This book is recommended in every Heart of Wisdom Unit Study. Throughout the lessons you are asked to correct students spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, subject/verb agreement, consistent verb tense, and word usage in all writing by marking the error with a number that corresponds with a rule from Writers INC. The student refers to the rule in the book and corrects his paper and turns it back in.

It is important to read through “The Writing Process” in Writers INC with your student. It is important for your student to understand the writing process: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing and Publishing. Explain to your student that you will accept his or her writing in different stages. Requiring all work to be “published” can discourage writing.

Throughout the lessons your student will be asked to write summaries, paraphrases, letters, essays, etc. Much of the time you can accept rough drafts, but occasionally (especially adding work to the portfolio) your student needs to go through the entire process.

Through the writing assignments students will learn:

• Writing Skills: context, form, mechanics, editing and revision
• Spelling Skills: create a personal spelling dictionary
• Increase Vocabulary create a personal vocabulary notebook
• Handwriting Skills: practice writing Bible verses
• Critical Thinking Skills: manage and use information to solve problems, interrelate knowledge, effectively communicate learning outcomes.
• Character development through assignment completion: attentiveness, commitment, confidence, decisiveness, efficiency, faithfulness, perseverance, promptness, responsibility, and self-control
• more writing and revising strategies based on the six traits of effective writing;
• expanded guidelines for writing expository and persuasive essays;
• additional information on writing research papers including writing MLA thesis statements, using APA research guidelines, searching for information—in the library and on the Internet, and citing electronic sources;
• updated strategies for writing with computers including writing multimedia reports and publishing on-line;
• more information on thinking and learning skills including viewing, note taking, and test-taking skills.

Give your students an invaluable resource they’ll turn to again and again school and beyond.

The mechanics of writing should be taught as part of the overall process of writing .Gaining control of the mechanics of writin–punctuation, spelling, and correct usage– clearly important to becoming an effective writer. Research has shown that grammar lessons taught without making connections to the context of authentic writing do not typically help students better write or edit their own work (Hillocks, 1986;Weaver, 1997).

Many experts on writing and cognition emphasize the importance of learning these conventions in the context of the students’ own writing (e.g., Atwell,1987; Calkins, 1994; Graves, 1983; Spandel, 2001; Weaver, 1997). Routman (2000)points out, “Writers learn to control conventions best ‘at the point of need,’ that is, in the context of real writing.” This is not to say that mechanics, usage, and grammar should not be introduced in lessons directed by the teacher. What is necessary is that once introduced, these skills are made meaningful only by practice in the context of students– own writing. In addition, these skills should be reinforced as appropriate with mini-lessons.

Teacher Review

“This is a handbook not a textbook,therefore allowing the opportunity to use it not only during the English block, but throughout the curriculum. This handbook is a resource tool and a reference guide for my students to use as a means of mastering the beauty of the written word. It is a way for them to learn to express their thoughts and feelings in a variety of ways including journals, reports, poetry and story writing .

When I looked at this handbook for the first time, I was hooked! I knew I had found a tool that was child-friendly and illustrated the traits all good writers possess .

I begin each year by teaching the six-traits of effective writing, introducing my students to journal writing and portfolio management. We then spend time building paragraphs and writing short essays while simultaneously learning the steps in the writing process. Then we branch out across the curriculum incorporating our writing s kills in every aspect of our day…

The illustrations help present the important information in a fun and exciting way. The format breaks the writing process into simple steps and more importantly, it gives real-life examples (samples) of writing done by other kids. The checklists and proofreading guides are invaluable. It also teaches students how to use a dictionary, a thesaurus, how to become a better speller,punctuation skills, test-taking strategies as well as how to work in cooperative groups.

Write Source

Write Source is a group of teachers and writers who develop materials for students and instructors from kindergarten through twelfth grade.  Visit the links below for supporting materials for Writers Inc provided by Write Source.

