Search Results for: writing process

Posted on by

One Bite at a Time: Long Research Writing

Campfire Tip #10: One Bite at a Time

“The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time,” or so the saying goes.

That’s also the mindset one must adopt when tackling the year-long research essay, known as Essay Volume 6: Advanced Research. This unit is designed for 11th and 12th grade students, representing the culmination of their research and literary writing skills. 

This school year marks my first foray into teaching Essay Volume 6. Over the last two sessions, I’ve learned a lot—and I’ve also fallen in love with this essay unit! It teaches life skills and writing habits that will stick with students for years to come. 

Is Essay Volume 6 a good fit for your student, either this coming year or years down the road? Here are some of my takeaways from teaching the long research project:

1. How It Works

Before we get into WHY I love Essay Volume 6, let’s go over what this unit entails. The Long Research Essay can be organized into two parts: the research process and the writing process. And conveniently enough, the guides are broken down into A and B volumes along the same lines. 

In the first half of the project, students choose a person, place, and thing they want to learn more about, unifying the three topics with a single theme (like creativity, truth, perseverance, or tragedy). Then they take a self-directed tour through the library and internet to find their sources and build a fund of knowledge. As I’ve taught this Pages class, I’ve given lessons on how to find and use credible sources—which is one of the most important skills in college writing—and expect students to present their research findings each week. This stretches their abilities in new ways!

In the second half of this course, students synthesize their research by writing and revising. Because they combine their person, place, and thing with their theme, they create a brand new narrative about their topics—chances are, no one has combined their topic and theme in the same way before! This is an exciting opportunity to apply a literary essay style to one’s own research.

2. Motivated Learning

A major principle of the psychology of memory is that we remember information that’s personally meaningful to us and struggle to remember information we don’t care about. You probably know this just from living life. 

Because Essay Volume 6 gives students so much creative freedom, they can choose to research topics they’re passionate about, transforming a potentially mundane research project into a motivated pursuit of knowledge. Writing doesn’t have to be boring. If you’re writing about the right things, it can be the most engrossing activity imaginable. 

For example, my student, Kingsley, has long been inspired by ballerina Margot Fontayne. She has a book about Fontayne’s life on her bookshelf that she’s never had the time to read. But Essay Volume 6 says, “Pursue your interests!” So that’s what Kingsley’s done. Choosing Margot Fontayne as her person to research, she’s taken a dive into this legendary dancer’s life, satisfying her curiosity and honing her research and writing skills. She finally had the chance to read her book!

When done right, research writing gives thinkers the chance to pursue questions they have about the world. 

3. Rising to the Challenge

Time and time again, I’ve seen this truth play out: Set high expectations and students will rise to meet them. 

The Long Research Essay is a daunting task. It demands self-discipline. Motivation. Consistency.

But, I believe our Blackbird students are more than up to the challenge. When students set big goals for themselves and then achieve them, they build their confidence one brick at a time. The impossible becomes possible. Students learn that they are capable!

The week-by-week scaffolding of Essay Volume 6 provides the framework necessary for students to soar to great heights. You don’t craft a masterpiece in one sitting; rather, you chip away at your work of art day by day, sometimes fueled by perseverance rather than inspiration. 

Let’s set some lofty goals. And then get to work. 

 

~Claire S.

Posted on by

Editing Student Writing

writing

Campfire Tip #1: Empower Students to SELF-Edit

We’ve got you! Head over to Print Shop to download for FREE our student self-editing checklists—Writer’s ChecklistLevel 1, Writer’s Checklist Level 2, and Writer’s Checklist Level 3. These resources are designed for use with writers at three levels: Early Elementary (CORE Level 1), grades 3, sometimes 4 or 5 depending on the writer, Upper Elementary (CORE Level 2), grades 4 and 5, and Middle School (CORE Level 3), grades 6 through 8. At each level, the goal is for writers to re-read the first draft, the rough, and to self-edit, looking for issues ranging from indentation and capitalization to spelling errors, to run-ons and fragments and much more. The checklists will gently encourage writers to engage in writing as an artform and to raise their voice accordingly!

It’s important that we help students, early on, to engage in the process of writing—all the stages. Real writing is not a one-and-done activity. Real writing is sparked by curiosity, simmers in the imagination, and is brought to shape through a process of steps: brainstorming, writing it down, reading it over, self-editing, teacher-editing, refining, and polishing.

