Posts in Best Practices
3 Mini-Lessons to Help Your Students Finally Understand and Effectively Use Formal Writing.
3 Mini-Lessons to Help Your Students Finally Understand and Effectively Use Formal Writing.

Today I am going to tell you about formal writing! Of course, I write this opening line in jest. When I think about how many times my secondary students have written that exact initial phrase as part of their first line to an essay, a strong Hulk-like desire to rip papers into shreds comes over me. I assure you that I have never actually ripped up a student essay, but I think we can all agree that reading the following sentences turns us all a little Hulk green:

“After you read this, you will agree that…”

“Today I will prove to you that…”

“I am writing about…”

“I think…”

“I feel…”

AGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

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Best Practices, Editing & Revision, Modes of Writing, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessonsGuest UserFormal Writing, Teaching formal writing, Formal writing lessons, don't write about your writingComment
10 Easy Ways to Reduce your Grading Time
10 Easy Ways to Reduce your Grading Time

As a writing teacher, the grading load can be pretty overwhelming. We’ve all carried that tattered folder stuffed with papers to and fro, to and fro, dragging it along to family vacations, coffee shops, and anywhere else where we think we might actually find the time to sit down and give feedback. But ack. Somehow the time never seems to come. And the folder just keeps getting more battered.

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Best Practices, Assessing WritingGuest Usergrading, management, classroom managementComment
Fun Acronyms to Teach Writing
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.

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Best Practices, Modes of Writing, The Writing Process, Writing AssignmentsGuest UserAcronyms to Teach Writing, Writing lessons, Teaching writing, argumentative essay, argumentative paragraph, Literary analysis paragraph, Literary analysisComment
Literary Analysis Writing
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.

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Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, Modes of Writing, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Assessing WritingGuest Userliterary analysis, literary analysis writing, literary analysis lessons, teaching literary analysis, english lessons, ELA lessons, #iteachenglish, #iteachhighschool, Literary writingComment
9 Ways to Get Secondary Students to Enjoy Writing
9 Ways to Get Secondary Students to Enjoy Writing

How can teachers help older students enjoy writing? Negativity and reluctance is a mindset that is established early on. However, in middle and high school, certain teaching approaches and strategies can help to change the way students view themselves as writers. Create a positive writing culture and maintain it through the year. These nine approaches can help.

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Assessing Writing, Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, FREEBIES, Philosophies on Writing, Writing Assignments, Editing & RevisionMelissa Krusewriting lessons, enjoy writing, writing activities, best practices, writing culture, struggling writers, reluctant writers, writing approaches, differentiation, assessing writing, back to schoolComment
Prompt Sticks Reflection Game: An Interactive Way to Reflect Back on the School Year
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. 

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Best Practices, Assessing Writing, FREEBIES, Writing AssignmentsMeredith Dobbsend of year writing activities, end of year, end of year writing assignments, bespoke ela, Bespoke ELA, Bespoke, reflective writing, reflection activities for middle school students, reflection activities for the secondary student, reflection activities for high school students, reflecting lessons, reflection, reflective, reflection lessons, #reflectingonlearning, Semester Reflection, reflection game, gameComment
Tone Tunes: Using Music to Teach Tone in Poetry
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. 

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Best Practices, FREEBIES, Modes of Writing, Poetry, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMeredith Dobbspoetry, poetry activities, April Poetry Month, writing poetry, High School Poetry, national poetry month, Poetry, Middle School Poetry, explication, poetic devices, tone, explication essay, poetry explication, musicComment
Grammar Games for the Secondary Classroom
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.

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Best Practices, Grammar, Writing Mini-lessonsGuest Usergrammar, games Comments
Argument Games! Play These Fun Games to Practice Analyzing Arguments and Writing Arguments
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.  

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Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, Modes of Writing, Writing Assignments, The Writing Process, Writing Mini-lessonsGuest UserArgument 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
Avoiding Plagiarism - 6 Effective Teaching Strategies All Educators Need
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.

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Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, Editing & Revision, FREEBIES, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMelissa Krusestruggling writers, struggling students, plagiarism, research, citing research, MLA, Works Cited, stationsComment
Empower Student Writers with a 20% Time Choice Blogging Project
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.

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Best Practices, Creative Writing, Distance LearningGuest Userchoice, blog, blogging, creative writingComment