Let’s give your students some practice in writing poetry!
With these guided prompts, your students do not have to “sit down and write a poem” but will surprise you by creating something fun and maybe even memorable. Here goes . . .
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April is National Poetry Month. What a wonderful time to try your hand at writing a poem!
Haiku (high KOO) is a beautiful poem form that comes from Japan. It is usually about nature and can be spoken in one breath.
Syllables are important in a haiku. Words can be broken into parts based on their vowel sounds. Those parts are syllables. Tree has one syllable. Forest has two. And timberland has three. When you speak these words out loud, you can hear their syllables.
Haiku poems have another feature: They do not rhyme.
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Let’s write a fun poem to celebrate National Poetry Month!
A diamante (Dee-a-MON-tay) is an interesting type of poem. It is a diamond-shaped poem of opposites, and the last word in the poem is the opposite of the first word.
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Colorful leaves. Pumpkins. Football. Cooler weather. Raking. Apple pie. Candles. What are signs of autumn to you?
Students are more likely to write if the topics are related to something that is going on at the moment, so let’s cash in on the season by using these fall-themed writing prompts. Some of the prompts you’ll find below are simply fun prompts; others are tutorials complete with printables.
While they are enjoying these ten seasonal prompts, you are giving them practice in opinion writing, description, figurative language, poetry, and more. Shhh! It’s our secret!
These prompts {and tutorials} are appropriate for grades 5 – 12.
Ready? Fun awaits . . .
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Let’s celebrate one of literature’s coldest motifs: ice queens.
A motif (mow TEEF) is like a symbol on steroids. It not only appears in one story but in many stories through the ages and often in stories from many countries.
A deep, dark woods is a good example of a motif. The blackened forest can be symbolic of confusion or a time of testing. What stories can you think of that include a patch of dark woods? (I’ve listed a few at the end of this prompt, but try your hand at listing some before you read mine.)
A motif can be an item (like dark woods or a magic ring), a recurring event (like being sent on a quest or conducting a contest to find a spouse), or a
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Happy Hobbit Day!
Did you know that September 22 is officially Hobbit Day and the beginning of Tolkien Week? You can read more about it here and here and here.
To celebrate, let’s explore the hero’s journey, an essential type of plot.
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien is basically a hero’s journey plot. Is the lowly Bilbo a hero when we first meet him? Not really. But through testing and troubles, and by fights against giant spiders, a dragon, and miserable dwarves, he becomes a hero.
One important phase of the hero’s journey plot is
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Take a break from grading and give your 5th-12th grade students some fun, summer-themed topics to write about.
There are five for your students and one article for you. It’s all about practical, real-life experiences you can turn into writing events.
Here goes . . .
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In this week’s post, you’ll find a mini lesson explaining what goes into a how-to or process essay, and you can download a printable evaluation form you can use to grade your 7th-12th graders.
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Do your students get stuck when they have to write a paragraph or an essay?
I have a secret I’d like to share with you.
Your students do not have to write a paragraph or a whole essay every time they put pencil to paper. One of the best ways to unplug the fear of writing is to do some of the prepare-for-writing tasks but never write the whole paragraph or essay.
It’s called practice, as when members of a basketball team practice dribbling or passing. The team does not play a game every time they get together. They practice pieces of the game.
So let’s practice brainstorming and organizing ideas.
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Do you have trouble coming up with ideas to put in your paragraphs?
Would you like help organizing each paragraph so it is not a jumbled mess?
Check out this chart below, along with one that is filled in, to make your life a little easier.
{Here’s the HIGH SCHOOL version of this tutorial. >>}
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