Posts tagged middle school
My 5 Favorite Writing Mini Lessons for Secondary Classrooms
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.

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Writing Mini-lessonsAmanda Wernerwriting workshop, mini-lessons, middle school, Middle school writingComment
The Worst Essay of Your LIFE: A Unique Approach to Assessing Writing at the Beginning of the School Year
The Worst Essay of Your LIFE: A Unique Approach to Assessing Writing at the Beginning of the School Year

The beginning of the school year is an important time to assess the writing skill levels of new students in our English classes.  One way to do this is to assign a diagnostic essay in order to "diagnose" each student's writing level... 

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Assessing Writing, Best Practices, FREEBIES, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Writing WorkshopMeredith Dobbswriting topic, writing projects, writing workshop, writing, writer's workshop, writing process, writing assignments, writing topics, writer's notebook, writing assessment, essay writing, essay, diagnostic, diagnostic essay, English, english, Middle School English, High School English, high school, high-interest, targeted writing skills, common core, middle school, Middle School Language Arts, language and composition, language arts, Language Arts, engaging writers, writing skills, assessing writing, assessment Comments
Three High-Interest Writing Assignments to Motivate Struggling Writers
Three High-Interest Writing Assignments to Motivate Struggling Writers

Motivating struggling writers can be quite a challenge.  With struggling writers, it is important to create high-interest assignments that students will want to work on, assignments that they will want to put forth the effort on in order to succeed.  If struggling students are bored with a writing topic, they won’t be as invested in it and won’t want to put the time and effort in to make it the best it can be.

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Writing Assignments, Best PracticesMeredith Dobbsstruggling writers, struggling students, differentiation, high-interest, writing, writing assignments, writing inspiration, writer's notebook, writing poems, writing process, writer's workshop, Writing Instruction, writing workshop, writing assessment, fun writing, writing topics, motivating students, motivation, English, english, engaging writers, Middle School English, High School English, high school, middle school, language arts, Language Arts, language and composition, Middle School Language Arts, summer school, struggle, screenplay, screenplay writing, project, writing projects, writing project, movie, film, film writing, tone, bias, media, writing topic, topic, list, topic listComment
Poetry for Writing Workshop in Grades 6-12:  10+ Devices & Poems to Model Them all!
Poetry for Writing Workshop in Grades 6-12:  10+ Devices & Poems to Model Them all!

"To be a poet is a condition, not a profession." -- Robert Frost

You may find yourself in agreement with Frost's famous quote when it comes to teaching poetry in the secondary classroom.  However, love it or hate it, poetry can play a helpful role in teaching students how to write!  Famous poems can serve as mentor texts for students and showcase key literary and rhetorical devices in action.  

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Best Practices, Mentor Texts, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMeredith Dobbspoetry, national poetry month, poem, explication, literary devices, poetic devices, stylistic devices, rhetorical devices, simile, metaphor, personification, anaphora, parallel structure, parallelism, rhetorical question, antithesis, alliteration, consonance, assonance, epistrophe, literary analysis, mentor text, mentor poem, mentor sentence, mentor, writing workshop, writing process, secondary, English, Language Arts, language and composition, language arts, middle school, high school, teachers pay teachers, teacher, teaching writing, Writing Instruction, writer's notebook, writer's workshop, writing, the writing process, essay writing, essay, best practices, best practice, writing assessment, assessing writing Comment
A Philosophy for Assessing Writing: Aim for Improvement, not Perfection
A Philosophy for Assessing Writing: Aim for Improvement, not Perfection

Over the past 10+ years of teaching high school, my philosophy for writing instruction has changed greatly.  It has been a decade of experimentation and adaptation; a decade dedicated to finding what works and trying out new methodologies...

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Best Practices, Assessing Writing, Philosophies on Writing, FREEBIESMeredith Dobbsessay writing, essay, philosophy, pedagogy, common core, writing workshop, writing process, writer's workshop, writer's notebook, levels of writing, assessing writing, writing assessment, grading writing, peer revision, peer editing, teacher comments, teachers pay teachers, TpT, high school, middle school, comments, language and composition, composition, english, language arts, reflection, best practice, best practices, teacher, revise, revision, revising and editing, the writing process Comments