CCSS ELA Standard: 6.W.5

With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

Getting Specific With St. Patrick’s Day Writing

Part 5 of Super Specific Similes

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

Super Specific Similes – Strong Uncle

Part 4 of Super Specific Similes

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

Super Specific Similes – Slimy Broccoli

Part 3 of Super Specific Similes

Students will make this slimy broccoli simile seriously specific.

Super Specific Similes: Quick Baby

Part 1 of Super Specific Similes

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

Super Specific Similes: Loud Class

Part 2 of Super Specific Similes

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

Super Specific Similes: Stinky Seaweed

Part 4 of Super Specific Similes

Students will make this simile about stinky seaweed super specific.

Writing About Art: Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons

Part 1 of Writing About Art

Students will create a pretty darn interesting poem about Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons.

Writing About Art: Impression, Sunrise

Part 2 of Writing About Art

Students will create a surprisingly good poem based on Monet's Impression, Sunrise.

Writing in Pilish

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

Writing About Art: Chōshi in Shimosha

Part 3 of Writing About Art

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

Writing About Art: Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

Part 4 of Writing About Art

Students will look closely at a piece of art and then write a structured poem about it.

Writing About Art: Twilight in the Wilderness

Part 5 of Writing About Art

Students will write about a beautiful painting from Frederic Edwin Church.

Fancier Figurative Language: Use the Opposite

Part 2 of Fancier Figurative Language

Let's start with "As cold as fire."

Fancier Figurative Language: Move the Simile

Part 3 of Fancier Figurative Language

What if we started a sentence with the simile?

Fixing Shakespearean Run-Ons

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

Writing Technique: 3 Dependent Clauses

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.

Writing Technique: Contrast With Synonyms

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.

Writing Technique: Opposite Adjectives

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!

Ambiguous Sentences

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

Fancier Figurative Language: Advanced Repetition

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!

Passive to Active Voice

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.

Ways to Start a Sentence – Part 3

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.

Ways to Start a Sentence – Level 2

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.

Ways to Start a Sentence – Level 1

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.

Teach Non-Fiction Writing Structure With Fractals

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