by Donna | Jul 15, 2017
Teaching writing is not for the faint of heart! It is the most subjective “subject” in school—and, consequently, can be one of the most challenging to teach. Oftentimes, materials designed to teach writing are more writing idea than writing instruction. They leave the student (and the teacher!) wondering exactly what to do to complete the writing prompt. This is one reason that after I write a book (one hundred in all!), test, test, and retest the book with real (or virtual starting this fall!) students to be sure that all of the steps are included and clear. Last week I shared a lesson from one of my books that I did with a mixed live/virtual class about writing from a given source. This week I’d love to give you another peek into my online writing classes for the fall with another cooperative “guinea pig” group!
(more…)
by Donna | May 11, 2017
I’m excited to announce a new downloadable product that is super user-friendly and effective! And…..it’s based on the story of Beauty and the Beast, so it’s super fun too!
I’ll give you the details of the product in a little bit, but I want to let you know how you can get your hands on this resource first.
(more…)
by Donna | Mar 25, 2017
![Research Report Writing [Video]](https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2894/33642293645_f1b2a0c35b_z.jpg "Research Report Writing [Video]")
The class: Senior High Composition. The place: Union City Community High School. The teacher: Mr. Leahey. The year: 1981. The student: Me….formerly straight A student for the last two years of high school…on the brink of breaking that perfect streak.
Until….it snowed.
Yep, it snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed.
And this girl, who had let herself get behind on creating two hundred index cards of information for her senior paper on Robert Kennedy, had a chance for redemption.
(more…)
by Donna | Mar 18, 2017
I recently had the misfortune of seeing a sign outside a chicken franchise that read hot, juicy, chicken. You can imagine my outrage!!!
It, of course, took us here at Language Lady to Comma Clues #2: Use Commas to Separate Two or More Describers (But Not Between the Describer and the Word Being Described!).
Two benchmarks that I teach for inserting commas between describers:
(more…)
by Donna | Mar 9, 2017
It’s finally happening! I am finished with the Write On, Beauty and Beast books (five books; five levels; downloadable AND print books)—and they are going up at my stores!
Yay! That makes five Write On, Mowgli! books; five Write On, Beauty and Beast! books (by the end of next week); and two Write On, Peter Pan! books (with the other three coming the first of April). Check out the description of the Write On! books here.
The first one available is the Junior High book, and I love it! I have been testing the assignments with our one hundred cottage class students over the past two semesters, and it has been a blast!
(more…)
by Donna | Feb 24, 2017
One of the best ways to get to a kid’s writing heart is to give him two things: (1) Writing projects with clear, “Directed” instructions every step of the way and (2) Fun writing topics!
Thankfully, my new Write On books offers both of these!
(more…)