Writing Topics

• My craziest experience in a restaurant or shopping mall
• The hardest thing I’ve ever done
• My first encounter with a bully
• Let’s hear it for my favorite senior citizen.
• The toys I’ll never give up
• A friend who moved away
• I couldn’t believe that my mother volunteered me for that job.
• Putting my foot in my mouth
• What if school sports were dropped?
• Who knows me best?
• What do I worry about?
• My muscles were so sore after . . .
• What do we Americans do well?
• “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
• I admit it; I enjoy professional wrestling.
• An unforgettable dream
• My worst vacation
• A “visit” to a hospital, doctor’s office, or dentist’s office
• Coping with brothers and sisters
• A typical evening at home
• Morning madness
• When I was a discipline problem
• A meaningful gift I’ve given or received
• We all make mistakes.
• Why do I deserve the job?
• My brother (or sister) made me so mad!
• Hanging out
• Something this school really needs is . . .
• Why are soap operas so popular?
• I take some things too seriously.
• What do I do to break routine?
• More topics.

Student Models

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• Personal Writing (9-12)
• Extended Personal Narrative: The Climb
• Extended Personal Narrative: Caught in the Net
• Extended Personal Narrative: The Boy with John Travolta Blue Eyes
• Personal Essay: It’s a Boy!
• Personal Essay: Take Me to Casablanca
• Personal Essay: My Greatest Instrument
• Personal Essay: Snapshots

• Subject Writing (9-12)
• Descriptive Writing: H’s Hickory Chips
• News Feature: Internet Plagiarism
• Eyewitness Account: Anticipating the Dream
• Profile of a Person: Rosa Parks
• Profile of a Person: From Bed Bound to Breaking Boards
• Interview Report: Student Entrepreneur . . .

• Persuasive Writing (9-12)
• Pet Peeve Essay: Mosquito Madness Editorial

• Creative Writing (9-12)
• Patterned Fiction: The House on Medford Avenue
• Poetry: Mama’s Stitches
• Play: The KHS Press

• Academic Writing (9-12)
• Process Essay: Huddling Together
• Cause/Effect Essay: Save the Elephants
• Essay of Comparison: If Only They Knew

• Writing About Literature (9-12)
• Personal Response to Literature: Adam’s Train of Ghosts
• Personal Response to Literature: Diary of Gaspard
• Literary Analysis: My Interpretation of The Joy Luck Club

• Research Writing (9-12)
• Research Paper: Should Smoking Be Banned in Public Restaurants?
• Research Paper: The Killer Bean

• Workplace Writing (9-12)
• Memo: Mid-project Report
• Business Letter: Dear Ms. Cline

Multimedia Reports

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The “Multimedia Reports” chapter of this book shows how to prepare a multimedia presentation and an interactive report. The following presentation and report are based on the storyboard in that chapter. To play these files on your computer, you will need the PowerPoint program (Windows or Mac) or the PowerPoint Viewer (Windows only).

For your convenience, we have also provided a link to a Web slide-show version of each presentation or report (without sound or slide transitions).

Multimedia Presentation

Download the “Save Now, or Pay Later” multimedia presentation.

Launch the Web slide-show version.

Interactive Report

Download the “Save Now, or Pay Later” interactive report.

Launch the Web slide-show version.

Visit the Write Source blog for their writers’ latest thoughts on the process and teaching of writing.

Writers Inc.: A Student Handbook for Writing And Learning
By Sebranek, Patrick Sebranek, Dave Kemper, Verne Meyer

I created Google email accounts (free safe Gmail’s plus-addressing) for my boys so I could email educational game links to their laptop computers. I didn’t realize how motivating email would be. They began writing letters to their father, grand parents, brothers and sisters.

Writing and receiving emails makes learning fun. Much more fun than traditional “skill-and-drill”.  Students write on topics that they enjoy. Receiving email gives interaction and feedback.

Students need to know how to compose an email. The New York Times reported ” Businesses are spending as much as $3.1 billion annually to teach white-collar professionals how to write clear, concise emails, reports, and other texts.”

Research from the BBC

• A survey of 3,001 children aged nine to 16 found that 24% had their own blog and 82% sent text messages at least once a month.  73% use instant messaging services to chat online with friends.
• …Of the children who neither blogged nor used social network sites, 47% rated their writing as “good” or “very good”, while 61% of the bloggers and 56% of the social networkers said the same.
• “Our research suggests a strong correlation between kids using technology and wider patterns of reading and writing,” Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, told BBC News.
• “Engagement with online technology drives their enthusiasm for writing short stories, letters, song lyrics or diaries.”
• “Our research results are conclusive – the more forms of communications children use the stronger their core literary skills.”
• Use a basic checklist before sennding mail: Are you sending it to the right person? Check for spelling mistakes in the address and message body.

