CCSS ELA Standard: 3.L.3.a

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

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

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.

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

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.

What if we started a sentence with the simile?

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

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?

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

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