Writing Toolbox: Strategies for building better sentences

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Writing Toolbox: Strategies for building better sentences

Whether you teach language arts in the school classroom or your home classroom, you have to teach your kids how to write, right? To be clear, I don’t mean the mechanical parts of writing: holding the pencil correctly, positioning the notebook paper properly, and so on. I mean the actual generation of topics that kids know about and want to write about. I mean the composition of clear, concise sentences that convey what the writer is thinking. It would be nice if kids were natural writers and could pluck ideas (and the words needed to express those ideas) out of their brains at the first sign of a prompt, but most of the time, this is not the case.

What kid writers need is

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Micro-comprehension: Sentence Structure Processing

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Micro-comprehension: Sentence Structure Processing

In this series about developing micro-comprehension I have discussed how students need a good vocabulary in order to create accurate mental models of the stories they read or hear. We also know that those mental models are affected by the way the brain fills-in missing information, called gap-filling inference. Next up is sentence structure processing.

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Spring Bulletin Board: See how we've grown!

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Spring Bulletin Board: See how we've grown!

It’s not always easy to see how much we’ve grown in one year, especially for a child. Physical growth might be the most noticeable because we can feel it in several ways. For instance, we can tell when our clothes are too big or too small; they don’t fit right. We know when our feet have grown because our shoes are too tight, and our feet hurt. Also, we can tell when our hair has grown when it starts covering our eyes and ears. Intellectual growth, on the other hand, is much more difficult to notice.

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The Importance of Practice

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The Importance of Practice

I have never taken a class in martial arts, but I have certainly enjoyed watching Bruce Lee’s moves in his action-packed films! Let’s face it! The guy was physically amazing, but more than that, he had a way with words!

Lee was more than just a famous martial artist! He was also an actor and a philosopher with a long list of inspirational quotes tagged to his name. Many of his famous quotes are still being used today to trigger personal growth, and one of my favorites says:

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The Playbook of Literary Success, Part 2: Grammar

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The Playbook of Literary Success, Part 2: Grammar

Let’s get back into the language arts huddle to go over some key plays that will help your students win the game! If you missed Part I of the Playbook of Literacy Success, you might want to go back to the starting line to capture the necessity of a strong vocabulary. As for today, we’re going to focus on Part II: Grammar. We’ll begin with some calisthenics we call Shurley English Jingles, and then we’ll move right into our version of the wishbone formation! We call this feature the Question and Answer Flow.

Remember, English is like a competitive sport, and every K-8 teacher is part of the coaching staff charged with developing players’ language arts knowledge and skills. The playbook contains plays designed to help each team member achieve literacy success, which is the ultimate goal of the game, and the action plan involves the following equation:

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The Playbook of Literary Success, Part 1: Vocabulary

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The Playbook of Literary Success, Part 1: Vocabulary

What if elementary teachers approached the subject of Language Arts as if it was a competitive sport? Just think of it. Every K-8 teacher would be part of a coaching staff charged with developing players’ language arts knowledge and skills. In this analogy, the playbook contains plays designed to help each team member achieve literacy success, which is the ultimate goal of the game! The knowledge and skills learned by each team member will grow into great competence, and every time these competencies are used to practice or compete, confidence will grow.

Every coach has a secret book of plays, right? Wouldn’t you want to know the secret strategies from the coach’s playbook? Over the next few weeks, we plan to give you a sneak peek at the playbook and a checklist for each play, including vocabulary, grammar, composition, and writing for all purposes. You will be able to use the checklist to ensure that your special team executes each play with competence and confidence.

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Is a picture really worth a thousand words?

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Is a picture really worth a thousand words?

In a word…YES! If you are seeking a great writing prompt, look no further than a picture book, a local art gallery, or a collection of great works of art from one of those coffee table display books.

When I was a kid, we used to

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Shurley English Centers for Your ELA Classroom

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Shurley English Centers for Your ELA Classroom

Last week, we talked about student-led learning centers. Personally, I found that learning centers gave my students the opportunity to collaborate in small groups, be a leader among their classmates, and learn subject material on a deeper level.

This week, we would like to provide you with some tips on how to create Shurley English Centers in your classroom. Here are some possible center/station ideas to get you started:

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How to Implement Successful Language Arts Centers

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How to Implement Successful Language Arts Centers

Anyone up for an out-of-the-box challenge? When I was a classroom teacher in the 90’s some of us teachers were in the business of creating student-led learning centers or stations for Math, Science, or Language Arts. I loved creating and hosting centers in my classroom because it gave my students the opportunity to collaborate in small groups, be a leader among their classmates, and learn subject material on a deeper level. You might be asking, “What is a Learning Center?” A Learning Center is typically

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Writing Extension: A Valentine's Day Haiku

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Writing Extension: A Valentine's Day Haiku

Do you need a new idea to get the creative juices flowing in your classroom? The Haiku offers that opportunity to your students by channeling their creativity into this unique form of Japanese poetry. Here is a great lesson plan to get you started. The best part is that it has a Valentine’s Day twist!

(You can find this lesson, along with many others, in the Unit Studies Section of your Shurley English book!)

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