Email Tips for  Readers

• Introduce your child the basic parts of a letter with attention to: salutation or greeting, body, closing and signature.
• Be available to help with spelling. Keep a list of words they ask about.
• Print out list of frequently words in alphabetical order for reference. (Please, thank you, etc)
• Give them a dictionary (or child’s dictionary) and teach them to use it.
• Use graphic organizers to help a child compose an email.
• Teach the child to attach photos, draw pictures and use other computer resources over time to enhance the emails.
• Teach them to use the spell checker and teach them how often spell checkers fail.

Email Tips for Non- Readers

• Use Charlotte Mason’s narration methods.
• Ask someone to write to your child. When your child receives an email, read the email to the child and ask if she wants to respond. Type the response for your child.
• Continue writing for the child until he has the typing and language skills to go it alone.

Email Safety

Gmail’s plus-addressing feature to create filtered in boxes and send-from address for  kids. Children can send and receive emails from their own address without being exposed to  spam of a full-fledged account, and you can keep an eye on what kind of communication their mail .

How to give your young children a personalized (managed) email address

I was excited as soon as I saw the words “A Family Writing Lifestyle.” Mary Ann shares valuable insights not only about writing itself, but about passing on the gift of written expression as a family tradition.

What a gift to pass on to your children —the ability to capture insights, record memories, and relate perceptions and feelings.

The importance of teaching your children to write cannot be overstated. Skillful writers influence society. Christian writers have the privilege of encouraging, teaching, and strengthening others to have a closer relationship with God. The late Dr. Paul Bubna, former President of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, wrote,

“It may be true that a picture is worth a thousand words, but we must not miss the fact that writing words has a unique power all its own. Something powerful happens to the person who writes the words.

It is one thing to think the thought, it is quite another to put it into words and see it on paper, or even a computer screen. That process opens a door of intimacy with one’s self that may be unmatched any other way.”

Our spiritual lives, our success in the work world, and our social networks all require the skill of writing. Writing skills are vital in today’s changing culture. Written communication declined during the age of the telephone but with the development of the computer people are writing again in the form of emails and blogging (on line journaling).

In my book, The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach, I encourage parents to teach their children to write to learn, also known as writing across the curriculum. Mary Ann embraces the same concept because she understands how writing helps to generate thoughts and to organize them logically and concisely. Writing can bring experiences, thoughts and opinions together. We write to express ideas, share stories, document history, imagine the future, express love, and dispense humor. When students tackle a subject, they can experiment with different techniques and strategies for writing. They discover new ideas, new ways of thinking and new methods of expressing themselves. When you teach your children to document their thoughts, feelings, and ideas on paper, you are equipping them with a gift they will use for a lifetime. Mary Ann demonstrates the practical steps to develop this type of writing into a family lifestyle.

This book will be a useful guide for any teacher and especially beneficial to homeschoolers. Most homeschoolers are fond of Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophies which emphasize real-life activities over academic exercises. Mary Ann agrees with Mason explaining how writing assignments that are viewed as academic exercises cause the child to lose the adventure of writing. Mason’s admirers will appreciate how Mary Ann’s unique approach is in agreement with Mason’s philosophy “… we believe that children’s’ minds are capable of digesting real knowledge, so we provide a rich, generous curriculum that exposes children to many interesting, living ideas and concept.” Mary Ann will show you how families working on individual and joint writing projects can motivate children to catch the excitement of relevant writing and come to understand that the art of writing is a powerful life tool.

I became eager to try out Mary Ann’s methods when I read how she taught her children to write using a real-life approach following the rules of an adult writing group. She posed as a mock publisher to lead her children through the writing process from query letters to contracts and finished publications, complete with book signings, and marketing techniques. What a great idea! About a dozen years ago when my grown children were young and learning to write they each created a book using Creating Books with Children by Valerie Bendt as a guide. Through the creation of their books they learned the writing, illustrating, editing processes but they never learned the query and submission processes . Here we are over a decade later writing again, with my youngest children, using Mary Ann’s ideas. I look forward to adding more finished writing products to my somewhat yellowed and faded but treasured papers of childhood thoughts, stories, inspiration, opinions, and beliefs to our
family files.

