There are many students who are able to take ideas and run with them in their writing. They seem to intuitively know how to connect the prompt, the text and their writing together. However, there are just as many (if not more) students who struggle with these things and end up either writing no…
At the beginning of every year, we have our middle school students complete an essay diagnostic. We give them some texts and a prompt and just let them go. We're looking to see if they have any method to their writing process and then of course we check their writing for focus, organization…
Teaching students how to structure an essay can be a bit like listening to someone speak to you in a foreign language. You might pick up bits and pieces, it sounds nice, but it doesn't really make sense. Or at least that's what it was like when I first began teaching essay writing. My…
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The last time I introduced the students to our “Analyzing Arguments” unit, the students were excited. They love to argue and debate. However, when it came to focusing on arguments found in a text, some of that enthusiasm waned. Why? I believe that although students know what arguments are…