Teaching Writing Part 2: Offering Students an... This post was written by Evan Wolkenstein, a ClassDojo Thought Partner who tweets regularly at evanwolkenstein and blogs at magnetiCClassroom.com. This is part 2 of a 3 part series. Read part 1, here. Maybe you’re lucky, and you have a curriculum that includes teaching students how to organize thoughts, how to ensure that you’ve backed up your ideas — most likely, it’s all part of a unit on how to write an outline. And maybe you also have a golden Lamborghini and a pair of boots that can fly. Students often do not know how to organize their thoughts or write an outline. But what I get often reads more like Kafka’s stream-of-consciousness diary entries. Now, I am not an English Teacher. But I have a background in English Lit. But what about the ideas? One year, a student with some learning differences bombed an essay test she should have thrived on. Sure. The next time we had an essay exam, I gave her an outline in advance, and she thrived. But what about the other students? No! Someday.
Home | Write About This 20 Terrifying Two-Sentence Horror Stories That Will Keep You Up At Night. #7 Gave Me Chills If you're looking for a horrifying story that will keep you up tonight, don't waste all that time watching a horror movie. Here are twenty terrifying horror stories wrapped up in two sentences or less. 1. I woke up to hear knocking on glass. At first, I thought it was the window until I heard it come from the mirror again. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12." 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Share this with your friends by clicking below! Writing Prompts, Blogging Prompts, Story Topic Generators, Photo Inspiration Writing : Creative Writing & Blogging Prompts Topic Starters, Picture Prompts, and Thought-Provoking Questions for You to Answer "The best learning comes in the doing, and writing from prompts engenders doing."— Judy Reeves Many writers and bloggers seek out articles, prompts, and story starters to get their creative juices flowing. We've also listed recommended resources outside of our domain featuring more free writing prompts, story starters, daily writing exercises, visual art prompts, and writing topic generators. Writing & Photo Prompts, Tools, & Generators on Creativity Portal "Novels, short stories, flash fictions, memoirs, personal narrative and creative nonfiction, even poetry — all have found publication from their start as writing prompts." — Judy Reeves Take Ten for Writers Exercises Get creative with these exercises from Bonnie Neubauer's Take Ten for Writers! Brickstorming Your Legacy Brick What would you write on your legacy brick in 3 lines with 14 characters each?
7 Good Resources for Avoiding, Preventing, and Detecting Plagiarism Thanks to an email from a kind reader I discovered that a couple of the resources about plagiarism that I reviewed in the past are no longer as good as they once were. Therefore, I have created this updated collection of resources for teaching students to how to avoid plagiarism along as well as resources for preventing and detecting plagiarism. Education is the best prevention:Purdue's OWL website is the number one place I refer students and parents to for questions not only about plagiarism, but also for questions about all parts of the writing process.A Magical Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism is an infographic guide created by Kate Hart. Plagiarism Explained by Common Craft. Plagiarism.org, produced by the same people that produce the commercial plagiarism detection software Turn It In, has a free learning center for students and teachers. Plagiarism Checker created as a project for the University of Maryland, is an easy-to-use tool for detecting plagiarism.
297 Flabby Words and Phrases That Rob Your Writing of All Its Power You’re not stupid. You know what writing is truly about. It’s a never-ending battle for your readers’ attention. Every sentence is a link in a taut chain that connects your headline to your conclusion. And you are just one weak sentence away from losing your reader forever. So you take your craft quite seriously. You ignore all but your best ideas. You work on each piece of writing for exactly as long as necessary to get it right. And you edit until your words are crisp and clear. But what if that isn’t enough? What if weaknesses remain that are almost impossible to spot? The Subtle Attention Killers That Hide in Plain Sight No matter how carefully you scrutinize your writing, subtle problems will remain. Certain words and phrases are so commonplace – and so seemingly benign – that they glide unnoticed under your editing radar. But these words and phrases can silently erode your reader’s attention. They don’t stand out. But they weaken your writing and dilute your ideas. So bookmark this post.
8 Strategies for Teaching Academic Language "Change your language and you change your thoughts." -- Karl Albrecht Understanding Academic Language Academic language is a meta-language that helps learners acquire the 50,000 words that they are expected to have internalized by the end of high school and includes everything from illustration and chart literacy to speaking, grammar and genres within fields. Think of academic language as the verbal clothing that we don in classrooms and other formal contexts to demonstrate cognition within cultures and to signal college readiness. Where to Start It would be a mistake to think that academic language is a garbage pail category involving any word, depending on the context. If you are new to incorporating academic language into your lessons, a good place to begin is with Tier 2, high-frequency, general instruction words (such as paraphrase, summarize, predict and justify) that learners need to know for completing an activity, but that are not a lesson's primary learning objective. 1. 2. 3.
Monomyth Joseph Campbell's monomyth, or the hero's journey, is a basic pattern that its proponents argue is found in many narratives from around the world. This widely distributed pattern was described by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).[1] Campbell, an enthusiast of novelist James Joyce, borrowed the term monomyth from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.[2] Campbell held that numerous myths from disparate times and regions share fundamental structures and stages, which he summarized in The Hero with a Thousand Faces: A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.[3] A chart outlining the Hero's Journey. Summary[edit] In a monomyth, the hero begins in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unknown world of strange powers and events. The 17 Stages of the Monomyth[edit]
Six Alternatives to Book Reports | Education Rethink When I was a kid, I hated book reports. I hated filling out a form describing what I read. I wasn't a fan of artsy crafty alternatives, like cereal box projects or dioramas. What I did love, though, was geeking out on what I read. I loved arguing about who was better, what they should have done, etc. This allows students to explore their favorite trends in books. What makes this fun is that kids get to rethink the role of the setting in the book. I love the notion of universes colliding and characters exploring their shared experiences. I've always thought it would be cool if Ira Glass would interview the entire Weasely family. The antagonist is arrested at the end of the book. Write a review. I have a few other ideas that I've never tested out. Create a TED Talk from the perspective of one of the characters. John Spencer John Spencer is a teacher, author, speaker, and incessant doodler.