We’ll talk about role as Teacher soon enough… until then, hand your students a checklist and get them self-editing!

 

~Kimberly

Posted on by

A Reason for Handwriting

About a dozen years ago, a friend shared with me that she decided to bypass teaching her children the art of penmanship. Her children would jump straight to keyboarding: “This is the computer age. Cursive handwriting is archaic. Why do the work?”

What about beauty?

When I pressed her, my friend agreed that handwriting is an art form. She simply did not see the value of her young children expending effort to master an art form that would not be useful in college a decade or so in the future. This was my first encounter with creative illiteracy.

Mastering the art of handwriting fosters the ability to concentrate, to contemplate, and to communicate confidently.

Let’s face it. We are a distracted people. We are technology-centric, and our children are at risk. We are obsessed with digital signals that tickle our attention.

But we all, somewhere deep down, appreciate ideas that are beautifully inked by hand. I, for one, long for this personal touch. Of course, there are countless typographical fonts that mimic hand-written text. We download them for free. Sometimes we even pay for these fonts. But can the illusion of written-by-hand really fill the void?

Technology is here to stay. We all need to be technologically literate. I’m connected to my iPhone because I value the many benefits this technology offers.

But what if a technological world without the balance of human artistry is shrinking individuality?

My eldest son is a composer. Until recently, he composed all his pieces by hand on archival paper. When he was a college student, his professor pulled him aside and praised his melodic compositions that are equally beautiful to the eye. However, while he crowned Taylor one of the last “by-hand” composers, he suggested that purchasing a notation program such as Sebelius would be imperative. This is not because the program will make Taylor’s work easier, but because most musicians who will read his work have never played music that is handwritten and the foreign individual nuances are challenging to interpret. Taylor purchased the program, but assured the professor that he will always begin the process of composing by hand hoping to, in the end to also be known for the individuality of his hand on the page.

This got me to thinking, how many times do children come to me and say, “I can’t read cursive.”

Handwriting is an extension of the writer’s voice. Lettering by hand—whether it’s verbal or musical—is beauty, is unique voice. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien encouraged one another as writers, still, their voices on the page are vastly different. Voice is the fingerprint of the writer, that one-of-a-kind something that no two writers have in common.  Our handwriting is a beautiful extension of that voice. We are known by the whisper of our loops on the page.

Remember, “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.” That’s Hemingway, of course, from A Moveable Feast. I want to add:  Ink your one-true-sentence by hand onto paper in the most beautiful way you can!

Try carving out fifteen minutes a day to compose one true sentence, but not just the truest sentence you know, the truest-most-beautifully-handwritten sentence you know!

Begin with these things in mind:

Choose the right writing implement and the right
paper. The feel of the pencil or pen on the page is a personal choice. The balance of resistance and flow has to be just right. Take time to explore the options.

Consider grip and posture. While I don’t believe there is a single right way to grip the writing implement, I do believe the pressure of the grip matters. The grip should always be relaxed, not cramped. The posture should be upright, comfortable, and the arm should rest on a table so that the arm directs the stroke, not the wrist.

Beautiful handwriting begins with beautiful lines. Remember, our alphabet is a set of symbols developed by human beings to represent spoken sound. The symbols, from an artist’s standpoint, are arbitrarily looped and curved lines that
represent the spoken word. There are many letter forms in the world. You might even add one of your own!

Be the tortoise. Slow handwriting is nimble. Slow and steady is non-chaotic. Fast handwriting is mindless, awkward. Fast and rickety is chaotic. Consider the metaphor. An investment of time practicing the art of handwriting will generate much more than beautiful strokes on the page.

Click through to access our FREE lettering by hand activity to get the tradition started.

 

~Kimberly

Remediating Reading & Writing – Bundle

The Wonderful World of Phonics

Reading builds a rich vocabulary, grows our knowledge of the world, and sparks BIG ideas.

Writing begins with an idea and is crafted to words on a page by a courageous thinker.

Everything you need to engage your student in the process of remediating reading and writing skills. This open-ended unit provides the teacher with all the tools necessary to guide the student into the wonderful world of phonics. Our curriculum, rooted in Orton-Gillingham wisdom, is user friendly and affirming for the older student who needs additional direct instruction and independent practice to shore up skills. Includes all you need to know about phonics, a placement guide, plus lesson guidance each step of the way.

