Writing – Teaching English Language Arts

Train Essays and Pie Paragraphs

October 17, 2022October 17, 2022 by admin

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Seeing is Believing Sometimes, when students SEE how essays work, they can write their own with more confidence and competence. One thing that has worked for me is using colors, metaphors, and formulae. USING COLORS: If you can locate colored pencils or highlighters in different colors, enough for three colors…

Nine Yardsticks for Deeper Reading

October 16, 2021October 16, 2021 by admin

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Readings: Responding Deeply While the Nine Yardsticks of Value originally were written for use in evaluating fictional works, they can be adapted for deeper reading of more kinds of writing. Take a look below, then download Responding to Reading for use in your classroom to aid students in reaching Common…

October Celebrations

September 20, 2020September 15, 2020 by admin

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More than HALLOWEEN Learning about and celebrating the cultures of others is a wonderful reason to write. And, October is a great time to start. For many, October is a time for Harvest Festivals, an ancient celebration revived in many church and community groups as an alternative to Halloween; or…

Hispanic Heritage Month

September 15, 2020May 7, 2020 by admin

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Hispanic Heritage Month What an exciting time to feature the contributions of LatinX Writers, Speakers and Movie Makers! Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with culturally relevant texts, video, and speeches that give students opportunity to expand and explore their emerging ELA skills. Read about Historically Significant Events then invite students to share what they've…

Gaining Cultural Insight: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

August 20, 2019July 30, 2019 by admin

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Gaining Cultural Insight This opening of the school year assignment, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? is a novel way to invite students to write a narrative essay based on two different books or literary works. It also can be adapted for history, science or math classes. Rather than focus on…

Ready for New School Year?

August 3, 2019May 20, 2021 by admin

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New School Year - Are you ready? “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do.” (Hale, 1870) For many educators, the beginning of…

Sensitivity to Holidays

July 5, 2019April 29, 2020 by admin

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Writing About the Holidays The holiday season, for many, extends from November through February. Families will be celebrating Diwali, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the New Year at various times during these months. Writing about holidays is a wonderful way to share cultures in words, pictures, and music. Yes, holidays also…

Ignite Writing by Patterning

April 4, 2019April 29, 2020 by admin

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“There’s nothing new under the sun!” True, but students can be inspired by the old to do something new for themselves. Sounds weird, but that’s exactly what can occur when we invite students to pattern the writing they read. Students soon learn that close reading, analysis and imitation unleash bursts…

COLORS, ARRANGEMENT AND STORIES

January 22, 2019February 12, 2019 by admin

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Critical Thinking in Colors and Shapes Colors and arrangements can be used evoke different moods, different personalities, and different feelings. Spend at least five minutes looking closely at this painting, Nine Colors by Ellsworth Kelly. 1. What do you notice about the colors and arrangement of these circles on a…

Writing to Learn in Content Areas

January 15, 2019February 11, 2019 by admin

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WRITING TO LEARN Across Content Areas Now that more schools are considering ways to teach and utilize literacy tools to enhance instruction and increase learning across the content areas, many English Language Arts educators are being viewed as the repository for such strategies. Remember, while schools are implementing the Common…

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