Poetry, High School, and TeachersPayTeachers . . . Teaching Ideas for ALL

So glad to have you all back at the PerfettoWritingRoom(c)

April is National Poetry Month! 

In NJ ninth graders learn genre, tenth graders American literature, and eleventh learn British literature. Good teachers are always freshening their material, looking for ways to incorporate new material or techniques into their arsenal.

So let's just go there and talk about TeachersPayTeachers and the wonderful poetry items available for secondary students and beyond. Despite the fact that TpT is wonderfully successful as a gathering place for teachers who want free and reasonably priced and completely fascinating items for pre-K, homeschool, and kindergarten through grades 8, more and more teachers are realizing the value of TpT as an electronic mall for secondary and yes, even higher ed materials.

                                             
    Characterization Master Course - No Upper Age Limit            The Sonnet: A History

These are only two of the amazing products offered by my store, though other stores, like Literary Sheri, Room 213, Dianne Mason, Donald's English Classroom, Ellen Weber, and so many others have wonderful products, waiting to be used, nearly prep-free.

Whether you want to study the Transcendentalists, the Beats, the Romantics, have students write their own, cut up cereal boxes and do a little FOUND poetry, do a little interdisciplinary poetry and make portfolios of their work and move towards publication...there is no time like RIGHT NOW, in the spring, when let's face it, we all know that spring is here. Summer is coming, and the students, the teachers, heck, even the principal is looking out the window, thinking, "Oh gosh, pretty soon, I'll have off."

Poetry is wonderful because it underscores the wonder and beauty of the season. Poetry is SNEAKY. Yes, call us dishonest, but teachers do anything to create learning opportunities, and poetry is one of those great deceivers. 

Poems seem small, compact....EASY. But really, there is:

meter

rhyme scheme 

theme - which sometimes can be heavy, man!

sound devices

structure

(unless you've got free verse!)

close reading opportunities

analytical writing opportunities

performance opportunities! (how fun....)

the chance to mix media (add sketches, photos, record your voice reading it, make a short movie that

                                           represents the poem, etc.).

So what SEEMS EASY ends up being the most productive unit yet!!!

Poetry is up everyone's alley up every dog's tree (pardon the cliches). 

Don't let April and Spring and Poetry slip by! Make the most of it. Come up with a great DIY lesson of your own. Or by all means, avail yourself of some small free lessons on TpT, or the paid products at my store, or the really great sellers mentioned above. 

Do You Want to Take Part?

Do you make wonderful lessons already?

Or, are you a writer or other professional who can contribute instructionals?

Do you enjoy sharing your ideas with others?

Would you like to make extra money off your wonderful ideas?

. . . help other teachers or writers?

. . . eventually work from home?

While I can't promise the last one, many teachers and people from other walks of life have had success creating engaging, helpful and beautiful lessons that other teachers, homeschoolers, or just folks in need use, want and love. I really feel I have been blessed by discovering TpT. Check out if it is for you.

Become a TpT seller - Let me refer you!

Fun with Characterization - Fiction Writing Only - at PerfettoWritingRoom(c) - and Free Ideas. . .

Hi everyone, as Nathan Lane said in The Bird Cage, one does need a hint of color! In honor of good writing (and heck, why not, great movies too!) Here is the pin from my latest characterization product...it is the "Characterization Glossary" a portion of "THE Characterization Master Course" - for those who need greater flexibility and don't really want all parts in the 82 page unit.

Now that the beautiful 82-behemoth is behind me resting on its virtual shelf at
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Characterization-Master-Course-CCSS-With-Analytical-Essay-Grades-9-12-1140265



I figured I could give all of you GRAND LIST OF IDEAS for characterization - So here they are to get you inspired.

These are ideas that I have employed in the large 82-page monster unit, followed by some I just couldn't fit in there. Please feel free to stop by and see what I've done, or, use one of these in your home as a writer or in your classroom as a teacher or professor. Characterization or setting really is the FIRST place to start when discussing story, and I'm happy I'm here with you at the start of our journey together.

Some ideas for you to ponder:

1. While I make sure, as you would that you or students understand the difference between direct and indirect characterization and showing versus telling. I also offer in my Characterization Master Unit definitions with guidelines on the eight ways to indirectly characterize....AFTER this is quite clear, I have four prompts deliberately given in frank "direct characterization" language.  The beauty is they can be revisited up to four times.

The goal is not merely to rewrite these as indirect sentences or even as paragraphs, but to create a character scene in which the direct telling statement is absolutely shown, and no words from the original statement are used. One example is "Lucinda was a daredevil who craved danger and excitement." As this is completely direct and telling, none of this except her name can be in the scene. All of it must be shown.

2. Stock characters are always debased and kicked around for their flat and stereotypical nature. Let students prove how many they can come up with and then, choose one, and break that mold by surprising the class with a nuanced and round UN-stock character.

