A fresh way to reflect on Douglass’ heroic life and text Back when I taught middle school ELA, I assigned graphic essays (essentially a dressed-up one-pager) to my eighth-graders after they finished reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. This incredible book, which provides Douglass’ first-hand account of the horrors andContinue reading “Frederick Douglass Final Project: The Graphic Essay”
Category Archives: Writing Instruction
Taylor Mali’s Metaphor Dice
Metaphor Dice are excellent tools for inspiring evocative, poem-worthy ideas. The words set the stage for deeper, extended critical thinking. My poetry students loved them!
Back to School: Four Icebreaker Poems
Get to know your students with these poetry mentor texts School is starting soon in most locales of the United States and teachers are busy gearing up to find interesting. low-stakes ways to get students writing. Poetry is always a no-fail way to encourage students of all ages to get back in the swing ofContinue reading “Back to School: Four Icebreaker Poems”
Candy Memoirs: A Sweet Assignment for 6th and 7th
Hey there! I’ve updated this post about candy memoirs… one of my favorite memoir projects for middle schoolers. I’ve also added a free PDF with three student-written mentor candy memoirs! Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment or sending me a message via my Contact page.
Gulliver’s Travels & The New York Times’ Anatomy of a Scene
Using the New York Times Anatomy of a Scene collection as inspiration, high school students provide director’s commentary for a movie clip and thereby showing their understanding of satire.
Ekphrastic Poetry Video Resources for Students
Experiment with ekphrastic poetry and infuse your English class with beautiful art. These videos will help.
Writer’s Workshop for High School
Get to know students with creative projects in a writer’s workshop for high school
Poetry and high school students
Use poetry’s trendiness to encourage high school students to write poems.
Headline Poetry Reimagined and Redefined
My high school students take headline poems to the next level Again this year, I chose to start the school year with headline poetry. Both my in-school students and those learning at home created headline poems with words and phrases found and clipped from with a variety of printed materials, magazines, newspapers, and even junkContinue reading “Headline Poetry Reimagined and Redefined”
Encourage distance learners with creative “Color Poems”
Distance learners will enjoy this creative, fun poem activity about color!