Although Mary Ann emphasizes forming a writing group, this is only one segment of her collection of ideas. This book contains much more. You will also learn how writing activities and rituals can be woven through the day, year, and even throughout life. Activities include ideas for family journaling, letter writing, Bible journaling, goal journaling, celebration journaling, apology letters, thank-you notes, and even writing to deal with loss and grief. This book is not about the educational nuts and bolts of writing, but is intended to celebrate and inspire writing in the home. Nurturing a Write Relationship will help you develop a family writing lifestyle and tradition.

• Section I teaches you the importance of creating a safe place to write, allowing children to experiment with language. Children will become confident writers when they receive support and encouragement as they move through the writing process.
• Section II details writing education principles. Mary Ann explains how to learn from great writers and how to be a writing mentor to your children. She also dispels several writing myths.
• Section III explains the publishing process for a writing group from vision to revision to the completed process.
• Section IV encourages you to develop a family writing lifestyle with family rituals, traditions, and celebrations and investigates a Biblical view of writing.
• Section V includes many ideas for integrating writing into daily life and closes with the twelve writing principles of a family writing lifestyle.

Mary Ann’s book is full of several first-rate unique ideas to teach children to write that make writing a fun family experience. She provides an attractive combination of solid advice and clever insights on how to motivate and cultivate your children’s writing. I’m giving this book to each of my grown children to support them in their efforts to teach their children to write. I hope your family will spend time developing a family writing lifestyle. I promise it will be time well spent and the benefits are many.

If you’re looking for a book that will help you celebrate and inspire writing at home, then NURTURING THE WRITERELATIONSHIP is a must have! In this creative piece, you won’t find formal instructions on the nuts and bolts of teaching writing, but instead you’ll find valuable insight on the hows and whys of writing!

BACK COVER

Wonderfully written by Mary Ann Froehlich, NURTURING THE WRITE RELATIONSHIP will draw you into the magical world of writing from the heart in the safe place we call home. From the very beginning, Froehlich gives the reader insight into her own personal world of writing and encourages readers to stop reading at any given point so that they can start writing. She also inspires writers to keep trying, as she cites examples of famous authors who didn’t experience instant success.

The book is based on a homophone (words that sound the same but are spelled in various ways):

• WRITE—Understand the importance and develop the use of the written word
• RITE—Understand the importance of cultivating rituals in family life
• RIGHT— Understand the importance of communication in developing right relationships

Froehlich believes that the adventure of writing is lost when writing assignments are viewed as academic exercises. Instead, she introduces exercises for writers, such as journaling, letters, memoirs and more. Her “10 Principles for Effective Writing,” similar to the Suzuki method of teaching music skills, is concise and intuitive.

“If you only remember one statement from this book, let this be it: As a parent, you are your child’s most influential writing mentor. You are the example.” Froehlich expresses this concept about mentors throughout the book. With an approach that refuses to stereotype individuals’ methods of writing, Froehlich encourages writers to express their God-given ability to use the power of words to deal with everything in life, from grief to celebration!

In addition to giving creative advice on how to nurture writing within the home, Froehlich provides valuable resources for writing groups and teachers, including an excellent exercise for teachers to use in their classes with young writers that takes them through the entire publishing process from query letters to sales and marketing.

Interspersed with quotes about writing, NURTURING THE WRITE RELATIONSHIP is a treasure for anyone who longs to write.

Available in paperback or downloadable Ebook. $9.95

Start reading in minutes. Add to cart 

One of the best ways for a student to understand a topic is to write about it.

Students must comprehend the material, restructure the new information, and then share their new understanding. Writing to learn is much more than an accumulation of report writing; it helps students think and learn carefully and completely.

Writing assignments are about creating both ideas and learning. During writing assignments, students learn how to assess information and determine its appropriateness, to evaluate and compare, analyze and discern, add their own feelings, organize information, and communicate conclusions.

