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Writing. No, It’s Not Arbitrary and Does Make Sense: Teaching the English Punctuation System. You might also try putting a period at the end of a “thought.” And what about semi-colons and colons? Well…maybe those are for exceptionally long breaths and thoughts? Okay, I guess you can see that these are no official “Strunk and White” rules about usage but rather the kind of myths about standard punctuation that are perpetuated, sometimes by educators, I’m afraid. Add to this the concern that writers, such as novelist and poets, often employ their own creative punctuation: for example, poet e.e. cummings wrote in all lower-case; popular novelist Stephen King, a former English teacher, writes long, run-on sentences to indicate stream-of-consciousness thought.

So by the time students come onto a college campus, they’re often under the impression that punctuation doesn’t matter, or is arbitrary, and makes no sense—sometimes all three. Daily 5 - K-5 Literacy Connections. World Education Games - Resources. Unphotographable: a text account of pictures missed. 100 jump-starters to cure your writer’s block - Pro Writing Tips.

Creative writing prompts . com ideas for writers. 62words. WordSift - Visualize Text. Quick_Smart_Writing. Inspiring reluctant writers. Amazing Handwriting Worksheet Maker. Careful, writers! 10 common words with opposite meanings. The English language is full of words with uncommon properties. There are backronyms, metaplasms, and neologisms. My favorite words of unusual properties are contranyms, or words that are spelled the same, but have two opposite meanings. These words are also known as Janus words, named after the Roman god of gates and doorways and of beginnings and endings. Janus words teach us the importance of context and bring a whole new meaning to the phrase “use it in a sentence.” Here are a few examples: Oversight.

It can mean watchful care or an error or mistake. Cleave. Garnish. Refrain. Root. Sanction. Weather. Bolt. Trim. Resign. Readers, any others to add to the list? Laura Hale Brockway writes about writing and edits about editing at Impertinent Remarks. Aesop's Fables. Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance. Sound devices that add to the aural appeal in your poetry include alliteration, consonance, and assonance. Alliteration may be easier to identify than the other two, but each is used frequently in poetry and children's literature. Alliteration: Repetition of initial sounds of words in a row. Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. (Of course, alliteration is not always so concentrated) Assonance: Repetition of internal vowel sounds of words close together in poetry. Consonance: Repetition of internal or ending consonant sounds of words close together in poetry. Author's of children's book use these devices, along with rhythm and rhyme, very effectively to attract young ears.

"They talked of all their dreams and hopes, Of art and nature, love and fate. They peered through toy kaleidoscopes And murmured thoughts I shan't relate. Then Holley held Miss Spider's hand... I'll say no more, you understand. For private moments between spiders Should not be witnessed by outsiders. " -or- PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of poems and poets. Poetry Search Engine. Home - Pie Corbett. Pie Corbett on Igniting Writing.

Roger McGough - Home. :: Michael Rosen - The Website :: Landscape as Poetry by davidm. Fairy Tale News. Academics. Artful storytelling. An experiment with teaching 'good writing' As I've written about here before, I'm pretty sceptical about these structures and formulas being handed out to children to help them write. I've seen quite a few of them in action. However, let's say I'm just sceptical and I'm not condemning them. Let's say that I understand that they're a means to an end and more often than not they get some kind of end... So that's that. Or not. You see there are some of these structures and tips that really make me wonder what it's all about.

Re: wow words. It's raining It's pouring The old man's snoring. For me this is brilliant picture-painting with a huge hinterland implied by what's not said. So, what do I think teachers and children could do to help children write well? Here's a suggestion for any children or students above, say, the age of 8 or 9 (I would reckon). Homework - or time out in class - or both - is to for every child to find what he or she thinks is an example of 'good writing'. In class, they work in pairs comparing and contrasting. Harris burdick stories. The official Mordillo website - Mordillo.com. 3 Tools to develop Creative Writing for your Students. Creative writing is an important element in students overall learning experience. It is also a part of our professional development as educators and teachers.

Creativity, be it in writing or in any other project, does not come from the void and we are not born creative minds. I believe there are mechanisms for developing creativity and fostering imagination. There are what is called creativity triggers or prompts that can help our students improve their creative writing by providing them with challenging story starters.

Below is three awesome tools that can help you do that. 1- Imagination Prompt Generator This is a tool I recommend to teachers. 2- Writing Fix Writing fix provides hundreds of prompts to inspire daily writing. 3- The Story Starter The Story Starter generates thousands of story starters that can be used for short stories, novels, plays, scripts, or just for fun.If you do not like the story starter sentence generated for you, you can clik on the button to get another one. Literacy. This new section has a selection of downloads to help with literacy. There are all sorts of things here: from alphabet cards to interactive white board activities to help with spelling! You can also visit these extra sections below. Mr Punctuation Poster (based on an idea from Anne Ingle): click the image to download Fun letter cards for word and spelling games: click the image to download 'Ten Things in a Wizard's Pocket' Picture Prompts: click the image to download Vocabulary Split Pin Wheels: click the links below the image to download Available for Instead of said: in blue (as shown), yellow, grey and green, Instead of went: in blue, yellow, grey and green, Instead of saw: in blue, yellow, grey and green, Movement words: in blue, yellow, grey and green and Size words: in blue, yellow, grey and green, A CARP PIE Poster Set: click the image to download Cute animal High Frequency Word Cards in zip folder (this is a large file): click the image to download Word or Publisher Book Cover Template.

Shakespeare Quotes - Find a Shakespeare Quote Here! Hamlet:To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep, No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd.

To die, to sleep;To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause—there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th'unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus makeWith a bare bodkin? Persuade Me! Grammar and Poetry. 4.3 Using modality - Page 5. Similes and metaphors in music lyrics.

Similes and Metaphors in music lyrics are everywhere, just tune on the radio. Tonight I am off to see the start of the Take That tour here in the UK in the North East of England. Its great for the region and good for the venue Sunderland football club. What better way to celebrate than to dig out some classic simile and metaphors in music lyrics.

If you are presenting on this subject please feel free to use some of examples. "Like a Rolling Stone" Bob Dylan "Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky"-- From "Sine On You Crazy Diamond" Pink Floyd "The World is a vampire"-- From "Bullet with butterfly wings" Smashing Pumpkins "You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog" Elvis "Love is a Temple"-- From "One" U2 "It seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind"--From "Candle In the Wind" Elton John "She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene"-- from "Billy Jean" Michael Jackson "I'm a rocketman"-- from "Rocket Man" Elton John More similes and metaphors.

Sentences:  Simple, Compound, and Complex. Experienced writers use a variety of sentences to make their writing interesting and lively. Too many simple sentences, for example, will sound choppy and immature while too many long sentences will be difficult to read and hard to understand. This page contains definitions of simple, compound, and complex sentences with many simple examples. The purpose of these examples is to help the ESL/EFL learner to identify sentence basics including identification of sentences in the short quizzes that follow. After that, it will be possible to analyze more complex sentence varieties. A simple sentence, also called an independent clause, contains a subject and a verb, and it expresses a complete thought. The three examples above are all simple sentences.

A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinator. The above three sentences are compound sentences. A True Story Please take the time to identify the subjects and verbs in a sentence. WordStash :: Study and learn with flashcards, a dictionary, and games. Resources-from-Ruth - English.