It’s never too early to plan to “never forget.” I get it. The school year has just ended and the last thing you may want to think about right now is what you will be doing in September in your classes. However, discussing 9/11 effectively deserves forethought and preparation to match the motivation and curiosityContinue reading “Top Resources that I Use to Teach 9/11”
Tag Archives: Language Arts
A good thing: Weekly in-class awards
I enjoy recognizing students for their on-time, on-target writing Last year, sometime during the second quarter, I decided to start awarding students for their hard work on their weekly written homework assignments. I came up with four awards to recognize students for being on-time and for doing a good job. The awards and the skillsContinue reading “A good thing: Weekly in-class awards”
Contest #8: Cursive is Cool
It’s a cursive handwriting contest! I stumbled upon this cursive contest online a few days ago sponsored by Campaign for Cursive (C4C). This organization is a committee of the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation (AHAF) and is an all-volunteer non-profit that began in 2012 in the Southern California chapter of the AHAF. Its goal is to “bringContinue reading “Contest #8: Cursive is Cool”
Countdown to novel writing
This November. Nanowrimo. Finally. November is National Novel Writing Month and this fall, I’m writing a first draft of my first novel in thirty days! I have always wanted to take on Nanowrimo, but the idea of writing a novel has always scared me to death. This year, however, I think I’ll approach this behemothContinue reading “Countdown to novel writing”
“Why do we have to write in cursive?”
Pure and simple: to compete. Near the beginning of the school year, I read aloud the comment in the picture below to my middle school Language Arts students. I came upon this comment one day when I was reading this New York Times article about the death of cursive writing. The writer of thisContinue reading ““Why do we have to write in cursive?””
2017-18 VFW Patriot’s Pen Youth Essay Contest Results
Finally… here’s that follow-up post I promised plus the winning essay entry Photo: Pixabay Last winter, I wrote a post about a contest that my seventh-graders enter each fall: the Patriot’s Pen youth essay contest sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. At the conclusion of that post, I wrote that I would update youContinue reading “2017-18 VFW Patriot’s Pen Youth Essay Contest Results”
How to teach sentence variety
A mini-lesson from Gary Provost Copy off the paragraph below from writing guru Gary Provost and read it aloud to your students at the beginning of class or as a mini-lesson. Don’t just read it aloud… make sure they follow along on their own copy. It’s more effective that way. You’ll see the light bulbsContinue reading “How to teach sentence variety”
“I would write like a dog with hooves it was hard.”
When students reflect, three things happen. About a week before school ended in May, I asked my sixth- and seventh-grade students to write a 300-word reflection of the progress they made in my language arts class this past year. I find this assignment very valuable, both for me and my students because it provides threeContinue reading ““I would write like a dog with hooves it was hard.””
Reflecting on My PBL Experiment
Time to reflect on the first year of my 7th-grade PBL project Year one is down! During the 2017-18 academic school year, my seventh-grade language arts classes started a project in partnership with the White River Valley Historical Society, a local organization in Forsyth, Mo., that preserves, promotes, and protects the cultural heritage of southernContinue reading “Reflecting on My PBL Experiment”
Memoir Mentor Text: Something I Wrote that I Now Use as a Mentor Text
It’s hard to find mentor texts sometimes, and occasionally I just write one myself when the need arises, or I scroll through my sister blog to find stories I’ve already written. For my students, I define “memoir” as a personal narrative that contains a beginning, middle, and end, plus a lesson learned from the situation. ThatContinue reading “Memoir Mentor Text: Something I Wrote that I Now Use as a Mentor Text”