Asking “So what?” makes the difference My juniors finished reading Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Instead of taking an objective culminating exam, they will show their learning by writing a literary analysis essay. However, each student will choose the content and the focus of their essays instead of selecting a topic fromContinue reading “Teaching students to write essays that answer the question: So what?!”
Tag Archives: Writing
Five Articles to Pair with The Old Man and the Sea
These articles are intended to round out the ideas presented by the novella This winter, my junior English students have just finished reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and are beginning to develop their cumulative essays on the novella. To prepare for that, and to build more background knowledge about theContinue reading “Five Articles to Pair with The Old Man and the Sea”
Mentor text: Slice of life writing for high school students
Slice of life essays written by elementary students are everywhere; high school slices are harder to find. Here’s one. Last fall, near the beginning of the school year, I introduced my high school juniors and seniors to slice of life writing. Slices are short narratives that celebrate the ordinary moments in our lives that weContinue reading “Mentor text: Slice of life writing for high school students”
Treasured Object Poems: A Favorite Poetry Activity for All Grades
In this post: Treasured Object Poems Mentor Texts and Lesson Tips Need a fun poetry activity to use with your students? One that will also hone their sensory language and revision skills? Show them how to write a short free-verse poem about an object they value. Paying tribute to a precious personal item encourages themContinue reading “Treasured Object Poems: A Favorite Poetry Activity for All Grades”
Sometimes Poetry Can Teach Better than I Can
Take word choice, for example Last December, when I read a student’s second draft of their Treasured Object poem and saw that it contained the word “get” four times, I thought Really? Get? Four times? It surprised me because I thought I had taught not only sentence variety, but word variety as well. It’s goodContinue reading “Sometimes Poetry Can Teach Better than I Can”
New Year, New Units: Beowulf and The Old Man and the Sea
Lots of planning comin’ up! Now that the new year has started, I thought I would write a short post about the units I’m starting with my juniors and seniors next week. My junior classes will begin Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea on Wednesday and my senior classes will start Beowulf onContinue reading “New Year, New Units: Beowulf and The Old Man and the Sea”
Teaching transitions in writing, part 2
This student-written essay illustrates transition ideas A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how the nonfiction author James Swanson’ transitions from paragraph and from chapter to chapter in his nonfiction narrative Chasing Lincoln’s Killer. The post discussed transitions words (such as therefore, however, in contrast, nonetheless, and others) that we all know andContinue reading “Teaching transitions in writing, part 2”
My “Article of the Week” rubric for middle and high school
Plus rubrics you can tweak to fit your classroom Last February, I wrote this post about what I consider to be my most effective writing assignment: Kelly Gallagher’s Article of the Week (AOW). I still use this assignment on a weekly basis, but I’ve added narrative writing to the mix by assigning what I callContinue reading “My “Article of the Week” rubric for middle and high school”
Student writers learn their power at Missouri State
The Write Now! High School Writing Conference at Missouri State University Shaun Tomson explains his metaphorical “I Will” statement, “I will always paddle back out.” Here are some quick photos of the high school writing conference hosted by the Missouri State Center for Writing in College, Career and Community. I took these just a fewContinue reading “Student writers learn their power at Missouri State”
Don’t Give Up on Improving Your Students’ Vocabulary Skills
Stick with your plan; give your lessons time to work I recently designed some daily bell-ringer activities to teach my students some new vocabulary words. To create these on-going brief lessons, I continue to use Vocab Gal’s “Power Words of the Week” from Sadlier’s ELA Blog, and “Vocabulary Words of the Day” from Prestwick House.Continue reading “Don’t Give Up on Improving Your Students’ Vocabulary Skills”