Bookmarks-19284 ＊ Byrdseed.TV

Introducing Order and Chaos

Introduce Order by exploring “written” vs “unwritten” rules.

A Character’s Challenges and Changes

Your 1st and 2nd graders will analyze how a character responded to a challenge.

Hero or Not A Hero?

Students will determine what makes a hero a hero.

Words Within Words: PATRICK

How many words can you find within Patrick?

What’s In My Brain: Austin vs Los Angeles

We’re looking at capital cities.

Super Specific Similes – Slimy Broccoli

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

Robot Writing: The Bridge

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

What If… Long Life?

What would the consequences be if all people lived much, much longer?

Idiom Tasks

Four fantastically terrific tasks for a weekly idiom study.

Prefixes and Suffixes in Other Languages

Let’s go beyond merely memorizing word parts and instead analyze across languages. How do other languages make a word the opposite?

Lipogram: Rewrite “Twinkle, Twinkle”

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

Thanksgiving Photo Writing

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

Analyze Suffixes: -ly, -less, and -ful

What exactly does adding -less do to a word?

Writing Concept Attainment Lessons

For Teachers

In a Concept Attainment lesson, we give students examples and non-examples of a concept — without telling them what that concept is!

Notice, Wonder: Swirls

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Writing in Pilish

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

New Uses for a Paperclip

So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?

Tournament of Presidents

So who was the strangest of these eight presidents?

Fancier Figurative Language: Use the Opposite

Let’s start with “As cold as fire.”

Inferring With Art: A Couple

What’s going on in this room? There are shoes everywhere! Are those… oranges? Let’s make some inferences!

An Escher-Style Tessellation Project

Create a piece of repeating art in the style of MC Escher!

Writing Technique: Contrast With Synonyms

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

Word Ladders Introduction

You won’t believe how this spelling and vocabulary puzzle will get kids’ brains sweating over the smallest of words.

Writing A Thanksgiving Letter

What if an inanimate object could express thanks for a special person in your life? What would it write?

Writing Seuss Style Poetry

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!

Paragraphs: Systems of Sentences

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

Upgrade Research Questions With Depth and Complexity

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.

Sets of Idioms

Why do we say ‘break a leg’? Five themed sets of idioms your students will actually remember.

Student Introductions With Depth and Frames

Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!

Dots and Boxes

Who can make the most boxes from dots in this strategy game?

Sprouts

Learn how to play the abstract, paper-and-pencil game Sprouts.

More Specific than “Smart”

When students are told that they’re “smart”, what does this word actually mean to them? (Psst. It isn’t what we intended.)

Synonym Graphs

So, which is happiest: happy, joyful, or ecstatic? Which is most temporary?

Jabberwocky and Context Clues

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.

Propaganda and Logical Fallacies

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

Multiple Meaning Matcher – Introduction

Your students will try to match up definitions that belong to the same homophone in this brain-boggling vocab puzzle.

Academic Love Letters

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

Studying and Remixing “The Raven”

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

Persuasion and Packaging: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

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

Historic Social Media

How would people from history have interacted online? Students will develop a conversation online between people involved in the same event from history.

Introduce Symbolism with Pixel Art

Create a pixelated icon that represents the essence of a character!

Ways to Start a Sentence – Level 1

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

Greekymon

Rather than just memorizing word parts, students will use those word parts to create four possible products.

Creating A Classroom Motto

Starting with specific examples of fantastic classroom behavior, your class will end up with one sentence summing up their expectations. It’s a classroom motto!

Writing Summaries in Haiku

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

Teaching Criticism