Fabulous Freebies: Teaching Poetry

One genre that has always been challenging, yet rewarding for me to teach is poetry.  The Common Core expects students to dig into the nuances of language.  Poetry slow students down, requiring them to think through punctuation, word choice, tone, mood, etc.  So, I've been adding to my folder of resources for next year.  Here are a few of my new favorites...

Poem Hunter is a website that I have used many times.  You can search for free for just about any poem by just about any renowned poet.  There are biographies and videos available to accompany lessons.  This site can be used to access the texts or do a biography study of favorite poets.

This is one Limerick Writing lesson available for free on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT).  The packet has examples, notes on what a limerick is and student friendly handouts so your students can write their own.  This would make a great writing lesson, introduction of limericks, extension lesson after students have read limericks or even a simple sub plan.

This is one of many Haiku Writing lessons available for free on TPT.  Like the limerick packet, this lesson comes with examples, notes on what a haiku is and handouts so your students can write their own.  It would be a great lesson to couple with a unit on Japan, poetry, and/or nature.

This Poetry Packet is another lesson I'm filing away for next year.  It is another TPT freebie.  It has descriptions of the following poem types: Acrostic, Cinquain, Couplet, Diamante, and Haiku.  There is a template so students can write their own book of poems.  It would be a good project idea to summarize a poetry unit.

Auto Rap is a new free app.  Students record their poems and the recording is automatically synched with a rhythm and turned into a rap.  I can't wait to try this with my students and let them hear their voices rapping the poems they write!

Fabulous Freebies: Free Writing Prompts for Spring!

Here are some places to get over 100 fun and free spring themed writing prompts!

• Writing Forward - Writing forward has writing prompt for every season, but scroll down for a few good spring ones.  Then check out the others and tuck some away for use next year.

• Minds In Bloom has a list of 20 spring writing prompts.  There are prompts for different types of writing from persuasive to narrative.  You're sure to find something you can use on this list.

• Journal Buddies has a list of over 50 spring journal prompts, many of them appropriate for older students.  

• The Teacher's Corner has a list of writing prompts for each day in May.  Many of them are tied to special days in the month and will prompt you to think thematically as you wrap up the school year.

Fabulous Freebies for Teaching Writing

There are so many quality sites to that offer assistance and free resources for teaching writing to all ages.  Here are some of the ones I find the most helpful and/or frequent the most...

Rubrics:

#1: Rubistar has a ton of pre-made rubrics that you can alter to fit your assignment.  It is quick and easy to use.

Exemplars:

#2: 6 + 1 Trait exemplars  allow you to norm your expectations as you work on various objectives from voice to organization to fluency.

#3: Exemplars.com   is not a free website, but they have several examples that are posted on line for free.

Prompts:

#4: Life Magazine  has an online archive of photos.  They make great writing prompts.  Students can look at a picture and write a story about what happened before the picture, what is happening when the shot is taken and what is going to happen.  Or, students can look at the subject and write an internal monologue.  So many of the pictures are powerful and provocative.  If you want to connect it to what they're studying in social studies you can search by topic. 

Lessons and Programs:

#5: Writing Fix has a bunch of high quality materials and lessons to help with teaching writing.

#6:  6 + 1 Traits is one of the most widely used and highly respected writing programs for teaching the various components of composition and norming language and expectations amongst the staff.

Grammar:

#7:  Grammar Bytes   is a website with a plethora of printable exercises for teaching grammar to middle and high school students.

Research:

#8: Purdue Writing Owl has instructions for how to use MLA formatting in your research papers.

I hope at least one of these is something you can add to your toolkit.  If you have ones of your own that you like, please post them in the comments section and share them with our readers.

How to Prepare Students for the English Section of the ACT in 5 Minutes a Day!

The best advice I've ever received when it comes to grammar instruction is to: teach it for five minutes a day, follow a cumulative pacing chart and use activities that mirror the ACT.  The pacing chart is roughly as follows:

Capitalization
End Punctuation
Subject/Verb Agreement
Commas
Commas and colons
Dashes and semicolons
Sentence fragments
Run-on sentences
Contractions
Possessives
Verbs and adverbs
Verbs and tenses
Parallel structure
Nouns and pronouns
Sentence structure

Many of the topics above have multiple rules, and are therefore, taught over the course of several weeks.  Every fifth week the rules that weren't mastered are retaught and students are reassessed as needed.  All together, these skills are stretched out over the course of about 35 weeks.

On Mondays students go over the grammar rules for that week and see examples.  On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays they complete short 3-4 question activities like the one pictured below.  These activities have short excerpts from real texts on the left with mechanics mistakes.  On the right are three to four questions with four multiple choice options that correlate to underlined and numbered sections of the passage on the left (just like the English portion of the ACT.  There are  four options and students choose the correct one.  Their work is graded immediately and the rules are reviewed when the class goes over the answers.  On Fridays students are quizzed on the rules for that week.

