by Sharon Watson | Sep 11, 2016 | High School Prompts, High School Tutorial, Middle School Prompts, Middle School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial, Writing Prompts
SHARON’S BLOG
Do you “have a plan” or have you “hatched a scheme”? Are your students writing about the “circulation” of the blood or about how the blood “circulates”?
Do they understand how to use specific adjectives? Do they know the power of connotations? Do they turn sluggish nouns into working verbs? Do they define their terms?
Enjoy these nine tutorials that teach all of these things and much more. They will instruct your students in the finer art of using the elegant English language. Now students are not just writing; they are communicating.
Appropriate for 7th-12th graders. Use the lessons now or bookmark them for future use.
It’s time to dive into the splashy end of the pool . . . (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Sep 4, 2016 | High School Prompts, High School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial
SHARON’S BLOG
Persuasion. How-to. Compare and contrast. Enumerative. Are your students baffled by these types of essays?
Take heart! Use the 13 links you’ll find below that show how to format and write 6 types of paragraphs and essays.
As an added bonus, the last link leads to a very handy writing schedule you can use all year. Never say, “Write an essay,” again! (You’ve got to be kidding!)
These tutorials are appropriate for students in 7th – 12th grade. Use them now or bookmark them for future use.
{Writing Tip: If your student is not quite ready to write a whole essay, give him or her practice in writing the types of paragraphs you’ll find in this post. For instance, instead of writing a whole compare-and-contrast essay, how about a compare-and-contrast paragraph from one of the links in #5?}
Ready? Let’s go . . . (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Aug 21, 2016 | High School Prompts, High School Tutorial, Middle School Prompts, Middle School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial
SHARON’S BLOG
Could your students use some writing tools?
Your students have to come up with a paragraph or an essay, but they do not know where to begin. They do not know where to get ideas, how to formulate a plan, how to narrow down their topic, how to organize their ideas, how to write a credible paragraph, and so on.
Does this sound familiar?
Then you’ve come to the right place! Use the links below to equip your students with the writing tools they need to be successful this year. Many of these links contain tutorials and free worksheets to download. I hope you like #s 10 and 11. Thousands of moms and teachers have already downloaded them and found happiness.
Ready? Let’s go . . .
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by Sharon Watson | Jun 12, 2016 | High School Prompts, High School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
Do you know how much we owe to William Tyndale?
He knew he could be killed for what he was doing, but he did it anyway.
Tyndale translated the Bible in the 1500s from Latin into the people’s English so they could understand it, and it cost him his life. (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Apr 24, 2016 | High School Prompts, High School Tutorial, Middle School Prompts, Middle School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial, Writing Prompts
SHARON’S BLOG
Our word choices can have a huge impact on our readers. Or the words can muddle them. Let me give you an example.
If I write that a toddler is a good eater, I suddenly have a communication problem. The word “good” is not specific enough. Does “good” mean that the toddler is neat while eating? Does it mean that the child eats a large quantity of food or perhaps a variety of food without complaining? My readers will not have a clear idea of my meaning.
Your middle school students will learn this in the first writing prompt. I’ve written a very boring paragraph about something that seemed exciting to the student, but the words I selected were flat, overused, and not specific enough.
Teens will have fun with the second writing prompt as they practice using specific words and phrases to get a point across or create a focused mood.
Ready? Let’s go . . . (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Apr 17, 2016 | High School Prompts, High School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
The Colorado House of Representatives voted to remove the words “illegal alien” from their state laws and substitute them with “undocumented immigrant” or “foreign national.”
Stephen Lebsock, the Democratic Representative behind the bill, says that “aliens are from other planets. We should not be referring to human beings as aliens,” according to the Denver Post. And the radio station K99 in Colorado quotes him as saying that the term “illegal alien” is “outdated and hurtful language.”
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