Classroom Posters on Pinterest

Did you know "The Writing Doctor" (aka Bill MacDonald) has a board on Pinterest?
Well, he does, so go check it out!
It really is a quick, easy way to browse through the many language arts classroom posters and other teaching aids and an convenient way to share them also.

Writing Doctor on Pinterest

Test your students' ability to write a focused essay.

The organizational strategy your students use improves their ability to present ideas clearly and effectively.  This exercise will allow you to test their ability to write a focused essay in a fixed amount of time.

On Your Mark. Get Set. Stop! 
Timed writing responses are one quick way to test a students ability to write a focused paper.  It is similar to Sustained Silent Reading, (S.S.R.) only the children are writing until the time runs out instead of reading. Give them a prompt or topic to
write about and explain the goal: to keep writing on the topic as long as possible without switching to another point or different focus. This activity forces them to learn to develop an idea completely without getting sidetracked by extraneous information that adds no depth to their writing. The winner is the student with the most writing that sustains the purpose
and builds one sentence upon the other without getting off-topic.

Encouraging higher level vocabulary from your students

Word Bank 
As you read your students' papers, you will come across several compositions that use higher level vocabulary instead of the easy to write, low level words. Each time you find one of these words, and it is used correctly in context, the student has passed the part of
vocabulary that has to do with application. For these students, you can use the idea of extrinsic motivation by writing their names on the back of tickets and placing them inside the "Word Bank". Every week or so, have a raffle and give some sort of prize to the students whose names you pull out of the bank. (whatever is appropriate for your class).  After just a few weeks, you will notice a tremendous increase in the amount of higher vocabulary that they are choosing.
A caution here is to be sure the words make sense and fit where they're placed. In my own classroom, I also gave out bonus tickets for the first person quiet, for homework completed, or any other important classroom procedure that students were following, or things I wanted to reinforce as a teacher.
~Bill MacDonald, The Writing Doctor

Figurative Language Classroom Exercise

That Rings a Bell! 
This statement is an idiom which means what you heard makes you think of something else.  Using a bell is a good way to exercise your students using figurative language and help them practice making sentences sparkle with life.

I play this classroom game in the style of Family Feud.  After spending a week or so modeling a particular type of figurative language, have a contest to see which student can remember the most figurative expressions related to a literal statement.  It can be played two ways.  For example if you have just finished working on idioms, you can make this statement to two competitors.  "I think I'm going to hit the hay."  Whoever rings the bell and responds correctly first with the answer, "I'm going to bed," is the winner of that point. 
The more challenging way to play is to give a literal expression and ask the students to come up with a figurative way to say the same thing.  The winner is the person or team with the most correct responses. 
A few cautions to be aware of here....  Many students are great 'bell ringers' but have no idea what to correct answer is, so you may want to set a time limit to answer the question.  Also, in some situations, more than one answer may be correct, so you the teacher need to have the final say as to whether a response is acceptable or not.
The issue some have with teaching figurative language is that students have a tendency to go overboard with the use of figurative expressions.  You'll teach onomatopoeia and your students will want to put twenty of them into one composition!  When I notice this happening with my students, I ask them, "Tell me if you're supposed to put cheese on your spaghetti or spaghetti on your cheese." 
Figurative language needs to be used much like that, where it simply adds flavor or spice to the paper. 

Visual Aid: Encouraging creative writing students to improve test scores

On the topic of visual aides, I'd like to share a bulletin board idea which I have used in my classroom to show how my creative writing students are doing in their writing by displaying their test scores.  This idea is probably my favorite.

Gone Fishin'
At the beginning of the school year, I use a clip art program to print out ten different types of fish in four sizes; large for scores of four, medium for scores of three, small for those who earn 2s, and finally, extra small fish for anyone who receives a "one" score.  each time a composition is read and scored, the appropriate fish is placed next to the student's name or picture.  I found some neat metallic puffer fish and put my students' names on them.  At the end of the year, I'd simply add up all the score points on each student's fish, and the one with the most points wins. 
My kids loved being able to choose what type of fish would go next to their name.  They felt like they were actually fishing!  As you can well imagine, most students who get a "one" don't like seeing a mini-fish next to their name and want to throw it back!  The only way I allow this is if they agree to rewrite the paper, implementing the suggestions for revising and editing that I offer in my critiques of their essays.
Well, what are we waiting for?  Let's go fishin'!

Teaching creative writing students to make their sentences longer.

 

That's Stretching It!
(Another handy tip from Bill MacDonald, the Writing Doctor)


One way to teach your creative writing students to expand the length of their sentences is for them to work as a group.
Start off by separating them into groups of four or five, and give each person in the group a short sentence of about five or six words.  Ask each student to add one word to his or her sentence, then pass it to the next person, who will then proceed to add another word somewhere in the sentence.  It doesn't matter what part of speech is used, as long as the words give some meaning to the sentence.
At the end, ask each group to read their sentences to the class to see how different and uniqe the now "stretched" sentences are.

