6-12th- ADD ARTICLES HERE — TeachWriting.org

Essay Revision: Ways to Encourage Students to Revise their Writing

Increase engagement with essay revision using this flexible revising points activity for middle or high school ELA.

Editing & Revision, The Writing ProcessMelissa KruseJune 14, 2022revising and editing, writing process, argumentative writingComment

Argument Games for Secondary ELA

Check out these games to get your students arguing as a means of targeting persuasive skills such as rhetorical analysis and persuasive writing/ speaking. — by Bespoke ELA

FREEBIES, Reading & Writing, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMeredith DobbsJanuary 23, 2022argument, persuasive essay, persuasion, rhetorical, rhetoricComment

Writing Workshop Resource Roundup

We know as English teachers that writing workshop is a foundational approach to writing instruction in the modern classroom. But if you’re like me, I am always searching for new tips, tools, and resources for implementing writer’s workshop— to make it more manageable for me as a teacher as well as more approachable for my students.

Assessing Writing, Best Practices, The Writing Process, Writing Workshop, Writing Mini-lessonsMeredith DobbsJanuary 25, 2021writing workshop, workshop, writer's workshopComment

Digital Writing Activities Students Actually Want to Complete

Engage middle and high school students in meaningful virtual writing assignments! These digital activities pack powerful learning benefits. Plus, they build confidence in reluctant writers.

Differentiating Writing, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessonsMelissa KruseApril 14, 2020digital, distance learning, writing assignments, writing activities, engagingComment

Teaching Voice in Writing: Easy Tips for ELA

How do we take the “encyclopedia voice” (Mariconda) many students come into the classroom having been taught, and turn it into Walt Whitman’s much-lauded “barbaric yawp”?

FREEBIES, The Writing Process, Writing Mini-lessons, Modes of Writing, Best PracticesGuest UserJanuary 31, 2020voiceComment

Supporting High School Writers

How can language arts teachers support high school writers? With purposeful feedback and activities, English teachers can structure an environment to grow young writers.

Philosophies on Writing, The Writing ProcessGuest UserJanuary 19, 2020high school writing, high school writers, writing activities, relationships with writersComment

Purpose Not Apathy: Arts Literacy in ELA

Eileen Landay and Kurt Wooton founded The ArtsLiteracy Project to bring arts integration into classrooms around the world, and their book, A Reason to Read, shows how it works and why it’s so powerful.

Editing & Revision, Best Practices, Modes of Writing, The Writing Process, Writing AssignmentsGuest UserOctober 17, 2019makerspace, management, classroom management, apathy, arts literacy, literacyComment

Five Ways to Target Commentary for Essay Writing

This is a topic that I have spent quite a bit of time on simply because it is the one skill that my students struggle with the most. You can find more posts from me on this topic here and here. Here are FIVE ways to target commentary in essay writing:

Editing & Revision, The Writing Process, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMeredith DobbsJuly 9, 2019essay writing, commentary, analysis, literary analysis, revision, elaboration, explanationComment

Fun Acronyms to Teach Writing

I am always looking for ways to make writing instruction more engaging for my students. I love using fun and interesting acronyms to help students as they draft their work. I want these acronyms to be memorable so that students can use these to draft their writing long after my graphic organizers are there to support them.

Best Practices, Modes of Writing, The Writing Process, Writing AssignmentsGuest UserMarch 4, 2019Acronyms to Teach Writing, Writing lessons, Teaching writing, argumentative essay, argumentative paragraph, Literary analysis paragraph, Literary analysisComment

Three Essential Editing and Revision Mini-lessons for Argumentative Writing

Argumentative writing is a cornerstone of writing across content areas. Essentially, all pieces of writing are an argument.

Editing & Revision, The Writing Process, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMeredith DobbsSeptember 18, 2018writing workshop, editing, revision, revising, revising and editing, editComment

Literary Analysis Writing

Within a literary analysis, students are required to think deeply about a given text, then make inferences and provide evidence to support that inference. Not only does the skill of drafting a quality literary analysis response support students in high school English classes, but will essentially define much of their English coursework in college.

Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, Modes of Writing, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Assessing WritingGuest UserJune 12, 2018literary analysis, literary analysis writing, literary analysis lessons, teaching literary analysis, english lessons, ELA lessons, #iteachenglish, #iteachhighschool, Literary writingComment

Argument Games! Play These Fun Games to Practice Analyzing Arguments and Writing Arguments

I yearned for a way to practice skills such as evaluating the sufficiency of evidence and seeing multiple perspectives on a topic. I wished to help them in creating rich and effective arguments with elements of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Finally, I needed to find a way to help students in creating effective counter-arguments that actually refute the argument as opposed to simply changing the subject.

Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, Modes of Writing, Writing Assignments, The Writing Process, Writing Mini-lessonsGuest UserJanuary 23, 2018Argument Writing, The Argument Essay, Argument Activities, Practicing Argument Writing Skills, Preparing for Debate, Debate Lessons, Writing Arguments, Drafting Arguments, Rhetoric Skills, Debate Unit, Teaching DebateComment

10 Unique and Creative Reflection Techniques & Lessons for the Secondary Student

As educators, we know how critical reflection is to the learning process. Getting students to reflect- deeply and meaningfully- is often one of the most challenging lessons we teach. I have found that both my middle school and high school students will often scoff at these reflection activities, providing the least amount of effort possible to complete the task they see as meaningless. I have been searching for and creating lessons and activities that will bring interest and engagement to this task. The following

Writer's Workshop in the Secondary Classroom: An Exclusive Interview with Secondary Sara

Not only is Secondary Sara an experienced middle school ELA teacher at a private school in Ohio, she is also a high school tutor (she started her own successful tutoring business), a coach of a creative writing team, and a teacher author and blogger. Here, she shares her top tips for motivating middle school writers.

Writing Workshop, The Writing Process, Best PracticesGuest UserNovember 30, 2017writer's workshop, workshop, writing workshopComment

Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing!

Understanding the many nuances of great writing can seem like a daunting challenge for teachers and students alike. As educators, we are aware of the strong correlation between good reading skills and good writing skills. This is because students are absorbing the author’s craft as they explore amazing works of literature. This knowledge has given rise to the popularity of mentor texts within the ELA classroom.

Writing is Recursive, Not Linear: Free Task Cards to Reflect Writing as a Process

Writing goes all ways: forwards, backwards, sideways, over there, and over here. In fact, the only piece of the writing process that occurs at a set point in time is publishing.

A Memorable Kinesthetic Writing Lesson for Older Students

Teaching the writing process? Try involving students kinesthetically. Play Doh can work for big kids, too! My high school students absolutely love this writing analogy that walks them through each stage of the writing process as if they were sculptors crafting a masterpiece. Differentiate your instruction with this best-practice, active learning lesson.

Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, Editing & Revision, FREEBIES, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessonsMelissa KruseOctober 3, 2017writing process, kinesthetic learning, differentiation, manipulative, writing lesson, engagingComment

Sketchnotes: Paper Prep that's FUN

Need a fresh idea for getting through to disengaged writers? Reach them with a new kind of prewriting activity, sketchnotes. Check out this post for tips and inspiration for getting started with sketchnotes, plus a fun freebie to guide them through their first sketchnotes paper brainstorm.

The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, FREEBIESGuest UserSeptember 28, 2017Comment

8 Meaningful Ways to Differentiate Prewriting

Teaching writing? Sometimes students shut down before they write a single word. Teachers can address this dilemma by making the brainstorming process meaningful and engaging through differentiation and scaffolding. When students are provided with choices, they feel less helpless, become more confident, and produce better compositions.

Differentiating Writing, FREEBIES, The Writing ProcessMelissa KruseSeptember 26, 2017Writing, Prewriting Strategies, prewri, pre-writing, brainstorming, conferences, graphic organizers, discussions, differentiation, scaffolding writing, writing topicsComment

Daily Writing Prompts to Inspire New Ideas

TeachWriting.org has announced a new writing workshop endeavor for the 2017-2018 school year. This year, the collaborators at TeachWriting are creating DAILY WRITING PROMPTS via their Facebook Page for English teachers in grades 6-12.