Through these processes, students learn to manage and use information to solve problems, interrelate knowledge, and effectively communicate learning outcomes. Students develop excellence in achievement by producing the required quality assignments; they develop diligence by continually practicing clarity, accuracy, relevance, prioritizing, consistency, depth, and breadth through writing activities.

Charlotte Mason’s narration methods for younger children involve telling back favorite stories read by parents. In later years, students progress to reading passages and telling back in verbal or written form what they have learned. Talking it out, whether aloud or on paper, helps students think.

Often teachers use writing as a way of testing. They use it to find out what students already know, rather than as a way of encouraging them to learn.

But the active processes of seeking information, compiling notes, and evaluating, analyzing, and organizing content, as well as the processes of personal reflection, choosing and constructing words, and expressing ideas in writing, are valuable learning tools which students will use the rest of their lives. Catherine Copley explains in The Writer’s Complex:

Writing provides food for thought—it enables you to knead small, half-baked words and sentences into great big loaves of satisfying thought that then lead to more thoughts. Developing ideas involves getting some ideas—in whatever form—onto paper or screen so you can see them, return to them, explore them, question them, share them, clarify them, change them, and grow them. It really is almost like growing plants or kneading bread and waiting for the results: plant the seed, start the process, and then let your mind, including your unconscious, take over. Go to sleep and let your dreaming continue to develop your ideas. Humans were born to think; it’s almost impossible to stop us. Writing helps us to bring all that activity into consciousness, helps to clarify and direct our thinking, and generate more thinking. Writing, thinking, and learning are part of the same process.2

Writing Actives

Journals

Assignments can be gathered together in a “learning log” or other type of journal. A more powerful type of journal is the “double-entry” or “dialogic” journal in which students copy down quotes, facts, or concepts from a unit study in one column, and write responses, questions, and insights in the next column or on the facing page. In this way the writer engages in an ongoing dialogue with the material—an ancient but still essential activity of serious intellectual life in any academic field or profession.

Blogging

Blogging is an excellent way to “write to learn.” Consider starting a blog for your child. They can record school work, Bible studies, family outings, copy work, writing assignments, etc. You can make it private by adding password protection.

Writing Summaries—A Narration Method

Several activities in Heart of Wisdom unit studies recommend the student to read passages (particularly Bible passages) and write a summary. This is an excellent way to tell how well people understand something they have read. This method is almost always required preparation for deeper thinking, and is an important tool for research writing. Adding summary writing to a study routine will increase the student’s ability to understand and remember what has been read.

Knowing how to write a summary is an essential skill for studying and writing in college. A good summary captures the essence of a piece of writing in your own words and indicates the degree to which you understand what you have read. Writing summaries helps you understand your sources, reduces your reliance on the words of others, and helps integrate the ideas and information of others into your own thinking. As with most writing, the length of your summary is determined by its purpose and audience.

To write a concise, accurate summary means you first achieve basic understanding of the material you have read and then carefully paraphrase the selection.

One reading will not, in all likelihood, enable you to write a good summary. Using reading strategies including previewing, skimming, and scanning, read your material several times, locating the main idea in each paragraph. Highlight and then write down the main ideas, in order, on a separate piece of paper.

Always plan on writing and rewriting this information so that you can condense, arrange, and write the summary in the best fashion. Rewrite and reread, and then select, eliminate, and add information. Remember, the summary is conveying in your own words (paraphrasing) the meaning of what you have read, using the fewest number of words and sentences, and without your subjective opinion. Be objective, as you are writing a summary of what the author stated, not your feelings or evaluation of the material. (Linares)

Informal or Free Writing

Informal or free writing is probably the easiest to implement of all writing-to-learn activities. In its basic form free writing is simply writing down everything that comes to mind, usually for five or ten minutes without stopping. Focused free writing, which uses some kind of prompt—a term, an issue, a question, or a problem—is useful for the thematic units in Heart of Wisdom curriculum.

This type of writing is unconstrained by any need to appear correct in public. It is not yet arranging, asserting, and arguing. It is still reflecting and questioning. This is probative, speculative, generative thinking that is written in class or at home to develop the language of learning. It may not always be read by a teacher. Specifically, informal written language will help your student to:

Develop abilities to define, classify, summarize, question, generate criteria, establish inferences, imagine hypotheses, analyze problems, and identify procedures.