This activity will get the students to learn to develop fully elaborated, well thought-out sentences, with much more varied sentence structure.
Take care - this will require practice.

Welcome Bill MacDonald, the Writing Doctor

Did you know you can bring the Writing Doctor to your school?  That's right.
Bill MacDonald (May the Fours Be With You & The Write Prescription) is available for in school trainings of his language arts teaching methods.
These trainings involve teachers and students alike and include a supply of his classroom posters and creative writing learning aids.
If you'd like to find out more about having Bill MacDonald train on your campus, contact our office.

New ROVER'S WRITING RANGERS essay guides for students.

The Writing Doctor is at it again, launching the first classroom posters in the "Rover's Writing Rangers" series.
The first one, available in English and in Spanish, is focused on Expository essay writing skills.

Ruff!  What a valuable tool this will be in your writing classroom!  With Rover’s help, your students will have an easy time remembering these simple steps for writing a well-developed interesting expository essay that is full of voice!  All the key words conveniently start with the letter R in both English and Spanish, so kids that have a difficult time remembering steps and strategies will love this poster!

These are actually being made available as a poster for your classroom wall, or you can also purchase them in letter size to hand out to each of your students as a desk reference.

Look for them in the "Writing Posters" section of The Write Prescription online store. 

New Discount on all Language Arts Teaching Supplies

We dropped our prices right now on all our Language Arts teaching supplies.

This includes the popular Classroom Posters and student guides.

Classroom posters, such as "Metaphor", are now only $0.89 each!

Come browse our online store, The Write Prescription, and take advantage today!

Elementary Essay Writing

This classroom poster is another student aid for language arts classrooms.  The "Story Telling Remote" helps kids focus on the keys to good essay writing.

From the introduction, right through to the conclusion, they can reference this visual guide to walk them through good essay planning.

These come in a pack of 25 so you can hand them out to every student in your class. Laminating them will make them last for years.

Available now in "The Write Prescription" store.

Essay Writing Planning Tool for Students

These planning tools are a great resource for students to use right at their desks.
Each folder is printed with the following sections: the 5 modes of writing; figurative language examples; and a huge list of excellent vocabulary to substitute for worn out words.
Also includes outlines for writing, figurative expressions and high level vocabulary words on the back.

Full Color 11" x 17" Folder, printed on both side. (image below shows the folder before folding)

Folders come in shrink wrapped sets of 25 (one per student) and are ready for easy folding and classroom use.

These language arts folders are currently on sale.

Analytical Essay Scoring to help your students improve test scores.

Did you know one of the services I offer to teachers is Analytical Essay Scoring?

For each student essay submitted, I will provide specific visual feedback to help the student learn how they can improve their essay writing.  I even include pictures to help the students, especially the visual learners, key in on their prime focus points.  See the sample below.
I return all the feedback in CD form, and it will also include videos that represent the ideas the student wrote about in their essay.

These are great for reviewing as a group with your class.  The results will be noticed immediately in their next assignments.

Contact me if you are interested in trying out this service with a few of your students' essays.

Language Arts Classroom Posters

I have re-vamped a bunch of my language arts classroom posters for 2012.

New posters cover topics such as:

• revising and editing
• keys to expository writing
• persuasive writing
• personal narrative writing
• literary essay planning
• a TAKS writing guide
• keys to the new Texas STAAR writing tests

I've also updated my Advanced Writing Folders.

Frustrated by challenges with the new STAAR exams?

"The fact that students will have 26 written lines to execute a complete essay for the STAAR exam is really starting to frustrate me."

This is a quote I found on Twitter and I know this person is not alone in how she feels.  If you are also wondering how best to direct your young language arts students to meet the new tougher criteria, here are some tips I offer you:

I can understand your frustration!  It has always been very difficult for students to be focused when they have TWO pages to work with and now they are asked to condense their essays to ONE.  Since the rubric is very clear that in a personal narrative, the students are to write about ONE experience or one event, limiting them to one page and 26 lines will help make or force this to happen.  Teach them to think of the most interesting event that happened in a specific (GPS) location, then explode THAT idea only, leaving out all the other trivial or less important events.   

     For the purpose of expository, follow the same general idea.  For example, if the students are writing an essay based on the prompt that T.E.A. released, Write about a  special person, only allow the kids to give ONE or TWO related reasons why the person is special, without responding in what I call an exposiSTORY format.

      If you would like any ideas on strategies that would assist you in teaching student to be focused and to develop around a focus, feel free to contact me!