Earth Day – Lyrics and Punctuation
Earth Day Inspires Writing April 22 is Earth Day as proclaimed by the United Nations in 2009. Here's an English Language Arts activity you can incorporate into your lessons that will raise awareness of some of the issues important to humankind and especially to Michael Jackson as expressed in…
Writing Convincing Arguments
Writing Convincing Arguments* "You cannot convince a confused person, so keep things tidy and ordered." Reading Critically "When you read, ask yourself questions like “What is the author trying to prove?” “What is the author assuming I will agree with?” Do you agree with the author? Does the author adequately…
Writing – Reflection, Responses and Grades
Student Feedback You'll hear lots of great ideas from colleagues near and far. Here are some to add to those you may want to consider. Creating and including a rubric with the assignment help a great deal. Below are three different formats I’ve used with students in grades 7 through…
Using Commas Correctly
Grammar: Using Commas It may sound silly, but it works. Get PHYSICAL! All you need is access to technology to project sentences on to white board and markers in lots of colors. Have ready to project a list of sentences requiring commas for different reasons. As you review the comma rules, invite…
Talking and Writing About Texts
Talking and Writing about Text Preparing to Talk LITERARY ILLUMINATIONS*: Locate a few special sections of the reading that the class should hear read aloud. The idea is to help us remember some interesting, powerful, funny, puzzling, or important sections of the text. You decide which passages or paragraphs are…
Human Interest Story
Journalism: Organizing Article With what prestigious award will you be honored in 25 years? Paragraph 1 Who, what, when, where, why, and how about award ceremony Paragraph 2 Education and career of winner (you in 25 years) Paragraph 3 Others who have won the honor in the past Paragraph…
More Careful Reading – Homework Idea
Reading - Homework I love to share ideas from others that I wish I'd thought of myself. Here's one from Joe Bellacero who writes: I know that, as an English teacher, I wanted my students to read things outside of class so we could spend our time in class in…
Argumentation versus Persuasion
Check out this discussion thread on English Companion Ning which includes Carol S's distinction, as well as a list of quality resources to teach this key kind of writing and meet Common Core Standards for English Language Arts. Written by Carol S Argue = change what the readers THINK Persuade…
Successful Writing Program
An approach proven successful for me has taken several years to develop. But it does seem to encourage students to do their best work the first time. This approach includes incremental grading, allotting in-class time for peer responses to second and third drafts, including the class general grading guideline and…