Improve methods of recording and reporting data (observing), of organizing and structuring data into generalizations, of formulating theories, and of recognizing and applying the methodsthemselves.

Learn about central concepts, problem-solving, thinking, learning, language, and about knowledge itself, while developing the ability to question, to create problems and solutions, to wonder, and to think for oneself.

Understand one’s own beliefs and attitudes toward learning, toward knowing oneself, toward one’s work, toward mistakes and errors, toward the knowledge and opinions of others, and toward the attitudes that affect behaviors.

Examples of Writing Assignments

• Write a letter to a person studied in the unit
• Keep a diary or journal as if written by someone in the unit
• Write a news article about an event in the unit
• Create a web site about the unit
• Make a mind map about the unit theme
• Write a summary about a concept learned during the unit study

Nuturing the Write Relationship
by Mary Ann Froehlich, Foreword by Robin Sampson

“The home is the ideal haven for creating an environment where young writers can flourish.”—Mary Ann Froehlich

If you’re looking for a book that will help you celebrate and inspire writing at home, then NURTURING THE WRITE RELATIONSHIP is a must have! In this creative piece, you won’t find formal instructions on the nuts and bolts of teaching writing, but instead you’ll find valuable insight on the hows and whys of writing!

Wonderfully written by Mary Ann Froehlich, NURTURING THE WRITE RELATIONSHIP will draw you into the magical world of writing from the heart in the safe place we call home. From the very beginning, Froehlich gives the reader insight into her own personal world of writing and encourages readers to stop reading at any given point so that they can start writing. She also inspires writers to keep trying, as she cites examples of famous authors who didn’t experience instant success.

The book is based on a homophone (words that sound the same but are spelled in various ways):

• WRITE—Understand the importance and develop the use of the written word
• RITE—Understand the importance of cultivating rituals in family life
• RIGHT— Understand the importance of communication in developing right relationships

Froehlich believes that the adventure of writing is lost when writing assignments are viewed as academic exercises. Instead, she introduces exercises for writers, such as journaling, letters, memoirs and more. Her “10 Principles for Effective Writing,” similar to the Suzuki method of teaching music skills, is concise and intuitive.

“If you only remember one statement from this book, let this be it: As a parent, you are your child’s most influential writing mentor. You are the example.” Froehlich expresses this concept about mentors throughout the book. With an approach that refuses to stereotype individuals’ methods of writing, Froehlich encourages writers to express their God-given ability to use the power of words to deal with everything in life, from grief to celebration!

In addition to giving creative advice on how to nurture writing within the home, Froehlich provides valuable resources for writing groups and teachers, including an excellent exercise for teachers to use in their classes with young writers that takes them through the entire publishing process from query letters to sales and marketing.

Interspersed with quotes about writing, NURTURING THE WRITE RELATIONSHIP is a treasure for anyone who longs to write.

Add helpful writing links in the comments below

Helpful External Links on Writing to Learn

• Writing to Learn (9pg PDF)
• Writing to Learn Science Notebooks (8 pg PDF)
• Using Writing-to-Learn Assignments to Actively Engage Students in the Learning Process
• Examples of Writing to Learn Activities

WRITING WORKSHEETS

• Preparation for a Writing Assessment Work (19 pg PDF) -Drafting, paragraph structure, persuasive writing, topic sentences, essay planning, and revising, are topics covered in the worksheet. (high school)
• Interview a Woman in Your Life - students interview a woman in their life.  Students think of 2 questions to ask on their own and are given 4 on the worksheet. (4th to 6th grades)
• It Has Been Reported - students analyze a sample report on Newfoundland dogs as they learn how to write a non-chronological report. (5th – 6th grade)
• Note This - students learn to take notes by underlining important parts, writing down only key points and using bullets, numbers or headings to organize notes (4th-6th grades)
• A HoneyBees Job – science worksheet, students describe the process of pollination. (3-4 grades)

Footnotes

1. For more on this subject see the “Writing to Learn” chapter in Writers Inc or Writing to Learn by William Zinsser, Harper Collins; ISBN: 0062720406.
2. Copley, Catherine. (1995) The Writer’s Complex, Empire State College

Free Writing Courses Online

• 10 Universities Offering Free Writing Courses Online- Whether you are currently writing professionally or are looking to break into the field, formal writing courses can help you to hone your skills.
• Teaching Writing to Children - A general course that will give you ways to get your kids writing right away. Specific topics include two of the four basic writing genre: narration (all children love to tell stories!) and description (adding detail to their writing will help students’ work come alive).

