
"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.
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!
Part 1 of Fancier Figurative Language
We'll start with the cliché "as cold as ice" and go somewhere much more interesting.
Part 2 of Ways To Start Sentences
We'll show students how to add more variety to their writing by starting sentences with a reason, a prepositional phrase, and a simile.
What happens when a pronoun could refer to more than one noun? Big problems!
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?
Part 5 of Fancier Figurative Language
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.
Part 3 of Ways To Start Sentences
We'll show students how to add more variety to their writing by starting sentences with gerunds, participle phrases, and absolute phrases.
Rather than just demand that students "write clearly," we'll explore the hazards of poorly written sentences… and maybe create one of our own!
Part 2 of Fancier Figurative Language
Let's start with "As cold as fire."
Part 3 of Fancier Figurative Language
What if we started a sentence with the simile?
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.
Can your students help The Bard? We'll fix five Shakespearean run-ons in three different ways.
Part 1 of Spice Up Your Writing
A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We'll be contrasting two ideas using synonyms.
Part 3 of Spice Up Your Writing
A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We'll be writing sentences with three dependent clauses.
Part 2 of Spice Up Your Writing
A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We'll be using antonyms to describe the same topic!
Part 4 of Fancier Figurative Language
Is your students' use of repetition limited to, "The girl was very, very, very fast."? Let's borrow some ideas from Shakespeare!
Part 4 of Spice Up Your Writing
Repeating words can be what you want, if what you want is an interesting effect. (Psst, that's an example of anadiplosis!)
Part 5 of Spice Up Your Writing
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!
Part 3 of Super Specific Similes
Let's make this simile even more specific.
Part 4 of Super Specific Similes
Students will make their similes super specific.
Part 1 of Super Specific Similes
Let's make this simile even more specific.
Part 4 of Super Specific Similes
Let's make this simile even more specific.
Part 2 of Super Specific Similes
Let's make that simile even more specific!