3. Create a character scene by doing your own "visualization." YES. I know, it sounds very "a la artsy fartsy" but if you have a person do it for you, if you do it yourself like a guided meditation, OR, if you do it for students, the results are overwhelmingly positive. CHOOSE four or five places where people congregate and where you or students might like. "The talk" as we call it goes from vague to more specific, and really, there should be a lot of waiting, as the person imagines in their mind. Too much talking is distracting. First choose the place out of the four or five, then focus on the scene, the setting, the activity, then focus on the people, then find THE PERSON. Take it from there observing and taking it details using all five senses. Make your own script. This is the basis for a full character scene.

4. After you have done at least three of these (I have more of course) and you or students have a character that they like, use "Character Data Sheets" - these are unbelievably helpful because they can drive you nuts with inane and useless information - so hey, don't fill those parts out - and then, POW, it actually is the basis for an inspiration.  We included three pages in our Master Unit - so yes, it seems like a lot, but remember there are lines for writing in.

Lastly, I am now working to ONLY include the creative writing prompts for characterization with definitions, and am excising the quizzes and Analysis section. This means a unique fiction-writing only product and even more reasonably priced. And as always, feel free to use the ideas posted here, 'cause that's how we roll at the PerfettoWritingRoom (c)

Cyber Monday Approaches, AND "Retro"- "The 4-Senses - Top-Secret Writing Activity" is now posted!!!

Hi Everyone!
Before I say anything, please note that cyber Monday is coming up. If there is anything you wanted or had your eye on, I am throwing a sale and every store item is 20% off. Simply go to my store December 2,December 3, December 4, and December 5. EVERYTHING is on sale!

While I mentioned the other day about a retro writing activity you can do in class, one your students will absolutely love, I hadn't yet gotten it together on the teacherspayteachers.com website. Well it is now there for you in downloadable form!

While I call this a "retro" short story writing assignment because it uses brown paper bags and items from your home reminiscent of an old-timey grab bag, please know this can be modern.

 There is no reason they can't use technology. In fact, there is no reason this can't be done in class for foreign languages, for ESL, for special needs classes, or with certain modifications, for a history class.

I have taken the liberty of creating a LOW-COST version and a FREE version. There's no reason that my top activity shouldn't be shared because someone can't afford it. For those teachers, writers, or editors who do want the low-cost version, it comes with extras, like story-starter ideas in case students or writers get stuck, a five-day lesson plan complete with common core anchor standards so all you need to do is teach, and helpful tips, strategies and suggestions on how to choose those right items to make the activity more of a success from start to finish.

The free version is a stripped down version. This being said, it has, as does the low-cost version, the same cover page and the FOUR-PART timed writing assignments. It has none of the extras, but you can still do the assignment!

Feel free to go to http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/PerfettoWritingRoom

To see BOTH products....

A special thanks to both sunnydaze, for her borders, and to clipartengine.com for their lovely loose leaf digital paper used in the product. BOTH of their work is available for purchase at teacherspayteachers.

Here is what the finished product looks like!

When Can One Writing Activity Be Used 900 Times?? Well (if you Really Push Your Limits)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/PerfettoWritingRoom

Yes, Yes, this is ONE page. A mere single page. On the left are positive attribute adjectives, and on the right are potentially negative attribute nouns, or at the very least nouns that are frustratingly ill-fitted (on purpose, I assure you) to the words on the left!

The ENTIRE activity is SIX pages. A writer, teacher, lecturer, professor or coach, can do SO MUCH with an exercise like this!!

I have used this activity for years, and writer always always love it, not to say they don't sometimes HATE it first....but they are allowed to choose again. The light bulb always goes on.

Whether you give one page to each row or aisle, or cut them into squares and have one "noun" bag and one "adjective" bag and let the writers choose until they have a suitable pair that makes them suitably excited and inspired, it almost always leads to something bizarre, outrageous, beautiful or at least beyond what a writer felt he or she was capable of writing before attempting such an extreme assignment.

I have named this the "Extreme Perspective" Writing Activity. In total, there are up to 900 possible adjective-noun matches. Here are the directions, knowing FULL well that if you wanted, you could all just shut off the computer and make it on your own. While I am admittedly selling it (yes, the amazingly high price, if I recall properly of $5.00 bucks?), the idea, work, effort, directions and embedded freebie alone (which you'll never really know about unless you buy it, so ha) is more than worth it....

Back to the Directions -

While you have chosen a bizarre, odd, or unlikely adjective-noun scenario, write a scene in which the pairing you have chosen not only is feasible, but is downright believable and likely given your setting, atmosphere, narrator, or all three. In short, what scenario can you create in which the unlikely pairing you have makes perfect sense?

Just a few of the 900 pairings could be

Brilliant Industrialization
Fascinating Agony
Glorious Destruction

As you can already guess, such pairings have the potential to PUSH writers into lesser traveled genre or historical eras, can force writers to make less safe writing topics, choose more interesting narrators or unreliable ones, and in general make writing choices and decisions far away from what they normally would. The fact that a writer can go back every week and choose a new possibility is exciting, lending itself to portfolio or even story collection possibilities.

See the link to my store at Teachers Pay teachers at the top of this post. Happy writing, and happy teaching.