Bundle includes:

  1. Teacher guide
  2. Student Journal
Posted on by

Writing an IDEA is Courageous

I imagine this fifth grade student is full of all sorts of interesting ideas.  As I began to read the rough draft, my first thoughts were not the spelling errors or mechanical issues. What caught my attention was this young writer’s ability to describe the scene and create a mood. The function of his passage was working, his form needed the support of the 5-minute conference to elevate his idea—Form follows Function.

What’s wonderful about the weekly writing exercise is that it provides an opportunity for the student to write an idea tied to the weekly reading. This young writer’s lovely memoir paragraph is inspired by Grayson, Lynne Cox’s retelling of a fantastic ocean experience. What’s even more wonderful about the weekly writing exercise is that it provides an opportunity for the student to engage in all the stages of writing—brainstorm an idea, draft the idea, re-read and conference the idea with a teacher, polish the idea. During the 5-Minute Conference, the mid-point in the writing process, students will be engaging in the authentic process of REAL writing.

This weekly activity—re-reading and conferencing with a teacher—will teach many obvious writing techniques in one fell swoop:

  • Correcting spelling errors

  • Spacing well between words and end marks

  • Keeping capitalization standardized

  • Using end marks properly

  • Ordering ideas in a linear manner

This particular 5-minute Conference  offered an opportunity to demonstrate that sometimes the HOOK—that first sentence that draws the reader into the writing, is often found mid paragraph and that the very sentence written sometimes falls best at the end. Demonstrating that rough drafts are like putty, with tremendous potential to be reshaped to elevate the idea.

Sometimes the 5-Minute-Conference is accomplished side-by-side with the student, but other times the teacher might read and make edit marks before sitting with the student to communicate suggestions.

After the 5-Minute Conference, the student makes all the corrections and changes. It is important to note that in the process of making changes and creating a polished draft (the last stage in the writing process), the student is learning to spell, learning to form letters more beautifully, learning to hear the rhythm of words and phrases. As the student engages in the stages of the writing process, the student is becoming a REAL writer.

This student was not bogged down by the many spelling errors, was open to the idea of rearrangement, and the outcome is tremendous. I think Lynne Cox would smile reading this poetic descriptive memoir paragraph inspired by her story.

I remember it the most. I remember the dark cold water crashing on the rocks. One of my favorite memories is me on a sailboat with my dad. He put me on the water with goggles. I looked down in the water and saw a pod of humpback whales beneath me. I want to go back to that water to see the lighthouse. To see the fog far out at sea. I want to swim to the same spot I saw the whales. I want to dive down in the ice water. I want to swim all around the island and to be surrounded by the endless depths of the sea. If I could swim for three hours straight, I would swim off the coast of Kodiak Island.

 

~Kimberly

Posted on by

Yes, YOU can teach writing!

We’ve all seen scaffolding set up around a building during construction or renovation, right?

Scaffolding is simply a temporary support.

When it comes to learning to write, our students need scaffolding. And that scaffolding is a partnership: Blackbird & Company + YOU!

But I often cross paths with parent-teachers who feel ill-equipped to teach writing.

Each and every time I say, “YOU are equipped to mentor writing! Trust me. You are…”

I go on to share the reality that writing is NOT calculus. Writing is an art form. Then I ask, “Do you like to read (even a little bit)? If so, this equips you more than most to mentor student writers.” That’s right, more than most.

Let’s go back to “writing is an art form” and begin there. Everything you’ve ever read and everything you ever will read began as an idea in someone’s mind. So when you approach a student’s idea as a reader, you will be doing exactly what happens in a graduate school writing workshop!

When it comes time to read your student’s first draft, rough draft, sloppy copy, whatever you want to call it, the task at hand is to ask yourself, “What is my student’s BIG idea?” From there the task of helping your students communicate concisely and creatively. Your task, as writing mentor, is to mine for the idea that has been drafted, and to excavate as if you might score a diamond! The thing is, you likely will if this is your mindset.

During the mentor/student conference, have the student read the draft aloud. Use your red pen to correct spelling and punctuation errors along the way, as the idea is being read. Put a friendly little check mark atop sentence fragments, run-ons, or places that are missing something. Discuss these areas after the student has finished reading. Often during the read aloud the student will catch little errors. Keep the conference caring and consequential.  Consequential, yes. Think of it like this: The consequence of not using the red pen is the shrinking of the student’s idea! Remind your student, the red pen is a friend!

You don’t need to hold an advanced degree in writing to be a writing mentor.

