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Descriptive writing is an important skill to learn and master. As a teacher, it can be difficult to help students develop their writing skills while also making the learning process fun and engaging. Fortunately, there are many creative strategies for teaching descriptive writing in middle school. Let’s take a look! Mix it Up with Fun …
Mentor texts are one of the most powerful ways to teach writing because they offer students both a model to follow (in other words, build in scaffolding) as well as inspiration for what to say. If you’re looking for fun and engaging ways to incorporate mentor texts into the secondary ELA classroom, read on for …
In my pre-teaching life, I studied journalism and did freelance work for different publications, including writing editorials. I love reading and knowing the news and I think it’s important to know about the world around us. So when I turned to teaching as a career, it was important to me to incorporate news and media …
“Needs more elaboration. Add details.” How many times have you written those words when grading student papers? Teaching students how to elaborate on their thoughts and in writing can be a challenge, but there are a few simple strategies I’ve used that can make your job easier. Elaboration in writing means to choose and add …
Writing is hard. Teaching writing is even harder. For some, it comes naturally. For others, it is quite a struggle. My favorite writing strategy is using a joint construct to help students understand what I am expecting in their writing. What is a joint construct? Let’s start from the beginning. A joint construct is when …
For many of us, the idea of running a marathon within the next week will likely evoke a feeling of paralysis. We haven’t spent the past six months purposefully training for that volume, so our feelings of incompetence, overwhelm, and terror are entirely justified. Believe it or not, when it comes to writing essays, poems, …
We have all entered a professional development session thinking about the never-ending to-do list we have as teachers. Add the additional steps for English teachers to grade the piles of paragraphs, essays, and presentations. I end up feeling disgruntled sitting in a meeting that feels like it could have been an email or filled with …
Over the years, my students have had some of the most imaginative and original creative writing ideas, but they often have difficulty finding the right words to express these ideas in a way that allows the reader to fully immerse themselves in their literary worlds. Incorporating activities for students to practice infusing imagery into their …
Engaging middle school students in the creative writing process can be a challenge. Often, emphasis is placed on non fiction and essay writing skills. Because of this, creative writing is often pushed to the wayside. However, providing students opportunities to practice creative writing strategies is crucially important. In Writing: Teachers and Children at Work, Donald …
Do your students struggle with compare and contrast activities? Maybe they rely on the obvious at the expense of analysis? Are thesis writing, constructing outlines, and plagiarism a problem? If you answered yes to any or all of the questions, you’re not alone! My students struggled big time with comparative essay writing, so I had …
