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Your class will become a wonderland of imaginary creates with Greek and Latin names.
Blow up a paragraph into individual sentences. Now reassemble it. The clues hiding in each sentence will surprise you.
We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.
We tell students to ‘show, not tell’ — but that advice is useless until they experience the difference. This lesson makes it click.
‘Add more variety!’ teachers say. But how? This lesson gives students actual techniques instead of vague advice.
Can your students fit a whole story into seventeen syllables? Now do it from inside a character’s head. Then once more, following the power.
Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?
Let’s make this simile about a strong uncle even more specific.
Young students can use this big idea organizer to identify the main idea and support it with details.
Five sets of idioms related to the weather.
We’ll start with the cliché “as cold as ice” and go somewhere much more interesting.
What on earth is a Aquamorphotron? Break apart the Greek and Latin roots, figure out what it should mean, then invent what it describes.
A passage from “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Five idioms related to numbers.
How many words can you find within “leopard”?
We’re looking at the past progressive tense and the simple past tense.
Let’s make this simile about a loud class super specific!
What if… Edgar Allen Poe wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?
When we try to solve a problem, sometimes we end up creating new problems. Which lead to new solutions. Which lead to new problems.
Five idioms related to geese.
Three paragraphs about tomatoes. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.
A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We’ll be writing sentences with three dependent clauses.
Read three pieces of writing from three different robots based on a beautiful painting and decide who wins!
Ever ask students to create research questions? Were their ideas a bit… blah? My own students had a very hard time writing questions they didn’t already know the answer to! This video is how I solved that problem: upgrade research questions with depth and complexity.
We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.
Let’s write a holiday song about order and chaos!
How many words can you find within LATKES?
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
What if a capybara and a kangaroo rat switched homes? Would their adaptations be helpful at all?
Can your class spot the complex sentences vs compound sentences?
Rather than just demand that students “write clearly,” we’ll explore the hazards of poorly written sentences… and maybe create one of our own!
What if we started a sentence with the simile?
A passage from White Fang to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Five idioms related to birds.
A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We’ll be using antonyms to describe the same topic!
How many different ways can we use the word “fruit”? Let’s find out in this Parts of Speech Party!
Five idioms related to salt.
Strength and weakness are often two sides of the same coin. Students will explore how a character’s flaw can be a benefit.
A typical student narrative includes plot and characters but lacks a larger idea to hold it all together. This is where a lesson on themes comes in…
Add a letter at each step to form a new word. Can you connect the starting point and ending point?
A passage from “The Fall of the House of Usher” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Five idioms related to the Greeks and Romans.