You DO need to keep in mind that ideas are the substance of art, and as such are subjective in nature. Writing is always meant to be read. Approach ideas, not as a grammar-and-mechanics-patrol-person, but as a reader who wants to be intrigued and inspired. Being intrigued and inspired will motivate you, the writing mentor, to simply protect and promote the idea at hand.

The scaffolding inside each of our Discovery Guides, supports your students in the important work of writing.

Whether your child is in the 1st grade learning to encode simple ideas while mastering advanced phonics and constructing the four types of sentences, in the 3rd grade learning to construct sentences using the eight parts of speech,  in the 6th grade being introduced to essay form, or in the 11th grade exploring intermediate composition and constructing persuasive essays, we’ve got you!

Our scaffolding provides step-by-step guidance that inspires students in the writing process, while equipping you to support them each step of the way.

~Kimberly

Posted on by

Research Writing Informs and Inspires!

Who was? What is? Where? When? Why?

These are the questions that writers ask as they read for information. Research writing is a unique writing genre where students simultaneously gain knowledge and share ideas to inspire readers to do the same.

Research writing begins in 2nd grade with Taxonomy of living Things: Introduction to Animals. Over the course of 13 weeks, students will be guided into the work of learning about the animal kingdom, journaling their discoveries along the way. This opportunity to research will not only help them to gain knowledge, but also to springboard into the realm of early non-fiction note taking and the writing of complete factual sentences.

From there, students are ready to move into Research People in grades 3 through 6. A great place to begin research writing is by adding two Research People units to your 3rd grade back-to-school writing plan. The d’Aulaire books,  published by our friends at Beautiful Feet Books, are just right for the 3rd grade entry to research writing. Take Lincoln for example,  the quintessential embodiment of American possibility in his myth-like rise from rail-splitter to Chief Executive and Emancipator of the oppressed. What better way to start off learning to write a biographical essay—YES, a biographical essay!

Each of the Research People units takes the prep and guess work out of the process of writing the biographical essay, so you can enter the process as a mentor, inspiring your student to glean and gather ideas as they read for information.

Students will grow a vocabulary specific to each famous person, will review the plot of the weekly reading in a handful of complete sentences, and most importantly, learn to brainstorm and narrow down ideas in a topic wheal as they tackle constructing each of 3 body paragraphs over three weeks. On the fourth week, students will be lead into the construction of an opening and closing paragraph (three sentences each) which will bookend the body paragraphs.

Utilizing the Research People units year after year, you will mentor and inspire as your  students become increasingly independent. If you are familiar with the rich history and beauty of the d’Aulaire books, you might consider purchasing the Superset here. Moving into 4th through 6th grade, we have a wide selection of exceptional people for your student to write about—John Muir, Rosa Parks, and Mr. Rogers and more. Scroll through to discover.

When students arrive in the 7th and 8th grade, informational reading moves from biographical, historical research to science reading and research. When students engage in non-fiction reading and research writing, they are not only tackling benchmark reading + writing skills, but also gaining cross-curricular knowledge. At this level, students have become very independent, and, because each self-contained unit is organized with a familiar supportive scaffolding, you will, once again, be supported in the role of writing mentor!

As with all research writing, students will begin with a great question: Have you met Carolus Linnaeus?

His life’s work will inspire you. All living things can be ordered according to their common biology. Classification allows scientists to explore levels of similarity, dissimilarity, and interconnectedness of cells, systems, and structures. The first level of classification is the Kingdoms. There are five: Protista, Monera, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.
This unit can be easily incorporated into your spring semester. Over the course of five lessons, students will explore and research the diversity of the animal kingdom. They will gather knowledge that will connect to many corners of the field of biology, and they will posess a journal chalk full if information to apply to a great many writing projects: a persuasive or compare/contrast essay, a lyrical poem, even a non-fiction inspired narration. Pick up a copy of our Taxonomy of Living Things unit today!
And last, but not least, Elemental Journal, will guide students on a wonderful voyage through the mysteries of the periodic table. What at first looks like an unapproachable block of numbers and letters begging to be decoded, will be opened up to discovery in an easy and interesting way. Each element has its own quirks and purpose. As students engage in the ongoing work of decoding the table, they will marvel at the diversity of these building blocks of the universe. Students will not only summarize and organize information, evaluate, interpret, and draw conclusions, but more importantly, learn to strike a balance between original information and original ideas. Embarking on an exploration of the periodic table is like traveling across an amazing landscape full of surprises.