Writing Prompts

• Ten Prompts for Story Writing -Students practice writing skills as they respond to a writing prompt.
• Writing Prompt Generator -Inspired by Glen’s word list technique.
• Writing Prompt Generator – Click the button to see a random prompt.
• Daily Journal & Writing Prompts – Writing prompts are written for different grade levels from Teacher’s Corner.
• Writing Prompts from Writers Digest - for older students and adults.

Writing Lesson Plans

• Knowing Write from Wrong – Exploring Common Writing Errors in the Electronic Communications Age Grades 6-12.
• Write Right – Students work in small groups to choose a favorite author and write the author or his/her editor. They ask for a copy of a page of manuscript that has gone through the editing process. They revise and edit their letters. Grades 3-4
• Write On: Hooking the Reader -
  he students will brainstorm and plan before they write using literature books with various examples of figurative language needed to “hook” the reader. The students will also visit a website to experience online examples of figurative language within a story. Grades 3-6
• Writing Prompt for Audience -Lesson to develop an awareness of audience, methods of persuasion, and the proper tone or mood to achieve writer’s goal as well as point of view. To practice letter writing.
• Writing The Reporter Game -A game in which students create stories for an imaginary newspaper. Includes worksheets.
• Creative Writing Lesson Plan – Students navigate through an online interactive virtual zoo to create imaginary animals by combining different parts of real animals. Then they write a short story about their combination creatur
• I Can Write I am an Author! -This lesson provides students with concrete graphic organizers to help them develop a story.
• Creative Writing Workshop - The student will be able to convey his or her creativity in a piece of writing during a given time limit and demonstrate creativity in his or her own writing.
• Write a Round Robin Story - Students discover the elements of a story (introduction, plot, climax, resolution, denouement). In groups of five, one student writes an introduction and passes it to the next person, who writes the plot and passes it to the next person, etc.
• Descriptive Writing Using Landscape Scenes - Students will collaboratively and independently write descriptive paragraphs that are well organized, formatted, and structured with appropriately described details.

Writing Guides

• Writing Tips and Tools—This site for students leads to many little tricks of the writing trade. Includes the writing process, webbing, figures of speech, plot structures, and much more.
• Writing Center at Colorado State University—Among the most comprehensive online writing centers on the Web, this site provides more than 7,000 pages of information on writing and writing across curriculum. Key features include reference materials, interactive tutorials, and annotated example texts.
• Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab—This site contains writing and handout materials, as well as information about online writing labs; also provides a search index for locating information on the Internet.

Writing Paragraphs

• How to Write a Paragraph—From Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
• How to Write a Paragraph—From Los Angeles City College Cyber Writing Center.
• How to Write a Paragraph

Writing Process

• ABCs of the Writing Process—Elementary overviews each of the five stages of the writing process: Prewriting, writing, revising, editing or publishing.
• The Writing Process—Overview of steps that every writer seems to follow in the creation of a paper.
• Ideas for Teaching Writing—Description of the Six-Trait Analytic Writing ModeWriting skills divided into the six areas, or traits, that teachers value most: ideas and content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and writing conventions.

Essay Writing

• How to Write an Essay—Tips and instructions on how to construct a good essay for a university class.
• Personal Essay Articles—A list of articles about personal essays from the Writing Center. A place to find information or to encourage others in their writing struggles.
• Advice on Essay Writing—General overview of planning and writing an essay, from the University of California Extension.
• General Procedure For Writing An Assigned Essay— Step-by-step instructions from an editing and tutorial service.
• Top Ten Essay Writing Tips—Guide to writing better papers from StudentNow.com.
• Essay Writing Website—An overview of how to approach essay writing.
• The Writing Page—Answering Essay Questions, The Five-Paragraph Essay, and other subjects.
• Guide to Writing a Basic Essay—Simple steps will guide you through the essay writing process.