In addition to review weeks, students are reviewing all the rules they've been taught so far as they appear repeatedly in the weekly ACT-like exercises.  (For example, the first few weeks I have them practice capitalization rules.  The fourth week, I have them practice capitalization and end punctuation.  The fifth week is review.  The sixth week I have them practice capitalization, end punctuation and subject/verb agreement.  And so on and so forth.)  Also, once a rule has been taught, I expect them to apply it when they write.  They must recognize their mistakes and self correct their errors when they edit their papers.

So, why is this the best advice I've ever received?  The first is that you can teach grammar for the first five minutes of class, and it doesn't take over your lessons.  Secondly, students feel successful because it starts with the easy skills and proceeds cumulatively.  Finally, it has been proven to raise students' English ACT scores by several points.

Well, there you have it.  This is one of my best secrets.  I hope that you find it useful too.  If you have any questions, let me know!

Fabulous Freebies: Fall Writing Prompts!

Here are some places to get fun and free fall themed writing prompts!

• The Holiday Zone - This site has a list of about 18 fall themed writing prompts with many creative suggestions. I loved that the prompts reflect a variety of writing skills and include things such as compare/contrast, persuasive writing and more.

• The Kid Zone - If you are looking for early elementary writing prompts, look no further than the Kid Zone. There are printable prompt worksheets with a variety of types of writing to use and I love that you don't have to register or anything to print them! Just click and print.

• Writing Forward - Writing forward has some unique fall themed poetry prompts on their site which would work for older students. Definitely a unique twist to the writing prompt idea!

• The Humble Pen - This site has a list of 20 fall writing prompts. There were some unique prompts there that I haven't seen elsewhere.

• In Season - I loved this take on autumn writing prompts with a scientific twist. Instead of regular prompts they are more themed towards a nature journal and have some prompts that are perfect for combining language arts and science. I think you could find something for almost all age groups here!

25 Ways to Publish Student Writing

Ever feel like you're pushing a boulder up hill trying to get your students to write?  Wondering how to motivate them?  One of the best things I've ever done to turn my students on to writing is to assure them that they'd never have to write for me-well, not just me, that is.  They would choose an audience, write for them and share it with them.

Writing is a form of communication, and it only becomes meaningful when students communicate with an audience that holds value for the them.  So, here are 25 ideas of ways to help your students  publish their work...to share it with a real audience.

1. Publish it on a blog-Have your students create a blog.  They can post their work, share it and comment back and forth.  Google and yahoo have free, user friendly blogs.

2. Publish it on a wiki-Wikispaces.com allows students to create their own website and publish their work.  They can share access to a site and work together on a piece.

3. Put it into a class book-Have students write short stories, poems, raps, etc and create a booklet collection for all of the students to keep.

4. Put it in a newsletter-If your school sends out newsletters, ask if your students can write a column.  I had one of my classes write weekly essays.  I chose the best one to be published in the weekly school bulletin.  Students were excited to revise their work when it was being published and shared school wide.

5. Create a contest-Sponsor a writing contest.  Select community members and/or staff to judge the essays and award the winner publicly.

6. Present it in a talent show-Have students share their writing in school assemblies and talent shows.

7. Poetry slams-For more information, check out: Poetry Slam Guidelines.

8. Bulletin board-Post student work on bulletin boards...the more public, the better.

9. Place student writing in doctor/dentist offices-Create booklets with students' writing and ask local dentists and doctors if you can leave them in their waiting rooms.

10. Pen pals-Find a pen pal for your students to engage in letter writing with a real recipient.

11. Reviews-Make part of the students' grade sharing what they wrote with people outside the school and collecting reviews/feedback forms.

12. Dedications-Have students create dedication pages and encourage them to share their essays with those the papers are dedicated to.

13. Portfolios-Have students keep portfolios with their writing.  Share these portfolios with families during parent teacher conferences.

14. Turn their essays into speeches-Have them present their writing to the class.

15. Submit their work to magazines-Have students submit their writing to magazines that publish entries.

16. Books-Oriental Trading Company sells blank books students can decorate and fill in.

17. Young Authors Society-Start a group where students can share and publish their writing.

18. Nationwide Writing Contests

19. Make it a gift-Have students turn essays into gifts.  For example, in May they can write letters to important women in their lives and give them to those women for Mother's Day.

20. Dramatic readings to younger grades-Have students write and share their writing with younger grades.  They can turn them into books and leave them behind for the younger children's classroom library.