And it all begins with a simple question: What do stars and human beings have in common?

Elements, of course!

Everything you can imagine is made of elements — an octopus, a basketball, and each of us humans!

Blackbird & Co. research writing units are designed to foster inquiry, spark imagination and get students writing in the non-fiction realm.

 

~Kimberly

Posted on by

Editing Level 1 Writing, Part 1

There is a wide range of ability encountered when it comes to Level 1 writers as this post will demonstrate. Students entering the third grade who have been using our curriculum, have been introduced to the whole of phonics (for reading and writing), have acquired a large sight vocabulary (for reading and writing), and have been introduced to all four types of sentences—statement, question, command, exclamation. By the end of the second grade these students are confidently writing journals and simple stories. These students have been introduced to constructing the “Hook” in Storymaker, and understand it is the first sentence that gets any story started! These students are ready to embark on CORE Level 1.

But what happens when students jump into the program at CORE Level 1 who have not been using our curriculum?

When students encounter the weekly writing element in each section, they will be supported with a gentle scaffolding on the page to remind them that a paragraph has an introductory “topic” sentence (the HOOK), 3 supporting sentences, and a conclusion (the TWIST at the end).

This student, who jumped into CORE Level 1 from another program straight out of 2nd grade, is a dyslexic child who was simultaneously remediating phonics. It was important to encourage him to write his ideas even though his skills were limited.. This process would only solidify burgeoning skills. Because he was eager and imaginative, this student had no problem using the phonics he had mastered to communicate a darling idea inspired by My Father’s Dragon!

Here’s what we see:

  • Able to copy the word island from the prompt
  • Able to encode consonant and short vowel sounds
  • Able to encode a few sight words: was, and, made, to

Most important is the fact that, despite being on tippy toes with skills, this student tenaciously pressed into composing a really outstanding idea!

How we approach the edit at this level:

With a young writer, it is best to write suggestions (which takes no longer than 5 minutes!) before sitting side-by-side with the student. Then we talk about what we just read. FOUR positives were offered in this case: 1) Terrific HOOK! and 2) Splendid idea! and 3) Terrific descriptors! and 4) Terrific Twist! Then and only then, after offering genuine positives (always possible to find), do I offer constructive edit suggestions. The most significant edit offered was to correct the spelling. In the last body sentence, I asked the child to tell me more about what the mountains and volcanoes were made of and simply wrote what was spoken. Next, I asked the student  to copy the paragraph with edits. This copy work exercise, because it is tied to an authentic idea, tends to improve the application of phonics skills not yet mastered, more than memorizing rules. This student, by the end of 3rd grade, was moving toward using conventional spelling more often than not.

 

~Kimberly

Posted on by

Writing is NOT Calculus!

When we teach a student calculus, we are teaching them to attend to small parts of a larger form. The word calculus comes from the Latin, meaning small pebble.

When teaching our students to write, we should begin by teaching them writing is an art form!

So why have we turned the art of writing into a calculus?

Great writing never begins with capitalization, punctuation, or grammar!

Great writing begins with an IDEA!

This is the rule of art: Form Follows Function

Writers must focus first on the function or purpose of writing—the idea. Once the idea is drafted in rough form, the writer digs back in and applies mechanics—corrects misspelling, capitalization, punctuation, embellishes word choice, improves syntax, and so on. Writing is a process.

So, let me clarify, I’m NOT saying don’t teach capitalization, punctuation, or grammar.  I’m simply saying that primarily focusing on mechanics over and above actually constructing ideas will never produce exceptional writing.

The best way to learn to write is to WRITE.

Who, when asked to write a sentence about an apple, will begin like this: “I will need an interesting adjective, an adverbial phrase, plus a dependent and independent clause,” with a deep dive into grammar and mechanics and rhetoric? NO! You will pick up your pencil and you will write your idea! Once you get an idea on paper, you will, as time permits, reread and polish that idea—improving word choice here and there, possibly rearranging phrases, correcting spelling and capitalization and so on. Writing, like all art forms, requires that the writer engage in a process.

For the past 30 years, in addition to educating my own children (who are now thriving adult readers and writers), I’ve guided countless students through our CORE Literature and Writing Discovery Guides. And what I’ve learned is this:

The key to success over time?

Choose your battles.

