Posts in Writing Mini-lessons
Tone and Mood Writing - Writing Games and Unique Assessments to Teach Tone and Mood
Tone and Mood Writing - Writing Games and Unique Assessments to Teach Tone and Mood

Getting students to fully grasp the concept of tone and mood can be a truly difficult and daunting task. Students can have a very difficult time separating the mood they feel while reading from the author’s tone while writing. It can be even more challenging for students to think about the mood they wish a reader to feel while they are writing, which can require them to disregard their own tone.

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Assessing Writing, Mentor Texts, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessonsGuest UserWriting Assessment, Writing with Tone and Mood, Tone and Mood Assessment, Teaching Tone and Mood, Assessing Tone and Mood, Creating Tone in Writing, Creating Mood in WritingComment
Five Ways to Target Commentary for Essay Writing
Five Ways to Target Commentary for Essay Writing

This is a topic that I have spent quite a bit of time on simply because it is the one skill that my students struggle with the most.  You can find more posts from me on this topic here and here. Here are FIVE ways to target commentary in essay writing: 

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Editing & Revision, The Writing Process, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMeredith Dobbsessay writing, commentary, analysis, literary analysis, revision, elaboration, explanationComment
4 Mini-Lessons for Teaching Suspense Writing
4 Mini-Lessons for Teaching Suspense Writing

I love teaching students the skill of writing suspense during the spooky Halloween season. This is a great time for introducing suspenseful mentor texts and writing suspenseful narratives. I love having students read spooky tales in preparation for writing their own spooky tales.

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Holiday, Mentor Texts, Writing Mini-lessonsGuest UserSuspense Writing, Halloween writing, Secondary writing, teaching suspense, Teaching students to write suspense, writing suspenseful scenes, suspense writing mini-lessons, writing mini-lessonsComment
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
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
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
Three Famous Christmas Speeches to Inspire Writing
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.  

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FREEBIES, Writing Assignments, Writing Workshop, Writing Mini-lessonsMeredith Dobbschristmas, holiday, holiday writing assignments, movie, speech, speeches, rhetorical analysis, rhetoric, rhetorical, literary analysis, literary devicesComment
Writing is Recursive, Not Linear: Free Task Cards to Reflect Writing as a Process
Writing is Recursive, Not Linear: Free Task Cards to Reflect Writing as a Process

Writing goes all ways: forwards, backwards, sideways, over there, and over here.  In fact, the only piece of the writing process that occurs at a set point in time is publishing.

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Best Practices, Editing & Revision, FREEBIES, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMeredith Dobbswriting workshop, writing skills, writer's notebook, writing process, revising and editing, revision, editing, edit, revise, targeted writing skills, writing lesson, commentary, textual evidence, evidence, organization, transitions, transitional devices, grammar, grammar and writing, task cards, taskComment
A Memorable Kinesthetic Writing Lesson for Older Students
A Memorable Kinesthetic Writing Lesson for Older Students

Teaching the writing process? Try involving students kinesthetically. Play Doh can work for big kids, too! My high school students absolutely love this writing analogy that walks them through each stage of the writing process as if they were sculptors crafting a masterpiece. Differentiate your instruction with this best-practice, active learning lesson.

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Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, Editing & Revision, FREEBIES, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessonsMelissa Krusewriting process, kinesthetic learning, differentiation, manipulative, writing lesson, engagingComment
Daily Writing Prompts to Inspire New Ideas
Daily Writing Prompts to Inspire New Ideas

TeachWriting.org has announced a new writing workshop endeavor for the 2017-2018 school year. This year, the collaborators at TeachWriting are creating DAILY WRITING PROMPTS via their Facebook Page for English teachers in grades 6-12. 

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Best Practices, Mentor Texts, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Writing Workshop, Writing Mini-lessons, FREEBIESMeredith Dobbsdaily writing prompts, writing prompt, writing prompts, bell ringers, bell-ringers, bell ringer, bell-ringer, quick write, free write, essay, essay writing, the writing process, writing topic, writing assignments, writer's workshop, Writing lessons, writing skills, writing workshop, descriptive writing, description, figurative language, argumentative writing, persuasive essay, persuasion, persuasive, creative writing, mentor text, mentor, mentor sentence, vocabulary, grammar, grammar and writingComment
TEN Writing Assignments to Build a Writing Community in the Classroom
TEN Writing Assignments to Build a Writing Community in the Classroom

Creative writing is the art of constructing original ideas by synthesizing literary elements and techniques to communicate an overarching theme about life.  Oftentimes in our English classes, we spend more time on the deconstruction process, analyzing works of art by taking them apart.

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Best Practices, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMeredith Dobbswriting lessons, writer's notebook, writing process, writing culture, writing assignments, writing assessment, writing topic, writing projects, Writing Instruction, writer's workshop, writing workshop, Writing lessons, Writing instruction, writing philosophy, writing partners, writing prompts for middle school, writing project, writing topics, prompts, creative writingComment
How to Create a Writing Culture that Empowers Students through Grammar
How to Create a Writing Culture that Empowers Students through Grammar

Writing is grammar. Grammar is writing. Sure, there are elements of writing that may not be directly related to grammar, such as word choice, citation rules, and paragraph organization. Still, the ability to take words and play with them skillfully mainly centers around students' mastery of grammar. Teaching writing? When creating a writing culture in my classroom, demonstrating how grammar empowers authors is paramount. As I tell my students, "In this classroom, we do "grammaring."

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Philosophies on Writing, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessons, Best PracticesMelissa Krusegrammar, culture, writing culture, teaching writing, high school writing, writing lessons, writing hooks, grammar and writingComment
The Best First Writing Lesson of the Year: Email Etiquette 101
The Best First Writing Lesson of the Year: Email Etiquette 101

When planning for the beginning of the year, teachers need to choose writing assignments that allow for collection of pre-assessment data while also engaging students and building a positive writing community. 

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Best Practices, Assessing Writing, Technology & Writing, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMelissa Krusewriter's workshop, lesson, back-to-school, email, real-world writing, best practices, career writing, mini-lessons, pre-assessmentComment
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