There are hard ways to learn things. And there are easy ways to learn things. Teaching is in my blood. Love for students runs deep within me.
Those two things combined make me want to ALWAYS teach students the easy way to learn things.
Life is hard already. Let’s make grammar as easy as we possibly can. And for sure, let’s teach things that students actually need and use in real writing.
“Conjunction Junction—what’s your function?”
Did you start to sing along? Can you picture the images?
How old are you????? lol
Most kids today are not raised on “School House Rock,” which is such a shame! Because you really can’t forget the songs, jingles, rhymes—and dare I say—rules learned from those little ditties. (You can still find them on Youtube!)
And those little ditties are really needed when it comes to commas! Commas are a mystery to many people–and rightly so! They are extremely subjective at times across the board. And then, different handbooks and authorities stress different rules for them, making them even more elusive.
Teaching poetry can be a challenge. It is easy to get caught up in the mechanics of poetry when teaching about rhyme scheme. It is easy to get lost in imagery when teaching about meaning and depth of poetry.
Sometimes you just need a little fun when you’re teaching rhyme scheme—like in the Facebook Live videos that my students made of me teaching the about the importance of syllabication in rhyme scheme development—using funny rhymes and even a little rapping.
We made it! All twenty-one of the Meaningful Composition books are done! I wrote a few of them ten years ago, but over the past three years, I have written and/or revised all twenty-one books! Whooo….I’m tired! 🙂 But super excited!!!
Students everywhere (including public and private school students who can use the downloaded portions of MC, called Really Writing) can learn to write ALL types of writing (reports, essays, stories, dialogues, twice-told tales, and much, much more!) using my Directed Writing Approach—a pain-free, step-by-step approach to learning to write. I love kids—and I am so happy that kids will be able to learn with stress-free, amazing instruction and projects.
Imagery. Word association. Similes. Metaphors. Word pictures.
How we teachers all want our students to write with all of those stylistic elements!
![[Video] How To Use the Checklist Challenge](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7312/27519363264_a5d55fd633_z.jpg "[Video] How To Use the Checklist Challenge")
This week’s Wondering Wednesday is a video in which I teach how to use my Checklist Challenge. Whether you are a CI curriculum user (Character Quality Language Arts, Meaningful Composition, or Write On!) or not, if you are a teacher who longs to merge grammar with writing (as it should be!), this video will give you tips and ideas that you can begin incorporating immediately.
The store description of the Checklist Challenge Packet is given below. This text will give you some ideas on what you can expect to learn in this week’s Wondering Wednesday!