Each week in the CORE Literature and Writing Discovery Guides, students will encounter a writing prompt inspired by the week’s reading. These prompts will require different types of responses utilizing different types or domains of writing—narrative, observational, imaginary, persuasive, and so on.

The weekly writing prompt will:

1) Allow students to write their ideas in a vast array of writing domains.

2) Move students through the process of constructing ideas, from draft to polished form.

3) Motivate students to engage in the work of idea making.

The best writing teacher is a mentor who encourages the student’s idea. This 4th grade student is responding to the Section 4 prompt in the Pablo and Birdy student guide. You can see by simply reading, that this young writer cares about the idea being constructed. You can see by examining the effort  made to communicate the idea coherently. Like any construction zone, this is messy, there are sections scratched out, there is scribble in the margin, there is darkened in pencil where spelling is being considered by the student writer. This is all GOOD!

How to Conference One-on-One:

During the 5-minute conference (keep it pithy), have the student read aloud what is written on the page. Use your red pen to make edits and suggestions as the work is being read aloud. For this paragraph, I focused on the following 4 topics:

The HOOK

This is something that is a focus each week, teaching students to open their idea with a sentence that moves beyond a “topic opener” toward a sentence that actually HOOKS the reader into the idea. This writer, who had been working in our CORE for over a year, opened this with a really well constructed, informative sentence—a terrific hook! What’s so great about this sentence? Consider that less experienced writers might write something like this:

Birdy left Isla to fly away.

This sentence is a very flat statement, lacking the detail that engages readers to read on. But this type of simple sentence is often where young writers begin. The goal of the teacher is never to re-write the hook, but rather to encourage the student to add details. Why did Birdy fly away? Where did Birdy fly? In the sentence written by this student, there is also a bit of intrigue in the phrase “for the first time in ten years” that makes the reader sense a bit of courage in the act of flying away!

As Birdy left Isla for the first time in ten years, her instincts told her to fly east.

Indentation

The indentation is a small, but constant reminder.

Spelling

I typically don’t make writers look up misspellings in a dictionary, but rather create a checklist in one of the white spaces on the rough draft. As the student reads I am checking misspelled words, then, as I discuss what I’ve discovered after the read, I make the corrected spelling list. There are two misspellings in this paragraph.

Twist at the End

The TWIST at the end has a bigger purpose than concluding. The last sentence of an idea should keep the idea in the reader’s mind to ruminate and ponder. With the phrase “in conclusion” at the beginning of this student’s Twist, the reader is jarred from the flow of the lovely narrative. Something about this phrase is out of sync with the rest of the voice. The phrase is formulaic. Simply omitting it transforms the last sentence:

(In conclusion,) Birdy will keep traveling the world for the next ten marvelous years before heading back to Pablo, and, who knows, maybe she will bring back another baby!

This statement is actually a rhetorical question, so the exclamation mark at the end is acceptable.

Imagine now this sentence with different syntax:

For the next ten marvelous years before heading back to Pablo, Birdy will keep traveling the world, and, who knows, maybe she will bring back another baby!

This rearranging was not offered because I felt the student’s sentence (minus “in conclusion”) was lovely as is. However, it’s always good to imagine possibility and to have many tricks up your sleeve!

Ultimately, if you can read, if you can enjoy an idea, and if you can be delighted in the potential of language, then roll up your sleeves and get into the garden!

 

~Kimberly

Posted on by

Person, Place, Thing: Writing Beyond the Noun

WE ARE HAPPY TO WELCOME OUR BRAND NEW UNIT:

Advanced Composition: Person, Place Thing as Long Form Research

Our unique scaffolding guides 11th and 12th grade students over the course of 30 weeks, each step of the way, in the process of researching and writing a long-research paper. This creative non-fiction project is an opportunity for high school students to participate in literary writing before heading to college.

While students will use the scaffolding twice (in both 11th and 12th grade), each paper will be unique depending on the topics chosen. Each year students will choose a theme that they will explore through a person, a place, and a thing. For example, our student sample explores the theme of tragedy via Abraham Lincoln, Terezin, and escalators. Another student might want to explore joy via Henri Matisse, Disneyland, and the yo-yo. Still another might tie hope to Emily Dickinson, the library, and feathers. The possibilities are endless! And because the topic is the student’s choice, and the work is scaffolded incrementally, the 30-week project is not overwhelming. Quite the contrary, students will rise into this work!

 

So click through to pick up your brand new copy just in time for the coming school year.