Writing a Research Paper

“A research paper is exactly that: a paper written to reflect a search that will present information to support a point of view on a particular topic.” (Basic College Research written by P. Berge and C. Saffioti.)

• Steps in the Research and Writing Process—A series of steps to make writing research papers less overwhelming.
• Ten Steps to a Research Paper—Will guide you through an orderly process, from defining your topic to citing your sources.
• Guides to Writing a Research Paper—Includes a step- by-step checklist for writing your research paper.

Summary Writing

The ability to write an effective summary might be the most important writing skill a student can possess. You need to be able to summarize before you can be successful at most of the other kinds of writing, and it is an important part of note taking, too.

• A Guide to Writing Summaries
• Summary Writing
• Summary Writing

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing can be used as a study or writing technique.

Paraphrasing Steps and Examples—Steps to help you paraphrase successfully.

Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing—The Learning Centre explains that quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing are all different ways of including the works of others in your writing.

Writing Letters

• Writing Letters—Several sample letters and formats that will help you figure out how to structure your letters; from English Works.
• Business Letter Unit—Learn the difference between a business letter and a friendly letter.

Writing Poetry

• Poetry Writing Tips—General guidelines for writing poetry.
• PIZZAZ Poetry—Samples and directions for several types of poems.

Writing Guides

• Writing Guides—K–12 materials recommended by Heart of Wisdom.

Writing Software

• Writing About Reading—An easy-to-use writing improvement software program designed to help students write an effective paragraph about material they have read.
• Grammar Fitness Software—To help students improve their grammar skills, including usage, diction, idioms, grammatical relationships, and punctuation.
• Paragraph Punch—Writing improvement software that helps students learn how to write an effective paragraph, through reason, detail, sequence, example, and causes and effects.
• Write It Right—Software that targets common errors in student writing. Students learn to correct faulty sentence structure, unclear meaning, misplaced modifiers, and grammatical shifts

Nuturing the Write Relationship
by Mary Ann Froehlich, Foreword by Robin Sampson

“The home is the ideal haven for creating an environment where young writers can flourish.”

—Mary Ann Froehlich

If you’re looking for a book that will help you celebrate and inspire writing at home, then NURTURING THE WRITE RELATIONSHIP is a must have! In this creative piece, you won’t find formal instructions on the nuts and bolts of teaching writing, but instead you’ll find valuable insight on the hows and whys of writing!

Wonderfully written by Mary Ann Froehlich,NURTURING THE WRITE RELATIONSHIP will draw you into the magical world of writing from the heart in the safe place we call home. From the very beginning, Froehlich gives the reader insight into her own personal world of writing and encourages readers to stop reading at any given point so that they can start writing. She also inspires writers to keep trying, as she cites examples of famous authors who didn’t experience instant success.

The book is based on a homophone (words that sound the same but are spelled in various ways):

• WRITE—Understand the importance and develop the use of the written word
• RITE—Understand the importance of cultivating rituals in family life
• RIGHT— Understand the importance of communication in developing right relationships

Froehlich believes that the adventure of writing is lost when writing assignments are viewed as academic exercises. Instead, she introduces exercises for writers, such as journaling, letters, memoirs and more. Her “10 Principles for Effective Writing,” similar to the Suzuki method of teaching music skills, is concise and intuitive.

“If you only remember one statement from this book, let this be it: As a parent, you are your child’s most influential writing mentor. You are the example.” Froehlich expresses this concept about mentors throughout the book. With an approach that refuses to stereotype individuals’ methods of writing, Froehlich encourages writers to express their God-given ability to use the power of words to deal with everything in life, from grief to celebration!

In addition to giving creative advice on how to nurture writing within the home, Froehlich provides valuable resources for writing groups and teachers, including an excellent exercise for teachers to use in their classes with young writers that takes them through the entire publishing process from query letters to sales and marketing.

Interspersed with quotes about writing, NURTURING THE WRITE RELATIONSHIP is a treasure for anyone who longs to write.

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