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

Need an engaging post-reading activity? One-pagers make for a strong assessment on their own, but they are also a great prewriting tool.

Prompt Sticks Reflection Game: An Interactive Way to Reflect Back on the School Year

There are lots of creative ways to facilitate reflection at the end of the school year. Integrating novelty into any lesson makes it more interesting, and the same concept applies to reflection questions. So I set out to create an interactive "Prompt Sticks" Reflection Question game to get students more interested in assessing their learning at the end of the school year.

Writing Thank You Emails to Spread Kindness

Engage secondary students in a meaningful real-world writing activity at the end of the school year - or any time! Writing thank you letters is an important life skill, but it's becoming overshadowed by emails and text messages. Teach middle and high school students about how to spread love and kindness by encouraging others through writing.

Poetry Writing That Supports Reading Standards - Found Poetry and Blackout Poetry

Learn more about using Found Poetry and Blackout Poetry as a creative assessment for those reading standards!

Tone Tunes: Using Music to Teach Tone in Poetry

Being able to decipher the tone of a piece of writing is crucial to being able to decipher the thematic message of a text. This is absolutely true for analyzing poetry.

Poetry Collage: Poetry Meets Art

One of my favorite openers is to have students create a poetry collage using striking images they find in modern poets' work. I send them on an online journey through Billy Collins' beautiful project, Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools.

Creative Writing, PoetryGuest UserMarch 20, 2018poetry, creative writingComment

For Teachers Who Hate Teaching Poetry: Teach Poetry Emulation, Here's How...

As a teacher who loves teaching writing it is hard for me to admit I don't love teaching poetry. But here it goes...I don't enjoy teaching poetry. But I can't just skip teaching poetry! That would be writing teacher sacrilege!

PoetryAmanda WernerMarch 15, 2018Poetry, poetic devices, poetry activitiesComment

7 Poetry Activities Students Love

Getting older students to read and write poetry can be hard. Engaging poetry activities are critical for obtaining student buy-in. In this post from Reading and Writing Haven, read about five poetry activities older students will enjoy.

Grammar Games for the Secondary Classroom

For years, I have been searching for ways to ‘gamify’ my classroom a bit more to increase engagement in content learning. Last month, I wrote about my argument games- five games to incorporate into your argument/persuasive writing unit. Like these games, my grammar games work to practice these challenging skills in a fun, collaborative, and even competitive manner.

Best Practices, Grammar, Writing Mini-lessonsGuest UserFebruary 27, 2018grammar, games Comments

My 5 Favorite Writing Mini Lessons for Secondary Classrooms

It may come as a surprise to you that my favorite mini lessons are nothing fancy. Rather, they are lessons I tend to come back to again and again throughout the year because students desperately need them. They are lessons that focus less on content and more on behavior and the structure of writing workshop.

Writing Mini-lessonsAmanda WernerFebruary 22, 2018writing workshop, mini-lessons, middle school, Middle school writingComment

9 Writing Activities to use with any Shakespeare Play

In need of some engaging writing activities for your next Shakespeare unit? Look no further. Check out these nine writing options that work with any Shakespeare play.

Creative Writing, Writing AssignmentsGuest UserFebruary 20, 2018Shakespeare, writing activities, ShakespeareanComment

A Writing Lesson to Get High School Students Thinking

Needing inspiration for teaching writing in high school? In this guest post, read about one of Language Arts Classroom's favorite writing lessons to get students thinking critically and taking ownership for their learning.

FIVE Unique Valentine's Day Lessons to Target Essential Skills in Secondary Classes

Valentine's Day provides an opportunity during the month of February to focus on one of the most powerful topics in literature and art: LOVE. Love is as polarizing as the Valentine's Day holiday itself: some love it, and some hate it. Nonetheless...

8 Must Have Writing Workshop Charts

Here is my personal definition of a writing chart: any information displayed in your classroom to support students in their endeavors as writers. Charts can be small, medium or big. They can be handwritten or typed. They can be written on whiteboards or paper. I believe charts can even be digital and posted in Google Classroom for at home reference!

Writing WorkshopAmanda WernerJanuary 30, 2018writing workshop, writing charts, mini-lessonsComment

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.

Avoiding Plagiarism - 6 Effective Teaching Strategies All Educators Need

Teaching high school students to avoid plagiarism is no easy task. Try these strategies from Reading and Writing Haven to scaffold students' understanding and lead them to success.

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

Empower Student Writers with a 20% Time Choice Blogging Project

If you'd like to give your students some serious choice, and empower them to write about the topics that truly interest them, blogging just might be the thing for your classroom. Set aside one day a week for your 20% time project, and introduce students to the simple free blogging platform, Blogger.

Best Practices, Creative Writing, Distance LearningGuest UserDecember 16, 2017choice, blog, blogging, creative writingComment

Narrative, Information & Argumentative Holiday Writing Ideas

Before your pants are covered in green glitter and your classroom floor is littered with candy cane wrappers, make sure those writing skills you taught during that one unit in that one month are not forgotten! I’ve thought up some fun writing activities for the week before the holidays, plus key terms you can bring up during the super fun activities as well!

Holiday, Writing AssignmentsAmanda WernerDecember 7, 2017holiday writing assignments, holidayComment

Three Famous Christmas Speeches to Inspire Writing

It's the "most wonderful time of the year" once again! Every year, the holiday season inspires new movie ideas, and some of these movies go on to become some of the most beloved films of all time with some of the most well-known movie speeches in film history.