21. Message in a balloon-Put a message in a helium balloon and let it go.  Wait with your students to see what sort of responses they might receive.

22. Have them write to someone famous such as: The President.

23. Media boards-Does your school have televisions in the entryway of the school where news is projected for visitors to see?  See if you can include quotes from your students' writing as part of the powerpoint presentation that is scrolled through on a continuous loop.

24. Write a play/Create a video-Have students get together in small groups and write a play to be performed in front of the class.  The best play can be performed in front of the school.

25. Write a song-Have students take their favorite song and make up new lyrics.  They can perform them in front of the class and record them, if possible.

My Favorite Websites for Teaching English

I have a pinterest board dedicated to useful teaching websites.  Here is a list of my favorite ones to use with my English classes...

Poem Hunter will provide you with the poems from any number of poets.  I use it all the time.  Whenever I need to find a poem it is the first place I look.  It has short bios on a ton of well known poets along with online texts of their writings.  It is very handy.  The site is super user friendly and comprehensive.  

Prezi.com is a website that allows students to make cooler versions of power points.  It takes them a class period or so to play around with it and figure out how to use all of the tools, but once they know how, they love it.  They can add videos, pictures, objects, colors, themes and pretty much everything else that they can do with powerpoint.  But, the visual effects are unique and fun to play around with.  They can save them online and share them with anyone who has an email address.  It is definitely worth checking out.

Purdue Owl is a great resource with a wide variety of writing tips.  The material is most appropriate for  students in middle school through college age students.  I use it all the time as a reference for how to create bibliographies and citations using MLA formatting rules.  Once my students have shown me they know how to format their bibliographic entries, I let them cheat by using easybib.com.

6 + 1 Writing Traits  is a well known writing, teaching and assessment framework.  The title refers to the traits in writing that we want all of our students to develop over time: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation.  The common language is useful in aligning teachers across contents and grade levels to provide united expectations of students.

Writing Fix and English Companion are websites that have a ton of resources for teaching writing and reading.  They include strategies, graphic organizers, etc.  They have a wealth of information and are worth perusing.

Finally, Grammar Bytes  has a wealth of grammar activities to help reinforce grammar rules with yours students.  The sentences are fun and contemporary.

Fabulous Freebies: Writing Prompts

Here are some fabulous freebies to help you get writing prompt ideas for your students!

If you haven't seen this post yet, check it out! It contains 15 spring themed writing prompts. I tried to include a variety of reasons to write with the selection of these prompts.

Here is a huge list of 501 writing prompts! They are divided into four categories including persuasive, expository, narrative and literary response. They are in general less 'fun' type prompts and more practical prompts but still useful.

This Writing Prompt Task Card Pack is geared towards students in grades 1-5 and has some creative and interesting prompts! I think these prompts would definitely motivate students to write.

Daily Teaching Tools has a huge list of 180 journal writing prompts divided into the four quarters of the year. It looked like many could be used for a wide range of students from elementary through high school level.


With this list you now have more than 700 prompts to pick from for your students! Wow!

15 Spring Writing Prompts

Since we had a few nice days of weather before our next predicted storm, it reminded me that spring will (eventually) show up. Here are some spring themed writing prompt ideas to get you and your students in the mood for warmer weather!

1. During spring, trees grow leaves again on their branches. Imagine what this would be like and write a story from the perspective of the tree about what spring feels like.

2. If you could be any flower, what flower would you be and why?

3. Earth Day is in the spring. Describe what you do to help take care of the earth.

4. May is National Pet Month. If you could have one unusual pet, what would you have and why?

5. Write a list of interview questions you would like to ask the Easter Bunny.

6. In April there is Read a Road Map Week. Describe where you would like to go on a road trip and what you would see.

7. Plan a celebration for National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day.

8.  During the spring you can wear different clothes than during the winter. How are your outfits changing and what are you looking forward to wearing?

9. List ten things you would like to grow in a garden in the spring.

10. Many baby animals are born in the spring. Write a story about a baby bird coming out of an egg and living in a nest with his or her bird parents.

11. Many people do spring cleaning. Think of an invention that could help you do all of your spring cleaning. Write an ad to help sell your spring cleaning invention to others.

12. What would you like to do over spring break? Write a persuasive essay to your family to try to convince them to follow along with your ideas.

13. Imagine a farmer would plant a magical seed in his garden in the spring. Write a story about what would happen and what would grow from the seed.

14. The sun stays out for longer and longer in the spring. What do you like to do with all of this extra daylight?

15. Teacher Appreciation Week is in the spring. Write a list of ways you could show your teacher you appreciate him or her.

For more spring activities, check out my Spring Math, Literacy and Art Packet!