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Simple Strategies for Teaching Elaboration

“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 …

quick writes

How Quick Writes Can Engage Even Your Most Reluctant Writers

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, …

Three Reasons to Read “Writing with Mentors”

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 …

How To Teach Comparative Essay Writing in ELA

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 …