Heifers. Cowpokes. Cottonwoods. Hullabaloo.
What do these words have in common? Well, if you were a cowboy poet, you would know!
The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is held in Elko, Nevada, each year. Singers and poets compete, attend workshops, and dance. Watch Randy Rieman recite his humorous poem about being “throwed” from a bronco here. (more…)
Gardeners love to receive their new seed catalogs in the middle of winter. It gives them something to dream about and plan for. Not only are the photos of flowers and vegetables beautiful and inspiring but their descriptions are as well.
Here’s the description of the Erewhon Sweet Pea from a Burpee catalog: (more…)
When Maya Angelou, author of the moving autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was eleven years old, she was reunited with her birth mother, whom she hadn’t seen in eight years. Young Maya was unhappy.
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After two weeks, her mother still had not seen her smile. Here’s the exchange between Maya and her mother, recorded in Mom & Me & Mom (Random House, 2013): (more…)
Proofreading is painful for students. They feel they’re through with the writing process when they write their first draft and then want nothing more to do with that essay. Students tell me that writing the first draft and proofreading it is like writing their paper twice.
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However, the skill of proofreading their own papers is essential to the writing process.
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What methods can we teach our students so they can proofread their work by themselves?
Some kids hate writing essays, and off the top of their heads they can give you 97 reasons why this is so.
When I teach my writing course locally, some students are bound to come to the first class with a “don’t even bother trying to teach me” attitude. They believe they are so far gone that they are unteachable.
I disagree. (more…)
Writing tools for all ages!
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